Happiness can be conveyed using 17 different facial configurations, according to the scientists who found that out of over 16,000 expressions only 35 can be recognised across cultures around the world. While human beings can configure their faces in thousands and thousands of ways to convey emotion from anger to sadness to riotous joy and the number of ways our faces can convey different emotions varies. Disgust, for example, needs just one facial expression to get its point across throughout the world. Happiness, on the other hand, has 17 – a testament to the many varied forms of cheer, delight and contentedness, researchers said.
This was delightful to discover because it speaks to the complex nature of happiness. Happiness acts as social glue and needs the complexity of different facial expressions; disgust is just that: disgust, said Aleix Martinez, a professor at The Ohio State University in the US.
The differences in how our faces convey happiness can be as simple as the size of our smiles or the crinkles near our eyes, the study found. The study, published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing, also found that humans use three expressions to convey fear, four to convey surprise, and five each to convey sadness and anger.
The findings build on Martinez’s previous work on facial expressions which found that the people can correctly identify other people’s emotions about 75 per cent of the time based solely on subtle shifts in how blood flow colours a person’s nose, eyebrows, cheeks or chin. Researchers hoped to identify the facial configurations that convey emotion across cultures. Based on computer algorithms, they found that the human face is capable of configuring itself in 16,384 unique ways which combines different muscles in different ways.
They took the 7.2 million images; their searches yielded and sorted them into categories, looking for those that expressed emotion across cultures. Martinez figured that they would find at least a few hundred. They found that only 35. For the study, the team assembled a list of words that describe feelings, 821 English words, to be exact. Then they used those words to mine the internet for images of people’s faces.
Professional translators translated those words into Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Farsi and Russian. To avoid bias, they used each word to download an equal number of images. They plugged the words into search engines popular in 31 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and ended up with approximately 7.2 million images of facial expressions across a variety of cultures.
The study did not include countries from the African continent or the other remote parts of the world because of the limited number of candid images available from those areas.
BEST strike entered its nineth day on Wednesday with the workers’ union rejecting the management’s ’10-step increment’ proposal to end the stalemate leading commuters in Mumbai to suffer. The HC had on Tuesday directed the BEST workers’ union to take a final decision on the withdrawal of its ongoing strike and inform the court today morning.
All eyes will now be on the Bombay High Court which is hearing the case related to the strike, the longest such protest in the history of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST).
Over 32,000 BEST employees have been on strike since January 8 over their various demands, including pay hike, revision of pay grade for junior level employees, and merger of loss-making BEST’s budget with that of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The direction came after the BEST told the court that it was willing to implement the redressal measure suggested by the state government’s high-powered committee on granting an interim pay hike to its employees.
The high-powered committee, headed by chief secretary, has recommended, among other things, that subject to the strike being called off, as an interim measure, workers be granted a ’10-step increase’ in salary for about 15,000 employees in a time-bound manner.
However, BEST workers’ union leader Shashank Rao rejected the proposal on Tuesday.
The union was adamant on its demand of merging BEST’s budget with that of its parent body BMC.
A senior BEST official said the government was seriously considering the demand.
“The high-powered committee is giving a serious thought to merge both the budgets. A decision on this is likely to come soon,” an official said.
Meanwhile, commuters continued to face hardships due to the strike, even as the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) deployed its buses to minimise their woes.
A BEST driver apologised to commuters for the inconvenience, but also appealed them to understand the problems faced by the bus employees.
“We have been financially distressed since the last few years. We had no option but to resort to this (strike). But we are hopeful that this will end,” he said.
Some commuters also took to social media to express their anger.
“Palpable anger among daily bus commuters against BEST union & their ongoing strike. Common sentiment – quit the job if you are not happy with the wages/terms (coming from daily wage earners & lower middle class commuters). Overheard inside NMMT bus which have stepped up service,” a harried commuter wrote on Twitter.
The state government had last week invoked the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) against the striking employees.
But, it has so far not taken any stringent action except for sending them notices to evict the houses provided to them by the undertaking.
The BEST has a fleet of over 3,200 buses which criss-cross the metropolis and also operate services in the neighbouring Thane district and Navi Mumbai.
It is the second-biggest mode of transport in Mumbai after local trains, which ferry over 80 lakh passengers every day.
