The human self is the next great frontier of the Silicon Valley, which has introduced a slew of technology products for dieting. These products have a whole new language, one that encourages people to think and talk about nutrition differently. Dieting is no longer a necessary problem of vanity, as it has been historically termed, but a problem of knowledge and efficiency—a rhetorical shift with broad implications for how people think of themselves. Where bodies might have previously been idealized as personal temples, they’re now just another device to be managed, a system whose use people are expected to master.

A series of fascinating papers suggest that in humans and other social mammals, social pain and physical pain are processed by the same neural circuits. This might explain why, in many languages, it is hard to describe the impact of breaking social bonds without the words we use to denote physical pain and injury. Social contact even reduces physical pain.

In strictly economic terms, the political character of a nation's trading partners should not matter. However, in a world of strategic competition, international commerce can be, and usually is, an instrument of policy, and its use in that context should not be denied simply because it breaches the sacred principle of free trade.

__________________Infrastructure, in the form of paved surfaces, disrupts water absorption and lowers water retention. This leads to disastrous levels of flooding which diminishes the biodiversity and impoverishes the people of the region.
Land should be used mindfully to prevent water logging during heavy rains.

Few look forward to old age and all that it brings in its wake - deteriorating health, loss of vigour, restricted mobility, increasing dependence on others, not to mention a sense of foreboding and anxiety. Yet, one has to learn to cope with the onset of old age. Firstly, it is imperative to prepare to accept old age in spite of the restrictions or limitations it imposes on one's mobility. Equally important is the need to adopt a positive attitude towards life. 

_______________Above all, peace of mind, is the efficacious balm that brings equanimity to one's life. We must resign ourselves to growing old, and in the process let us try to make life as fulfilling and meaningful as possible.