Uyuni Salt Flats, Bolivia ..

*Uyuni Salt Flat (Salar de Uyuni)* Salt pan in Bolivia

Description : Salar de Uyuni, amid the Andes in southwest Bolivia, South America, is the world’s largest salt flat. 

Click here for a video ..

It’s the legacy of a prehistoric lake, 46,000 years old, that went dry, leaving behind a desertlike, nearly 11,000 sq.-km. landscape of bright-white salt ( *3 times area of Goa* ), rock formations and cacti-studded islands. 

A few metres depth of salt crust covers 130 metres deep salt brine underneath which houses 50-70% of the world's Lithium reserves.

Its otherworldly expanse can be observed from central Incahuasi Island. Though wildlife is rare in this unique ecosystem, it harbors many pink flamingos.

Just after rains, a small layer of dead calm water over this 46,000 years old salt plains, makes it the world's largest mirror, 129 kms across.

While a Tour de France champion cyclist would cross this 130km wide salt flats in under 4 hours, an average cyclist can take anywhere from 12 - 18 hours to cross it.

Age : 40,000 - 46,000 years 

Elevation: 3,663 m 

Area: 10,582 km²

*Depth: 130 m*

Location: Daniel Campos Province, Potosí Department

*Formed by: Evaporation*

Covid Lockdown collage - thoughtful ..

Here is a collage of lockdown pics that convey a lot of message for posterity - 

• exposing the helplessness of religions and religious leaders,
• animals enjoying picnic, 
• the abandonment of Mecca and Gateway of India, 
• the plight of people migrating in Delhi and UP, 
• row of coffins in Italy exporing the grief and the folly of unpreparedness, 
• people waiting in queues with social distancing in Bangalore, 
• nature taking a whiff of fresh breath - Bangalore and Nepal, Mt. Everest.. 🙂🙂

George 

1900 to 2020 in the global war perspective ..

(From the Internet, I found this analysis exciting..,)

For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.

 When you are 14, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday with 22 million people killed. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until you are 20. Fifty million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million. 

When you're 29, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, global GDP drops 27%. 

That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. 

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet.  When you're 41, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war and the Holocaust kills six million. 

At 52, the Korean War starts and five million perish. 

At 64 the Vietnam War begins, and it doesn’t end for many years. Four million people die in that conflict. 

Approaching your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, could well have ended. Great leaders prevented that from happening. 

As you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. 

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that? 

A kid in 1985 didn’t think their 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. Yet those grandparents (and now great grandparents) survived through everything listed above.

Perspective is an amazing art. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Let’s be smart, help each other out, and we will get through all of this.” In the history of the world, there has never been a storm that lasted. This too, shall pass.....

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Interesting, 👍👍 however out of interest and curiosity, added these events post 1990 to the perspective .. (if incomplete, pl point out .. ) ..

1. '90 Gulf war which saw 383 US deaths and over 100,000 Iraqi deaths

2. WTC bombing, NY '93, app. 3000 US citizens dead

3. Afghan war '01, 5500 US deaths and 92,000 Afghan deaths and still counting 

4. Iraq war '03, 4430 US deaths and 2,80 000 Iraqi deaths ... 😥😥😥😥

Sadly, US has been involved in almost all global combats over the past 70 years since WW2. 

The dropping of 2 atom bombs (Little boy and Fat man over Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively) killed between 1,30,000 and 2,30,000 civilians in the 2 Japanese cities.

The 1947 India Pakistan partition led to another 200,000 to 2 million perishing in both countries.  - upper limit ..

The '80 - '88 Iran Iraq war resulted in 500,000 to a million deaths in both sides , with no victor, no loser, no war reparations,  no border changes , only an economic loss of a trillion dollars.. 😳😳

While 1.7 billion (1,700,000,000) people inhabited the earth in 1900, now it is about 7.8 billion  (7,800,000,000), an increase of 6,100,000,000 (6.1 billion) people, global population growing at a compounded rate of 1.25% annually .. 🙂🙂

George..

Airlines revival plans - knotty issues ??

Airlines around the world are facing threat of closure, being grounded for more than three months now, unless backed by countries. 

Airlines are going to find the issue of social distancing limit the passengers accommodated in a flight (leaving alternate seats vacant in a row) to 50-67 % of the earlier numbers. 

Also the issue of recirculation and intake of the virus contaminated air (if even one asymptomatic covid patient enters the flight) during the course of the flight, increases the risk of contracting the Corona virus. 

The increased maintenance cost to make the grounded planes airworthy and secure is another headache for the airlines.

Do you foresee a crash in global commercial passenger airlines market  operating since 1950, if planes dont get to the air by June at least ?

Can innovative methods be proposed to save the airline industry from going bankrupt to :

1. limit the passenger Corona infection threat

2. improve revenue for airlines by providing more seats and

3. low cost ways to have regular maintenance to improve airworthiness of grounded aeroplanes.

How can global airlines overcome these three major problems in the coming  days ??

George 

Why is US in a hurry to reopen its economy ?

Why US wants to reopen the country soon ?

1. US is totally dependent on its materialistic economy ..If the economy takes a break, US falters and fumbles, unemployment rises, loan repayments fail, could disturb the social peace and equilibrium.. very scary..

2. If US allows another country to overtake and take economic and knowledge leadership of the world, US knows it will be wiped out. Preventing such an outcome by any means, even at cost of lives of its own people, is top priority for US.

3. Replacement of US dollar by the Chinese Yuan as the global currency is the end of the road for US. It has to stop this by any means.

4. If US has to repay the public debt of $20 trillion it has loaned from the world by printing notes (it is easier to borrow than tax the citizens), it will wipe out US from global map for ever. 

Please click here to know how much each country is indebted..

Maintaining financial leadership of the world by hook or crook is top priority for US now. That explains why US political leadership is extremely disturbed with the Covid virus..

George