Kanhaiya Kumar, who gained immense popularity overnight has managed to be the voice of the youth and is also reportedly considered as one of the major reasons for BJP’s defeat during the assembly polls in the Hindi heartland states. With the nearing of Lok Sabha elections, the ruling government is making rigorous efforts to shut all the voices that can create a strong impact against the vote bank of the party. Almost after three years, the Modi government has again used the police to distract attention by filing a chargesheet against former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others in a sedition case for allegedly raising ‘anti-national slogans’ during an event to commemorate the hanging of Parliament-attack mastermind Afzal Guru on the JNU campus in February 2016.
Social Activist Anil Prakash expressed, “Chargesheet against Kanhaiya Kumar is solely politically motivated; neither the investigative agencies in the last three years have filed a single chargesheet nor they have any evidence against him, why are they brewing this issue again before the general elections?”
He further added, “The entire country is in an election-spree and as the government has nothing more to talk against Kanhaiya Kumar, to keep him out of contesting polls or campaigning before the 2019 polls, all these are calculated conspiracies. The central government’s list of achievement in the last four and half years is empty. Moreover, their image is maligned with the CBI vs CBI case, Rafale scam and many more. If activists are pointing fingers at the Modi government’s failures, BJP is putting all its efforts to suppress their voice!”
Delhi Police on Monday filed a 12,000 page chargesheet and claimed that they have evidence to proceed against 10 former students of JNU, including Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, and seven students from Jammu and Kashmir – Aquib Hussain, Mujeeb Hussain, Muneeb Hussain, Umar Gul, Rayeea Rassol, Bashir Bhat, and Basharat. Questioning the timing of the charges that came nearly after three years, just a few months ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Kumar claimed this chargesheet to be “politically motivated”. The chargesheet also contains CCTV footage, mobile footage, and documentary evidence. The police have alleged that Kumar had incited the mob to shout anti-India slogans.
The accused have been charged with offences under sections 124A (sedition), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 465 (punishment for forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 143 (punishment for being a member of an unlawful assembly), 149 (being a member of an unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
As many as 36 others, including Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja’s daughter Aprajita, Shehla Rashid (then vice-president of the JNUSU), Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Banojyotsna Lahiri have been named in column 12 of the chargesheet due to insufficient evidence against them, police sources said.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been showing disgrace towards the chargesheet filed against seven Jammu and Kashmir students stating it is as a strategy for the vote bank ahead of the elections. However, Mufti also condemned the act to hang Afzal Guru for the political benefits just prior to the 2014 elections. “No surprises here. We are months away from the 2019 general election and like always, using Kashmiris to score extra political points with the Indian electorate has become somewhat of a prerequisite,” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mufti said in a series of tweets. “Timing of the chargesheet couldn’t be any more suspicious. When the UPA was in power, it decided to send Afzal Guru to the gallows and to this day, J&K is paying a price,” she tweeted.
Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, BJP Rajya Sabha MP said, “Police is investigating the cases against the former JNU Students’ Union leaders since the incident happened in JNU and the police have come to a conclusion, the court has decided that there should be a chargesheet filed against the leaders and we have to go by the judiciary. The investigative agencies have done their work very efficiently. The Left parties and Congress should not politicise the matter and must accept the judicial order. Whoever is supporting Kanhaiya Kumar should understand whether they want the nation to be united or broken into pieces!”
Reportedly, Kanhaiya Kumar is likely to contest as a candidate of a Mahagathbandhan comprising the RJD, the Left parties and the Congress in the Begusarai constituency. Earlier, in October, Kanhaiya made his political debut at CPI’s anti-BJP rally where he gave his first political speech from the party platform and acknowledged that there was no single party that could defeat the BJP and urged all Opposition parties to unite for the purpose. However, he was attacked while he was returning from a political campaign aimed at motivating people to join the CPI’s proposed massive rally on October 25 in Patna. “The BJP sees Kanhaiya Kumar as a potential threat”, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy slammed the ruling government after the attack. He also alleged the attack as an attempt to kill Kanhaiya.
In a conversation with AV, Senior CPI(M) leader and former MP Brinda Karat said, “The Delhi Police filed chargesheet naming student activists Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case from 2016 and it seems surprising how the present government has failed to gather and show evidence against all the student activists. All the charges against them are wrong. If they would’ve been guilty, why did the national investigating agencies take so much time to work on it? I wonder the state of national security! Whoever is speaking against the government is either being pushed behind the bar or their voices are being suppressed.”
It is believed that amongst several factors that came into play in BJP’s defeat especially at Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in the assembly elections, one of them being Gujarat MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani’s relentless campaigning in these states to sway the voters against the ruling party. Mevani campaigned extensively in MP and Rajasthan, holding about 50 rallies addressing people not to vote for the BJP. Though he never asked the voters to vote for any specific party, the idea was to dethrone the saffron party from power in these states.
