Happy Teacher's Day

Happy Teacher's Day to all the teachers who have put in a lot of effort to make us who we are today. We owe our successes (and failures) to you :D 

For those of you who are unaware of the significance of the teacher's day, it is celebrated on the birth date, [5 September 1888], of the first vice president of India and the second President of India, academic philosopher Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Radhakrishnan was a brilliant student from the very start and most of his studies were covered through scholarships. At the age of 21 years, he was selected as the assistant lecturer in Madras Presidency College. later he became the Vice Chancellor of Andhra University and Banaras Hindu University before being awarded with the Bharat Ratna in 1954.

This teachers' day is distinct from World Teachers' Day which is officially celebrated across the world on October 5.

Here are some of the quotes on teachers by some great personalities.

1. The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts. ~ C. S. Lewis, Author 

2. I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. ~ John Steinbeck, Author

3. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.~ Bill Gates 

4. The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.~ Elbert Hubbard, Philosopher

5. There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies. ~ Robert Frost, Poet

6. Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.~ Aristotle, Philosopher

P.S.-Happy Teacher's Day Mom - my first teacher :) 

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Air Pollution Troubles in America

In a recent study, MIT scientists have studied the impacts of air pollution from major sectors on the health of Americans. The results are a bit troubling - about 200,000 premature deaths are caused per year in the U.S. due to changes in fine particles (diameter less than 2.5 microns) concentrations, and about 10,000 deaths due to changes in ozone concentrations from the emissions from combustion sources. 

The study showed that the largest contributors for both pollutant-related mortalities are road transportation causing ~ 58,000 deaths per year, followed by power generation (~57,000), and industrial emissions (~43,000).

The researchers also mapped local emissions in 5,695 U.S. cities which showed the highest emissions-related mortality rate in Baltimore, where 130 out of every 100,000 residents likely die in a given year due to long-term exposure to air pollution.

Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231013004548
Journal: Atmospheric Environment

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A Zorse

This is Eclyse - a zorse. It is a cross-bred between a horse (her father) and a zebra (her mother). 

For while most zebra-horse crossbreeds sport stripes across their entire body, Eclyse only has two such patches, on its face and rear. She is a major attraction at a safari park at Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, near the German border with Holland.

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Science Fact - 15

Fun Facts

1. If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

2. Dogs have four toes on their hind feet, and five on their front feet.

3. Our stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself.

4. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

5. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

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Science Fact - 14

Fun Facts about animals:

1. Houseflies always hum in the key of F.

2. If you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground, it can’t hop.

3. Just like the zebra, no two tigers have the same stripes.



4. Elephants can smell water up to 3 miles away.

5. Butterflies have two compound eyes consisting of thousands of lenses, yet they can only see the colors red, green and yellow.

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Science Fact - 13

The Catatumbo Lightning is an atmospheric phenomenon in Venezuela. 

It causes lightning during 140 to 160 nights a year, 10 hours per day and up to 280 times per hour. It occurs over and around Lake Maracaibo, typically over the bog area formed where the Catatumbo River flows into the lake.

It originates from a mass of storm clouds at a height of more than 5 km. It occurs only over the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo. 

The lightning have been continued for centuries, ceasing only in 2010 for three months (January - April) probably due to drought.

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Examify - Hack Your Exams!

Hacking and the first thing that comes to my mind- Abhishek Bachchan in Om Jai Jagadish - the movie with Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, the Cinthol girl and a lot of cast! Well, if you don't remember, let me take you to a flashback. Om (Anil Kapoor) who was a man of morals who was honest, self-dependent, never cheated anyone and a god-fearing person. Jagdish (Abhishek bachchan), Om's younger brother, liked playing with websites and all, so to help his friends, he hacked their college website and stole the exam papers!

 Now obviously Om got angry

and killed Jagdish! 

LOL just threw him out! :P Kuch yaad aaya?

Well, there is a guy who does the same work and nobody throws him out! In fact, he was featured on the  TEDxgateway event which was held in Mumbai in December 2012 partnered by the Franklin Templeton Investments. Surprised? So was I! But apparently, what he does is called social service and what Jagdish did was fraud! I am still confused - Either Om's morals were wrong or our society's are! Actual answer is Nobody's!

What this guy, Angad Nadkarni, does is that he hacks into universities, schools and colleges website, gets their last years exam papers and makes a database - EXAMIFY! Now according to the database, they compile which questions are most probable to come in the exam - be it school level or graduation! Now, as they are not really telling you exactly which question will appear in the exam, they aren't cheating, right? 

They also take your feedback as to how you rate each question - easy, medium or difficult? Their logic is - if everybody thinks a question is difficult, then you definitely don't need to study it. Cool?

Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012. (video)

I wonder if they could create such softwares which could directly hack into professor's mind and know the questions directly. Whatsay?
   

Times like these aren't too far! :D

Here's a link to my other reviews about TEDxGateway Talks - they were more helpful for humanity in general as I feel! - Link! Happy reading :)

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