SOURCE:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/feb/16/woolly-mammoth-resurrection-scientists



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(a) http://bcvasundhra.blogspot.in/2017/02/woolly-mammoth-on-verge-of-resurrection.html

 (b) http://bcvasundhra.blogspot.in/2017/03/woolly-mammoths-experienced-genomic.html

Woolly Mammoth On Verge of Resurrection, Scientists Reveal

Scientist leading ‘de-extinction’ effort says Harvard team could create hybrid mammoth-elephant embryo in two years







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                       THE FULL VIEW

Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), a model of an extinct Ice Age mammoth. Photograph: Andrew Nelmerm/Getty Images/Dorling Kindersley

The woolly mammoth vanished from the Earth 4,000 years ago, but now scientists say they are on the brink of resurrecting the ancient beast in a revised form, through an ambitious feat of genetic engineering.

Speaking ahead of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Boston this week, the scientist leading the “de-extinction” effort said the Harvard team is just two years away from creating a hybrid embryo, in which mammoth traits would be programmed into an Asian elephant.

“Our aim is to produce a hybrid elephant-mammoth embryo,” said Prof George Church. “Actually, it would be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits. We’re not there yet, but it could happen in a couple of years.”

The creature, sometimes referred to as a “mammophant”, would be partly elephant, but with features such as small ears, subcutaneous fat, long shaggy hair and cold-adapted blood. The mammoth genes for these traits are spliced into the elephant DNA using the powerful gene-editing tool, Crispr.

Could we 'de-extinctify' the woolly mammoth?

 

Read more

Until now, the team have stopped at the cell stage, but are now moving towards creating embryos – although, they said that it would be many years before any serious attempt at producing a living creature.

“We’re working on ways to evaluate the impact of all these edits and basically trying to establish embryogenesis in the lab,” said Church.

Since starting the project in 2015 the researchers have increased the number of “edits” where mammoth DNA has been spliced into the elephant genome from 15 to 45.

“We already know about ones to do with small ears, subcutaneous fat, hair and blood, but there are others that seem to be positively selected,” he said.

Church said that these modifications could help preserve the Asian elephant, which is endangered, in an altered form. However, others have raised ethical concerns about the project.

Matthew Cobb, professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, said: “The proposed ‘de-extinction’ of mammoths raises a massive ethical issue – the mammoth was not simply a set of genes, it was a social animal, as is the modern Asian elephant. What will happen when the elephant-mammoth hybrid is born? How will it be greeted by elephants?”

Church also outlined plans to grow the hybrid animal within an artificial womb rather than recruit a female elephant as a surrogate mother - a plan which some believe will not be achievable within the next decade.

“We hope to do the entire procedure ex-vivo (outside a living body),” he said. “It would be unreasonable to put female reproduction at risk in an endangered species.”

He added that his lab is already capable of growing a mouse embryo in an artificial womb for 10 days - halfway through its gestation period.

“We’re testing the growth of mice ex-vivo. There are experiments in the literature from the 1980s but there hasn’t been much interest for a while,” he said. “Today we’ve got a whole new set of technology and we’re taking a fresh look at it.”

“Church’s team is proposing to rear the embryo in an ‘artificial womb’ which seems ambitious to say the least – the resultant animal would have been deprived of all the pre-birth interactions with its mother,” said Cobb.

The woolly mammoth roamed across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America during the last Ice Age and vanished about 4,000 years ago, probably due to a combination of climate change and hunting by humans.

Their closest living relative is the Asian, not the African, elephant.

Dinosaur embryos reveal remarkable secrets of life – and extinction

 

Read more

“De-extincting” the mammoth has become a realistic prospect because of revolutionary gene editing techniques that allow the precise selection and insertion of DNA from specimens frozen over millennia in Siberian ice.

Church helped develop the most widely used technique, known as Crispr/Cas9, that has transformed genetic engineering since it was first demonstrated in 2012. Derived from a defence system bacteria use to fend off viruses, it allows the “cut and paste” manipulation of strands of DNA with a precision not seen before.

Gene editing and its ethical implications is one of the key topics under discussion at the Boston conference.

