AN AMAZING MOTIVATOR

 Nicholas James Vujicic

Nick Vujicic was born to Dushka and Boris Vujicic, Serbian immigrants from Yugoslavia on December 4, 1982 in Melbourne, Australia. Although he was an otherwise healthy baby, Nick was born without arms and legs; he had no legs, but two small feet, one of which had two toes. Originally, the toes of one of his feet were fused. An operation was performed to separate the toes so that he could use them as fingers to grab. He refers to it as his chicken drumstick. When he was born, his mother refused to see him or hold him when the nurse held him in front of her. She and her husband went out of the hospital and vomited from seeing their son with no limbs, but they eventually accepted the condition. Nick has two siblings, Michelle and Aaron.

Initially, a Victoria state law prevented Nick from attending a mainstream school due to his physical disability in spite of a lack of mental impairment. However, Vujicic became one of the first physically disabled students integrated into a mainstream school once those laws changed. However, his lack of limbs made him a target for school bullies, and he fell into a severe depression. At age eight, he contemplated suicide and even tried to drown himself in his bathtub at age ten; his love for his parents prevented him from following through. He also stated in his music video "Something More" that God had a plan for his life and he could not bring himself to drown because of this.
Nick prayed very hard that God would give him arms and legs, and initially told God that, if his prayer remained unanswered, Nick would not praise him indefinitely. However, a key turning point in his faith came when his mother showed him a newspaper article about a man dealing with a severe disability. Vujicic realized he wasn't unique in his struggles and began to embrace his lack of limbs. After this, Nick realized his accomplishments could inspire others and became grateful for his life. 

Nick gradually figured out how to live a full life without limbs, adapting many of the daily skills limbed people accomplish without thinking. Nick writes with two toes on his left foot and a special grip that slid onto his big toe. He knows how to use a computer and can type up to 45 words per minute using the "heel and toe" method. He has also learned to throw tennis balls, play drum pedals, get a glass of water, comb his hair, brush his teeth, answer the phone and shave, in addition to participating in golf, swimming, and even sky-diving.
During secondary school, he was elected captain of MacGregor State in Queensland and worked with the student council on fundraising events for local charities and disability campaigns. When he was seventeen, he started to give talks at his prayer group, and later founded his non-profit organization, “Life Without Limbs”.

He lives in Los Angeles, California, United States.

In 2005, Vujicic was nominated for the Young Australian of the Year Award.

On 12 February 2012, he married his fiancée, Kanae Miyahara, and on 13 February 2013, their son Kiyoshi James Vujicic was born weighing 8 pounds 10 ounces.

He is a father of two boys and twin daughters (born in 2018).

To conclude in his words:

“Failure is not important, how you overcome it is.”

DO YO KNOW

 How does a hand sanitizer clean your hands?

A hand sanitizer is often used as a substitute for cleaning hands when soap and water are not available. It comes in the form of gel, foam or liquid. It mainly consists of ethanol/ethyl alcohol (60 per cent) and other chemicals along with ingredients like glycerine, fragrance, essential oils of plants and water. Non-alcohol based hand sanitizers are also available.

A dollop of hand sanitizer is enough to remove germs from your hands without the use of water. The high concentration of alcohol in the sanitizer kills the bacteria present on the surface of the hand. It simultaneously strips away the outer layer of oil on the skin, thus preventing the growth of new bacteria. Non-alcohol based sanitizers use a chemical called benzalkonium chloride instead of alcohol. However, the effectiveness of a hand sanitizer is a matter of debate. Studies indicate that it kills most bacteria, fungi and some viruses, but only if its alcohol content is at least 60 per cent. Moreover, it takes about 30 seconds for the alcohol to take effect—if it evaporates before, then your hand is not germ-free. A hand sanitizer cannot clean a dirty hand either.

GREAT MONARCH OF INDIA

 Ashoka - The Enlightened Ruler

Ashoka was born in medieval India’s first great dynasty ---the Mauryan Dynasty, founded by Chandragupta Maurya. The nane Ashoka means ‘the sorrowless one’. After the death of Ashoka’s father Bindusara in 272 BC, a power struggle broke out among his sons. Ashoka, known for his terrible temper and cruelty, overthrew his eldest stepbrother and ascended the throne of Magadha. In the beginning, Ashoka ruled cruelly. He built a prison where prisoners were subjected to unimaginable torture. This came to be known as Ashoka’s hell.

Soon Ashoka had to suppress a revolt in the frontier region of Taxila (in present-day Pakistan). Later, Ashoka led a bloody war against Kalinga (modern-day Odisha and northern Andhra Pradesh). This was one of the bloodiest wars ever fought. Over 1,00,000 soldiers were killed and 1,50,000 were made prisoners. Despite being victorious, Ashoka was filled with remorse at the killings and finally understood the need for peace.