In recent years, there have been many instances of the state governments seeking to silence all those political dissenters by accusing them of promoting disaffection. The mere expression of critical views, howsoever scathing, cannot be an excuse for accusing someone of planning to wage war or promote disaffection against the government.
Congress National spokesperson Ragini Nayak stated, “BJP is misusing all the independent agencies in the country to favour their political mileage — nobody is spared, be it CVC, CBI or the Supreme Court judges! The BJP leaders themselves believe that there’s an emergency-like situation prevailing in the country. In the last three years, the police failed to bring out any evidence against Kanhaiya Kumar and others; all of a sudden, before the 2019 election, coming up with accusations definitely prompts suspicion on the intention of the central government. Nobody can stop Kanhaiya Kumar from campaigning in the upcoming elections and there is also a possibility of him contesting in the polls.”
Three years ago, in February 2016, we were introduced to a little-known PhD student of Jawaharlal Nehru University – Kanhaiya Kumar, a student leader with a pocket-sized personality and a flair for words who was the President of the JNU students’ union. He was arrested on the charges of sedition that put the country and its media houses into a frenzy; whether he was guilty or not was a thought reserved for another day. When he was released (on interim bail) 18 days later, the atmosphere in the country had changed and the damage had been done to him, his peers and also the ruling party. BJP lost its sheen with day-by-day exposure against them. This average man became huge overnight and his attacks on BJP went viral. BJP had to see defeat in the state elections due to these young guys and their aggressive approach. Even though it was evident that he was framed, people had made up their mind to hate him and the university at large. Admitting they were wrong or misled, would hurt their ego; that’s something we, as Indians, are guilty of. We are too stubborn to take back our words even if it has hurt someone and keep defending our stand regardless. New words were added to the Indian lexicon – anti-national, taxpayer, Azadi, and Bharat Mata ki Jai albeit with different meanings.
His almost an hour-long speech after his release added fuel to people’s inner fire. He was articulate, funny, and clearly not angry nor remotely ruffled. The witch-hunt had led to nothing more than a slap on the wrist. He was targeting a government; RSS and Narendra Modi much-loved by the masses. This was the last straw. How can someone take a dig at the government, which won a landslide victory in 2014? This, for many of his detractors, was actual evidence of his “anti-nationalism”. Moreover, people who were against the government were standing in solidarity with him. He was an average guy who was being targeted and hounded by the “big guns in power” on the basis of a few distorted facts. The so-called “upholders of justice” on the very steps of justice beat him and not a single “protector of the law” stopped them. This could happen to any ordinary citizen. Despite being beaten and jailed, his resolve only grew and it takes a lot of courage to stand up to a powerful establishment. He was a representation of how dangerous it is to be a vocal opponent of the government and its rabid fan base.
The people who reject him are the very people who are giving mileage to his growth and keeping him in the news. Since the question is about manipulation, isn’t showing manipulated videos of someone leading to their arrest misleading? Isn’t circulating a fake tweet without confirming its authenticity misleading? Isn’t forming an opinion based on unverified videos and shouting it out on national television misleading? Isn’t locking up students, artists, writers, and activists under a dated law simply because they spoke against a particular political party or organisation misleading? Isn’t implanting ideas of pseudo-nationalism and jingoism in naïve minds rather than encouraging rational thinking misleading? The haters of Kanhaiya Kumar saw him as a threat to their leaders and political future. We, the people, are not naïve to idolise and deify everyone with good oratory skills. But we should be willing to listen to both sides of a debate and form our own opinion. Nonetheless, we have predicted that the students of JNU those who are not supporters of Modi and BJP are anti-nationals. We want to be biased declaring that they promote anti-social elements, maybe that is the reason now after three years Delhi police filed a chargesheet against them. By doing this, the government can keep their one enemy in the lock, they will not dare to campaign against BJP and other students those who are planning to campaign, can be pressurised. One needs to understand, no government can choke the voices. Kanhaiya Kumar’s case again snowballed into a major political controversy and has drawn sharp reactions from the opposition parties, teachers, students and academics. Kanhaiya Kumar’s parents have stated that their son was being victimised for his opposition to the Hindutva politics.