Church, a guest speaker at the meeting, said the mammoth project had two goals: securing an alternative future for the endangered Asian elephant and helping to combat global warming. Woolly mammoths could help prevent tundra permafrost from melting and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

“They keep the tundra from thawing by punching through snow and allowing cold air to come in,” said Church. “In the summer they knock down trees and help the grass grow.”

The scientists intend to engineer elephant skin cells to produce the embryo, or multiple embryos, using cloning techniques. Nuclei from the reprogrammed cells would be placed into elephant egg cells whose own genetic material has been removed. The eggs would then be artificially stimulated to develop into embryos.

Church predicts that age-reversal will become a reality within 10 years as a result of the new developments in genetic engineering.

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              The Mission to Resurrect the Woolly Mammoth

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmlpSOHc5A4 ]

               

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

       How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction 

     [  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO043PSBnKU ]

How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction - with Beth Shapiro


                             OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO






                  Raising the Mammoth

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdD3KtFigkY ]

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SOURCE:

http://m.rediff.com/news/column/general-rawat-knows-the-challenges-his-men-face/20170218.htm

General Rawat Knows the Challenges His Men Face

                                          By

Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd)

February 18, 2017 11:47 IST

IMAGE: Soldiers conduct search operations, February 12, 2017, after four terrorists, two army personnel and a civilian were killed in a fierce gunfight in a village in south Kashmir. Photographs: Umar Ganie

'The scope of cordon and search operations has changed drastically.'

'Operations are now more focused, intelligence driven and involve very small cordons with minimum inconvenience to the people.'

'This has been the humanisation of conflict.'

It has come to be institutionalised in the army's concept.'
'General Rawat has been schooled in this thinking and when he makes a statement it is with full consciousness of the institutionalised concept,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), the former GOC 15 Corps in Srinagar and the officer acclaimed as the 'People's General'.

IMAGE: Soldiers conduct combing operations in Kashmir after the Uri attack, September 2016

The Army Chief's remarks at a recent wreath laying ceremony are too well known to reiterate. Yet a brief backdrop to the same will help.

In three terror-related incidents in the Kashmir Valley, senseless interference by flash mobs at encounter sites resulted in the diversion of focus from the ongoing operations, leading to the loss of six lives of soldiers against eight terrorists killed.

In an environment surcharged by separatist propaganda this phenomenon has been happening since 2015; a new found tactic to protect terrorists and enable their getaway, an adaption of the street protests to the advantage of the terrorists.

In 2015 I did predict that it would finally come to a head, someday. In the interim the army, CRPF and JK police had found temporary answers through some well-crafted SOPs but this could not last.

The Army Chief, a veteran of many encounters in Sopore and Baramula, in empathy with the challenges his officers and men face, and made no bones about the fact that the army would no longer accept such interference by mobs and would take tough measures against those who indulged in acts which were not in support of the security forces.

Neither was this an intemperate remark nor a sanction for freedom to his troops to be indiscreet. It wasn't even a warning, just a message that the army may not stand still next time it is targeted.

For those less initiated on these issues the Army Chief's remarks cannot be taken at face value, but given the sharp political divide perceptions will be taken as per convenience.

From the utterances on one side of the divide it appears as if the Army Chief just gave a license to his officers and men to go berserk, be inhuman and generally act the rogue most armies do in such circumstances.

Perhaps to understand the Army Chief better it is best to explain the Indian Army's concept of operations and the separatist methodology, to get a measure of what the status of the current environment in Kashmir really is.

The Indian Army has progressively softened its operations as the strength of the terrorists dwindled.

IMAGE: Troops take positions to neutralise terrorists at Langate, Kashmir, October 2016.

The concept still revolves around strong counter infiltration at the LoC belt, search and destroy in rural and jungle terrain, precision intelligence based counter-terrorist operations in semi urban and urban areas, secure lines of communication and most importantly, conduct of people friendly operations.

The last is the most important. As the situation improved over the years the scope for people friendly operations increased as did the leeway for restoring dignity to the people.