Ashoka turned towards Buddhism with its teachings of non-violence, tolerance and openness. His thoughts were directed towards reducing the sufferings of people. People who used to refer to him as Chanda-Ashoka (Ashoka the fierce), now started to call him Dharma-Ashoka (Ashoka the noble). It was usual in those times for kings to spread their ideas by force, but Ashoka spread the message of Buddhism through moral persuasion.

Ashoka turned Buddhism from a local Indian tradition into a world religion. He took his message to the people through dozens of edicts carved in rocks in all the corners of the country. These edicts were in the Brahmi script, which fell out of use after Ashoka’s time, and his edicts were forgotten in India, though remembered in other countries where Buddhism had spread. A story about two of Ashoka’s pillars illustrates this.

King Firoz Shah of Delhi had these pillars transported to Delhi. He asked the scholars of his kindom to decipher them. Having no idea of what was written on the pillars, the scholars told the king that the inscription stated, ‘No one would be able to move these pillars until the later day when there is a king called Firoz Shah.’ The local population believed the pillars to be the walking sticks of Bheem, one of the five Pandavas in Mahabharat.

In the 19^th century, British scholar James Prinsep deciphered the Brahmi script and re-discovered Ashoka. After this re-discovery, Ashoka became a favourite of Indian nationalists. Ashoka’s wheel and lion capital were adopted for the national flag and national emblem.

Ashoka was perhaps the first ruler ever to establish a welfare state. He abolished the sacrificial slaughter of animals for the royal kitchen. He established hospitals for both humans and animals. Along highways, wells were dug, and banyan and mango trees were planted at every kilometre for the comfort of travellers. Ashoka built an extensive road network including the Uttarapath or Northern Route, which began in Taxila and ended 2,000kms away at Pataliputra, the Mauryan capita. The road was later remade by the Mughals and the British as the Grand Trunk Road, now called National Highway 1.

Ashoka ruled for 36 years. He created an empire that covered almost the whole of India except for a small region in India’s Southern tip. Such a huge empire was not created again in India for nearly 2,000 years till the British colonized India. Under his rule, the kingdom enjoyed peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, his empire declined very rapidly after his death as his successors could not maintain such a huge empire.

Famous writer H. G. Wells paid tribute to Ashoka in the following words:

“Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, the name of Ashoka shines and shines almost alone, a star. From the Volga to Japan, his name is still honoured. China, Tibet and even India, though it has left his doctrine, preserve the tradition of his greatness.”

Ashoka’s Architectural Legacy

* Lion capital at Sarnath

* Pillars at Firoz Shah Kotla, Delhi

* Buddha’s birthplace, Lumbini, in Nepal and Sarnath in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

* Champaran, Bihar

* Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh and Vaishali, Bihar

* Ashokan rock inscriptions in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan

Lessons to learn from King Ashoka

* Through willpower one can overcome one’s faults

* Peace is better than war

* Love and respect all forms of life on Earth

ASTRONOMY

 The birth and the death of the universe

Introduction: Our understanding of how the universe has evolved is one of the greatest achievements of modern science. Decades of experiments and theories have allowed us to know what we do today. There are many explanations for our universe --- religious, astrological and philosophical, but in science, we accept only what is tested and proven by experiments or observation. Modern telescopes have detected light from galaxies that are far away. Satellites have detected radiation left by the creation of the universe billions of years ago. So, what are the theories of creation?

Theories of creation:           

The Big Bang Theory: This theory is the most popular one and it talks about how the universe was formed by a massive explosion some 14 billion years ago. At this time, space was extremely hot and it took close to 3,00,000 years for the universe to cool down by about 3,000 degrees. This cooling down also helped in the creation of elements, as atomic nuclei could finally capture electrons to form atoms. The universe was soon filled with clouds of hydrogen and helium gas, allowing stars and galaxies to come together due to the force of gravity.

The Eternal Inflation Theory: This is an extension of the Big Bang Theory and states that the universe expanded rapidly during a small period, in a process called inflation, and then never stopped expanding! Even now, new universes are being formed.

The Oscillating Model: This model states that the universe undergoes an infinite series of creations and ends (Big Bangs and Big Crunches). Accordingly, the universe we live in could be the first of a possible series of universes or the n^th universe in the series.

DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE

The end of the universe probably won’t happen for at least the next 200 billion years. Let’s look at some theories associated with this.

The Big Crunch Theory: This theory states that at some point, the expansion of the universe will reverse and the universe will decrease in size, potentially leading to the end of the matter. This also suggests that it will lead to the creation of the universe all over again from the collapsed matter.