Remember, On March 3, 2016, Kanhaiya Kumar gave a speech to a packed auditorium in the JNU campus, during which he said that he was seeking, not freedom from India, but freedom within India. He appealed to his fellow students to free the nation from the clutches of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which, he stated, was trying to divide the nation. Referring to the ABVP (right-wing student organisation), whose members were instrumental in bringing about his arrest, he called them his “opposition”, not his enemy. He urged his supporters to keep raising the slogans of azadi (freedom). The speech won accolades from the leaders of non-BJP parties as well as independent commentators. Kumar has faced bounties and death threats. Kumar’s autobiography, ‘Bihar to Tihar: My Political Journey’ was published in October 2016. The book is his story from his childhood in rural Bihar, college days in Patna, to his political coming of age in Delhi. On April 29, 2018, he was elected to the 125-member party national council of the Communist Party of India (CPI). Now ahead of 2019 elections, he has been dragged into pressure tactics.
BJP needs to know that Kanhaiya is just a result of all the growing discontent in the country. People even before Kanhaiya, if not directly in public but silently in the background, have been raising questions regarding various issues to be it caste, capital punishment, majoritarianism, discrimination, rape, forced military occupation, poverty etc. He just articulated those anxieties, questions and doubts which ordinary people have been asking and dealing with. Speeches can be effective, motivating and gear people to action but really it’s not one Kanhaiya, but all such Kanhaiyas and let’s not forget the youth of this country who are demanding answers to some very pressing issues and want to see a change; not just at the economic or political level, but also at the social level. This should not be seen as a threat but rather a positive sign reflecting a vibrant democracy, but how far he succeeds in making a substantial differences only time will tell, for now, it’s nothing more than a good speech.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
Excessive use of social media platforms like Facebook can make its users take decisions as bad as drug addicts tend to do, a new study suggests.
“Around one-third of humans on the planet are using social media, and some of these people are displaying maladaptive, excessive use of these sites,” said lead author of the study Dar Meshi, Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the US.
“I believe that social media has tremendous benefits for individuals, but there’s also a dark side when people can’t pull themselves away. We need to better understand this drive so we can determine if excessive social media use should be considered an addiction,” Meshi added.
For the study, published in the Journal of Behavior Addictions, the researchers had 71 participants take a survey that measured their psychological dependence on Facebook, similar to addiction.
Questions on the survey asked about users’ preoccupation with the platform, their feelings when unable to use it, attempts to quit and the impact that Facebook has had on their job or studies.
The researchers then had the participants do the Iowa Gambling Task, a common exercise used by psychologists to measure decision-making.
To successfully complete the task, users identify outcome patterns in decks of cards to choose the best possible deck.
Meshi and his colleagues found that by the end of the gambling task, the worse people performed by choosing from bad decks, the more excessive their social media use.
The better they did in the task, the less their social media use.
People who abuse opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, among others – have similar outcomes on the Iowa Gambling Task, thus showing the same deficiency in decision-making, the study said.
Samsung, a South Korean electronics giant, is gearing up to announce the Galaxy M-series smartphones in India on January 28. Aimed at Indian millennials, the M-series smartphones would be Amazon-exclusive and would cost less than Rs 20,000. The phones are expected to have a bigger screen, an improved camera and a battery with more capacity.
The M-Series will be powered by a 5,000 mAH battery, feature at least two cameras (the top end model will have three) and sport a 6.2-inch screen. These phones are meant for entertainment, shopping, gaming and multi-tasking, said Asim Warsi senior vice president at Samsung India, according to a news report in the Bloomberg.
The M-series smartphones will rival their Chinese counterparts, especially Xiaomi’s Redmi devices. Samsung lost pole position to Xiaomi, which has beenn leading the Indian smartphone market for over a year now. In the July-September quarter of 2018, the Chinese handset maker managed to capture 27 per cent market share, while Samsung captured 23 per cent, according to a Counterpoint report.
Samsung will continue to boost its offline sales channel, but to target millennials, the upcoming M-series will be available online only. This makes sense, as another report in Counterpoint highlighted that online channels accounted for a record half of all smartphones sales during Indian festive season. During Diwali, three smartphone brands – Xiaomi, Samsung and Realme – captured 57 per cent of the total festive season sales volumes.
During the festive season i.e. October 9 to November 8 in 2018, Xiaomi managed to get 43 per cent share of total sales through online channels. However, Samsung ruled the offline segment with 30 per cent share of the total sales through offline channels. With this analysis, it is expected that the upcoming M-series will target online audience for a reason.