The scope of cordon and search operations has changed drastically. Operations are now more focused, intelligence driven and involve very small cordons with minimum inconvenience to the people.

The change has even gone to the extent that collateral damage in the conduct of such operations is minimised even at some risk.

Attempts are made to flush the terrorists out and not raze houses to the ground with help of rocket launchers and explosives as was done in the past.

This has been the humanisation of conflict. It has come to be institutionalised in the army's concept.

General Rawat has been schooled in this thinking and when he makes a statement it is with full consciousness of the institutionalised concept.

Since 2015 the Indian Army's Victor Force in South Kashmir in particular had observed the change of tactics by the terrorists which were obviously under the guidance and supervision of sponsors from across the LoC.

Temporary solutions to this were found through joint coordination between the army, CRPF and JK police. Only minor casualties were suffered due to the efficacy of the SOPs established.

However, in the three recent encounters, which have all been in North Kashmir, there appeared a pattern of very intense disturbances by flash mobs resulting in fatalities suffered by the army.

It is the army which does the close in and flushing out operations, hence its casualties.

From 2008 the army has witnessed mobs; some of its vehicles have even been burnt.

In 2010 when S A S Geelani threatened to gherao army camps it was the threat issued by the GOC 15 Corps which stood him down and the mob violence ended that year.

In 2016 the army itself did not suffer much damage although its operations were severely affected due to the impact on the police. In stray incidents army vehicles were targeted and it killed at least three civilians in one incident near Qazigund.

In September 2016 when the decision to induct two brigades into South Kashmir was taken I wrote a piece of advice. It was on the lines that the one thing the army could not afford was the loss of its moral high ground; it was always correct in its approach to the conflict.

The soldiers did not disappoint me as I had reports of stone throwing in Shupiyan town while the army was conducting a medical and vet camp for the local people three km away at their camp at Balapur.

This is the moral high ground I referred to. However, this can all be upset by intemperate behaviour of the locals instigated by leaders who have no qualms about the effects on the lives of ordinary Kashmiris.

None of what the Army Chief has said will adversely affect any of this moral high ground. The army will continue doing all this and even more just as right through the current most adverse winter in 25 years, it has kept its tempo of engagement activities with youth and others at a high pitch.

What it will definitely do is that along with the CRPF and JK police it will get to be much more pro-active in offsetting disturbances by detention of rogue leaders who instigate mobs.

The army will still rescue women in the family way from remote villages, help victims of accidents or natural calamities; none of it will change because the concept of operations remains the same, the Army Chief hasn’t said he is changing any of that.

So what is the hullabaloo about?

It is all about the convenience of interpretation. The only mistake General Bipin Rawat made was that he did not organise a lecture on the concept of army operations, for political leaders and the media in Kashmir, to educate them. There is no doctrinal change either.

The army chief's words have given a little more freedom to the field commanders to make their operations a little more 

'mob proof.'

How will that be done?

Perfectly situational, as the commanders on the ground will assess, ideate upon and come to their deductions; just as they did earlier in South Kashmir.

So the perfect storm raised is only due to political reasons and for the purpose of a little rabble rousing by the separatist ideologues and their supporters.

The 'experts' who love to advise the Indian Army and deeply suspect its military intellect are most upset because apparently the Army Chief's words have conveyed as if the entire Kashmiri awam is its freshest target.

The traditional army baiters and bashers were at it on the television channels and all those who have a practical orientation to operations and outreach in the valley were the targets.

One could almost hear the Pakistanis snigger at the plight of the Indian Army. Democratic India perceives that the best demonstration of democracy is to demonise its army.

People who have never seriously looked at the domain of information as a weapon are suddenly telling the army that its chief must be temperate while its field commanders can say and do anything.

Honesty and straightforwardness has a price. Those who say that the army's casualties haven't been even a small percentage of those suffered in the 1990s must surely be living in cocoons.

In a world driven by social media and the information revolution thank God the army at least is mindful of its casualties, others could be damned.

Having said all the above, the bottom line has to be the fact that the army needs to recover from the successful onslaught of negative propaganda unleashed by unthinking quarters.

It needs to redouble its outreach the way only it has an understanding to do so.

