News In Shorts: 10 December 2024

Notre-Dame Cathedral

Context: Recently the Notre Dame de Paris or the Cathedral of Notre Dame was re-opened after a massive fire destroyed its roof and spire five years ago in 2019.

About Notre-Dame Cathedral

• Location: The Notre-Dame Cathedral is a medieval Catholic cathedral situated on an island in the Seine River in Paris, France.
• Religious Relics: The cathedral houses the Holy Crown of Thorns, regarded as one of the most sacred relics.
  • It also contains relics from the crucifixion of Jesus, including a piece of the cross and one of the nails used during the crucifixion.
• UNESCO Recognition: The Notre-Dame Cathedral is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, reflecting its cultural and historical significance.
• Architecture:
  • The cathedral is an iconic example of the French Gothic architectural style.
  • French Gothic architecture is characterized by features such as shutter windows, carved archways, and narrow street fronts.
  • This architectural style harmonizes well with the courtyards and backyard gardens of traditional Bengali homes which can be seen in Indo-French Architecture of  Chandernagor, West Bengal.
• Historical Significance: The Notre-Dame Cathedral hosted the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor in 1804.

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OpenAI launches Sora Turbo

Context: OpenAI has launched Sora Turbo, a new and faster version of Sora, the company’s text-to-video artificial intelligence (AI) model which it previewed in February.

About Sora Turbo

• Sora in Japanese means sky, an imagery that evokes ‘limitless creative potential’. 
• It is an advanced version of its text-to-video AI model, Sora.
• It can generate videos up to 20 seconds long with a resolution of 1080p, offering faster performance and improved features compared to its predecessor.
• Applications and Significance 
  • Sora Turbo can generate complex and high-quality videos from textual descriptions, providing dynamic tools for storytelling and visual content creation.
  • The model enables the creation of emotionally expressive characters and realistic scenes, enhancing creative possibilities for users.

About OpenAI

• OpenAI was established in 2015 as a non-profit AI research organization with a mission to develop Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) that benefits all of humanity.
• Key Innovations:
  • OpenAI introduced Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) models, which revolutionized natural language processing (NLP).
  • The organization developed DALL-E, a text-to-image generation model, and later expanded its capabilities to video animation with the launch of Sora.

SC’s Plenary Power

Context: The Supreme Court (SC) exercised its plenary powers under Article 142 to provide  a relief to a woman Army officer and grant her permanent commission.

• Plenary power refers to the complete or absolute authority granted to a governing body over a specific area without limitations, enabling them to exercise significant control and discretion over relevant matters.

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About Article 142

Article 142 of the Constitution of India gives the Supreme Court of India the power to pass any order it deems necessary to achieve “complete justice” in a pending matter:         

• Pass decrees or make orders for complete justice
• Make orders to secure the attendance of a person
• Order the discovery or production of documents

Application of Article 142: Union Carbide case, relating to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. Here, the Supreme Court deviated from existing law to bring relief to the thousands of persons affected by the gas leak.