Launching a frontal attack on the BJP over the political developments in Karnataka, the NCP Tuesday said the saffron party’s efforts to “dislodge” the Congress-JD(S) dispensation were aimed at creating a public perception ahead of Lok Sabha polls that alliance governments are unstable.
NCP national spokesperson Nawab Malik said the BJP would not succeed in its alleged bid to poach some MLAs of Congress for dislodging the H D Kumaraswamy government in the southern state.
Malik’s comments came on a day two Independent MLAs in Karnataka withdrew support to the alliance government, triggering a political firestorm.
As the move set off speculations over survival of the seven-month old dispensation, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy ruled out any threat of stability to his ministry.
The ruling Congress and opposition BJP have levelled charges of horse-trading against each other, as the two MLAs who withdrew the support are staying in a hotel in Mumbai.
“The BJP will not be able to form government in Karnataka, as the numbers are not stacked in its favour,” Malik told reporters.
He said the BJP’s political manoeuvring was aimed at “creating a perception among the people ahead of the general polls that alliance governments are unstable”.
The BJP wanted to project it among voters as politically indispensable, Malik added.
In the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, BJP has 104 members, Congress-79, JD(S) 37, BSP, KPJP and Independent one each, besides Speaker. BSP, KPJP and an Independent are supporting the coalition.
In 2018, the Congress and the JD(S) had formed a coalition government in the southern state after BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa, who was sworn-in as Chief Minister, resigned ahead of taking floor test to prove majority in the same month.
Amid charges and counter-charges of horse-trading between BJP and Congress, the saffron party has shifted its flock of 104 MLAs to a resort in Haryana’s Nuh district.
Karnataka Water Resource Minister D K Shivakumar had said that three Congress MLAs were camping at a hotel in Mumbai in the “company of some BJP leaders”.
To regulate the water supply, the Thane Municipal corporation (TMC) will enforce a 24 hours water supply cut from January 16 morning 9 am to January 17 morning 9 am.
Samta Nagar, Rutu Park, Siddeshwar, Jail , Saket , Uthalsar , RetiBandar , Mumbra , Kolivada, Shailesh Nagar, Sanjay Nagar and some parts of Kalva will face this water cut. The city faced 24 hours water supply cut on January 12 as the repair work of pipeline near Ranjnoli Naka took place.
The supply of water at Ghod Bandar Road , Patli Pada , Pawar Pada , Kothari Compound, Azad Nagar, Dongri Pada Wagh Bill and Gandhi Nagar will be resumed during the water cut. Because of this shut down, water supply with low pressure will be supplied for couple of days during the cut. TMC has urged the citizens to cooperate with the corporation and to manage with the scarcity of water.
Political leaders cutting across party lines have opposed handing over of power distribution duties in three electricity sub divisions of Thane to a private player.
These leaders Monday met at the circuit house here and among those who attended were Mumbra-Kalwa MLA (NCP) Jitendra Awhad, Shiv Sena MLA Subhash Bhoir, BJP MLA Kisan Kathore and Kalyan Shiv Sena district unit chief Gopal Landge.
These leaders claimed that the experiment to privatise electricity supply in the powerloom town of Bhiwandi here had failed and, hence, it should not be expanded to newer regions of the district.
They also claimed that people were opposed to the entry of private players in place of the state-run Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) in this region.
On January 3 this year, private firm Torrent Power announced it had been appointed as electricity distribution franchisee for three sub-divisions under Thane urban circle of Maharashtra.
“The company has emerged as winner of competitive bidding process conducted by Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) for appointment of input based distribution franchisee for distribution of electricity in Shil, Mumbra and Kalwa sub-divisions under Thane urban circle, for 20 years,” Torrent Power had said in a BSE filing.
Shil, Mumbra and Kalwa sub-divisions have a customer base of 2.15 lakh, the filing said.
The firm is also the electricity distribution franchisee in Bhiwandi since 2007 for a period of 20 years.
Maharashtra Health Minister Eknath Shinde Monday had a first-hand experience of the rundown condition of some primary health centres in the Palghar region when the chair he was sitting on broke during an inspection.
Officials present there quickly helped the minister regain balance as the chair gave way at Jamsar PHC in predominantly tribal Jawhar taluka here, a video of which was being circulated on social media platforms.
Shinde, during the visit, also heard out medical personnel at the PHCs in Dhaberi, Jamsar and Sakhare in the district who complained of lack of facilities including personnel, medicines and ambulances.
He assured them of help in this regard, officials said.
Shinde was recently given additional charge of the health portfolio in the Maharashtra government.