Its knowledge of the sensitivity of the Kashmiri people is beyond doubt and only it can lead the programme to educate the youth that what they do is against their own interest.

Instead of stones there must be books 

in their hands.

Instead of the skill in aiming stones they must have the skill to work technical equipment and repair it when needed.

Instead of organising endless protests they must have the ability to experiment with their entrepreneurship.

In short, they must be the masters of their destiny to a better life shorn of hatred.

The Indian Army will stand by them in their ventures; they and everyone in the valley know that well enough.

Only it is a little difficult to acknowledge which side their interests lie.

Lieutenant Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), former General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, is now associated with the Vivekanand International Foundation and Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.

MUST READ General Hasnain's earlier columns in the RELATED LINKS below.

Related News:

 Indian Army's Victor Force,  Army Chief,  CRPF,  south Kashmir,  Bipin Rawat

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SOURCE :
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SCAM  FREE  BATH :   HAVING A BATH                   WITH  RAINCOAT  ON

ट्रेन को पुलिस ने चारों तरफ से घेर रखा था...... बिना टिकट वालों  की चेकिंग हो रही थी....

इतने में एक सरदार जी ट्रेन से कुदे और लगे भागने.....

उनको भागते देख सभी पुलिस वाले.....मजिस्ट्रेट... सब के सब उसको पकड़ने दौड़े....

देखते ही देखते सरदार जी के साथ और भी कई लोग भागने लगे....

चुंकि सभी पुलिस वालों और मजिस्ट्रेट का ध्यान सरदार जी की तरफ था इसलिए बाकी किसी भागने वाले पर किसी का ध्यान ही नहीं गया...।

अंत में सरदार जी को पकडा गया लेकिन साथ दौड़ने वाले भाग निकले......

फिर पुलिस वालों ने सरदारजी से टिकट दिखाने को कहा...

सरदार जी ने जेब से तुरंत टिकट निकाला और मजिस्ट्रेट के हाथों में रख दिया...

सब हक्के बक्के रह गए....

मजिस्ट्रेट ने चिल्लाकर पुछा जब तेरे पास टिकट थी तो तुम भागे क्यों ?

सरदार जी मौन रहे हल्के से मुस्कराते रहे......

जब मजिस्ट्रेट ने ज्यादा जोर देकर पुछा तो सरदार जी ने मुंह खोला और कहा "हजारों सवालों से अच्छी है मेरी दौड़, ना जाने कितने बेटिकटों की आबरू बच गई "।

मतलब सरदार जी तो ईमानदार रह गए लेकिन कई घोटाले बाज़ों को अपने ईमानदारी के सर्टिफिकेट से बचा ले गए।

वाह सरदार मनमोहन सिंह !!!

JAMMU & KASHMIR ISLAMIZATION ; Demographic Changes Making Jammu A Ticking Timebomb (R)

SOURCE:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/10022017-demographic-changes-making-jammu-a-ticking-timebomb-analysis/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29

              Location of Jammu and Kashmir in India. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

Demographic Changes Making Jammu A Ticking Timebomb

                                By 

 Brig Anil Gupta (Retd)*

BY SOUTH ASIA MONITOR 

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

Consequent to eruption of militancy in Kashmir in the late 1980s and its extension to Doda District and Rajouri-Poonch in the 1990s, the migration of Hindu families to Jammu began. This was soon followed by migration of Muslims belonging to the militancy-affected areas. A large number of Gujjar settlements also erupted all of a sudden close to the International Border and around Jammu City.

However, this was followed by a very serious event which appears like a well-planned conspiracy to alter the demography of Jammu. A large number of members of a particular community[ READ KASHMIRI MUSLIMS] commenced buying landed and built-up properties in parts of Greater Jammu. Even illegal encroachments of forest and government land by them were ignored by the government machinery.

During the last decade-and-half exclusive Muslim colonies have mushroomed around Jammu, some of them openly advertising in papers that plots will be sold to Muslims only. Though being illegal, these colonies are provided amenities like water and electricity by the government machinery. The settlements have been planned in such a manner that Hindu-dominated localities have been encircled.

Jammu is basically a Hindu-dominated area. In 1981, there were only two Muslim-dominated localities within the city. As per official figures of 1986-87, the religion-wise breakdown of Jammu was Hindus 88.5 per cent, Muslims 4.5 per cent, Sikhs 6.4 per cent and others 0.6 per cent. Thereafter, due to disturbed conditions in the state, proper..................................

census could not be conducted in 1991 and 2001.

As per Census-2011 which included religion-wise breakdown in the population data, the same for Greater Jammu is Hindus 78.36 per cent, Muslims 10.97 per cent and Sikhs 8.74 per cent.

It is essential to identify the factors that have led to this change. While there has been constant decline in the Hindu population (10.4 per cent since 1986-87 — the year of eruption of militancy), the Muslim population has more than doubled during the same period.

The growth rate is a major factor — Muslim growth rate is 24 per cent against the national average of 18 per cent. Another factor is migration from the Valley and other parts of Jammu region. Hindus from Jammu have migrated to other parts of the country. Though the majority of Kashmiri Muslims have acquired property in Jammu, they prefer to spend the summers in the Valley and return to Jammu in winters. Many have also shifted to Jammu to ensure smooth and continuous education for their children.

The governments in the past turned a blind eye to grabbing of state/forest land by Kashmiri Muslim migrants. Huge properties on these lands have been built by politicians, bureaucrats, police officials and government servants. The corrupt officials of the revenue department have not only helped these settlers grab the state/forest land adjacent to the National Highway and outskirts of the city but are also involved in altering the revenue records.

Taking the shelter of militancy, the nomadic tribes have settled in large numbers around Jammu. Apart from grabbing forest land, they have also taken on lease/bought from the locals land at very high rates and built settlements all along the possible routes of infiltration. They have also been allotted “Pattas”, a system to help landless locals in which state land is leased to them for a fixed annual rent, with the active connivance of the concerned government officials.

Emotional migration of Hindus is another contributory factor. The lack of higher educational facilities and job opportunities in Jammu has led to large number of youth moving to other cities/metros of the country leaving behind their parents. When parents grow old and are unable to manage due to inadequate medical facilities, they also prefer to leave Jammu to join the children. This makes land/property available for sale and migrants offer lucrative rates, often more than the prevailing market rate, to buy such properties thus adding to the demographic shift.

The source of funding remains a major suspense. Some fingers point towards Hurriyat and ISI as part of a well thought out strategy. NRI funding and liberal flow of petro-dollars to promote Salafism could also be the contributors. Most of these settlers prefer to retain property at their ancestral places as well thus ruling out sale of ancestral property as a legitimate source of funding.

Till early 1980s, there were only two known Muslim localities in Jammu. Thereafter, the number of colonies started mushrooming around the periphery of the old city and towards the North. Today there are more than 30 such colonies all around Jammu city in addition to about equal number of Gujjar bastis.

Jammu has also been victim to large-scale illegal immigrants belonging to the same community. These illegal foreign migrants belong to Bangladesh and Myanmar.[RONGIYAS]The migration took place during the period 1998-2012. The migration, to a large extent, was backed by the politico-police nexus. Some of them even managed to acquire Citizenship and Voter Cards. Since these are illegal migrants, their figures are not included in the Census-2011. If their numbers are also added to the official figures, the increase in Muslim population will be even higher upsetting the demographic balance.

As per the government, 13,400 Myanmarese and Bangladeshi migrants are living in camps in Jammu. The actual figures are much more than the official figures.

The Myanmarese immigrants. the Rohingyas, belong to the Arakan region of Myanmar bordering Bangladesh. They follow Sunni Islam and belong to Indo-Aryan ethnicity. In 1982, the Myanmar government declared them as non-nationals thus rendering them stateless. This led to their migration to neighbouring Bangladesh, Thailand and even Pakistan. However, they were not welcomed in these Muslim countries as well. This led to their influx into India through the porous border with Bangladesh.

As per official estimates, there are 36,000 Rohingyas settled in seven states in India namely Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradeh, Kerala, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and Delhi.

Almost 1,700 Rohingya families comprising approximately 8,500 souls (official figures are 1,286 and 5,000, respectively) live in the settlement colonies of Rajiv Nagar, Kassim Nagar, Malik Market, Bahu Fort, Karyini Talab, Channi Rama, Vidhata Nagar, Railway Basti, Kargil Colony and Bhatindi areas of Jammu.

Bhatindi Ka Plot is home to the highest number of Rohingya migrants — 686 in total as stated by the Chief Minister in the legislative assembly. Many of them have acquired refugee status from UNHCR thus adding to plethora of “refugee” communities in Jammu region. As per official estimates, approximately 186 families are illegal and not registered with UNHCR.

Illegal settlements have mushroomed in areas such as Gol Gujral, Nandini Seora, and Tope. The J&K government has provided them basic amenities including health care and Anganwari schools. A madrassa is also being run by a fellow migrant Maulana Shafiq in Narwal Bala. A large number of NGOs and philanthropic organisations also help them besides benefiting from ‘zakat’ (charity).

Though majority of them earn their livelihood through daily labour and employment in local shops, dhabas, restaurants, and car washing stations, involvement of some of them in petty and heinous crimes cannot be ruled out. Due to fear of being deported, they prefer to avoid any controversy at present but the possibility of some black sheep among them is likely.

Jammu and its adjoining areas have also become safe haven for illegal Bangladeshi migrants who were brought here in the 1990s by unscrupulous contractors with the promise of helping them migrate to Pakistan through the Jammu border. They used to come in hordes. After repeated failed attempts to cross over to Pakistan, they gradually began to settle down in Jammu.

As per government of India figures given in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, in November 2016, there were around 2 crore illegal Bangladeshi immigrants staying in India. Their exact number in J&K is not known but is guessed to be approximately 10,000. Since they are not granted refugee status and are not registered with UNHCR, they are all illegal. They are staying in shantytowns in Muslim neighbourhoods.

Majority of the male members work as skilled labour like electricians, plumbers, welders, guards, gardeners, blacksmith etc., while the female members work as domestic help generally with Muslim families. They speak Hindi fluently and have merged well with the local population. They even migrate during summer to the Valley with well-to-do Muslim families, bureaucrats and police officers. Many of them have managed to obtain ration cards, voter cards, Aaadhar cards and Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC). They are suspected to be involved in crime as well as anti-national activities at the behest of the local mullahs and maulvis. It is also learnt that attempt is being made to motivate them to join ‘jehad’.

To add to these are Muslim migrants from states like Delhi, UP and Bihar. They number about 25,000 to 30,000 and work mainly as skilled labour and contractors. Some of them have even managed to acquire properties through marriages with local Muslim girls.

This demographic change will lead to increased influence of Hurriyat and other pro-separatist and pro-Pakistan elements in the communally-sensitive Jammu region which has so far displayed maturity and tolerance. It will further assist in Pakistan’s design of portraying the entire state of J&K as disturbed and disputed; provide a trigger for communal violence; provide logistics assistance and rest and recoupment base for terrorists; and create a dormant terror network to be activated at an opportune moment.

The demographic shift in favour of a particular community having record of supporting anti-national elements can have an adverse impact on national security interests — one of the two foreign terrorists killed in south Kashmir in October last year was identified as a native of Myanmar — and make the area vulnerable to radicalisation.

A few notorious families also indulge in smuggling of bovines thus hurting the local sentiments and creating a sense of fear and panic among the locals through crimes and mafia-like activities.

It is evident that the silence of those who oppose any move facilitating honourable return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley, Sainik colonies for veterans and issue of Domicile Certificate to West Pakistani refugees on the pretext of attempt to change the demography is not only perplexing but smells of communalism.

If not addressed well in time, it could become a communal flash point in the hitherto peaceful region. Jammu is fast emerging as a ticking timebomb.

*The writer is a Jammu-based political commentator, columnist, security and strategic analyst. Comments and suggestions on this article can be sent to editor@spsindia.in

TOPICS:

Human RightsIndiaIslamKashmirPakistanSouth Asia