The Big Rip Theory: According to this theory, the universe will continue to expand till it is at its maximum point of expansion. At this point, all the stars, planets and even the tiniest of atoms will be torn apart and collapse into themselves.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO KNOW HOW THE UNIVERSE WAS CREATED?

The creation of the universe out of absolutely nothing seems to defy all the laws of physics that we know today. By investigating the centre of the universe, we might find the mysterious fifth force of nature that will fill so many gaps in physics today, including parts of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. It will completely change our understanding of the universe.

FUN FACTS:

·      * In 1992, instruments aboard the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite showed that 99.97% of the energy of the universe was released within the first year of its origin.

·       * Astronomers theorise that 96% of the matter in the universe is invisible or dark matter composed of matter that is difficult to detect. The other 4% is made up of stars, planets and galaxies that can be detected.

·      * In 1998, two teams of astronomers announced that not only is the universe expanding, but it is accelerating as well. According to the researchers, the farther a galaxy is from Earth, the faster it is moving away.

·      * Three scientists --- Saul Perlmutter of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, USA; Brian Schmidt of Australian National University; and Adam Reiss of Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science  Institute, USA --- won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

·      * The first stars probably began to form out of hydrogen when the universe was about 100 million years old. This is how our sun originated close to 4.5 billion years ago.

STORY TIME

 The Quail And The Elephant

Once, a pair of quails built their nest on a tree in a forest. The she-quail had just laid her eggs when a herd of elephants entered the grove. Afraid that her eggs would be destroyed when the elephants pulled on the branches; the quail fell at the feet of the herd leader and begged him to protect her eggs.

The kind elephant took pity on her and kept watch over her eggs while the herd fed on the leaves and fruits of the trees nearby. When it was time to leave, he cautioned her that a rogue elephant was on the loose in the forest.

“What shall I do if he comes this way?” wailed the mother quail.

“Appeal to him for mercy,” said the leader and left.

Soon the rogue elephant came along, but he paid no heed to her pleas. Pulling out her nest from the tree, he dashed it on the ground and trampled on her eggs. The distraught quail grieved for a long time and finally decided to teach him a lesson. She went to her friends, the ant, the crow and the frog and narrated her plight to them. They readily agreed to help her.

When the rogue elephant went on a rampage, the four friends put their plan into action. The crow pecked at the elephant’s eyes, gouging them. The ant quickly entered the eye sockets and laid her eggs in them. When the eggs hatched, the baby ants began biting him. Almost blinded with pain, the elephant rushed through the forest, looking for water to wash his eyes with. Meanwhile the frog stood close to a steep precipice and croaked loudly. This led the elephant to believe that there was water nearby. He hurtled over the precipice and dashed to his death.

The mother quail thanked her friends for their assistance and the animals in the forest lived peacefully thereafter.

A NEW FAD OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

 ChatGPT

Now we have a new avatar of already thriving Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the form of ChatGPT. It is an AI tool developed by a company called OpenAI. It offers conversational-style responses to the queries of the users. It remembers the whole thread of the dialogue and responds to further queries accordingly. This tool has a huge reservoir of information in its store, from which it will be able to retrieve the information required by the user. Also, by using its AI skills, it continually learns from recurring interactions with humans, storing that knowledge as trained data. It means ChatGPT will become smarter and more human-like as one continues to interact with it. In short, the experience of using this tool is similar to having a conversation with a human expert.

ChatGPT has not yet gained human capabilities, yet, it is far more efficient and quick in doing tasks than an ordinary skilled worker. Hence, it is not surprising that more than one million people were trying this software within a few days of its launching. There are hundreds of fields in which this AI tool is being used worldwide. Even students are using this to write their assignments and it is said that the teachers find it almost impossible to distinguish the text generated by ChatGPT from the text written by a student. What ChatGPT does not know is whether the information it is providing is true or not. Nor does it understand the ethical consequences and social implications of the huge data it stores and disseminates. Simply speaking, it is just a storehouse of information with continuing learning capabilities but without any self-awareness. Recently, Microsoft infused more AI power into its search engine ‘Bing’, on the lines of ChatGPT. After some time, this chat program began to respond to the users with threatening and abusive comments. Now Microsoft has restricted the use of chat to avoid such embarrassing situations. This shows the adverse effects such programs can cause on society.

Any advancement in technology to make human life more relaxing and enjoyable invariably has its negative aspect also. This becomes clear when we go through the history of humankind. However, the most tragic side of such innovations is the losing out of human intelligence to machines. As new AI software of higher capabilities is being introduced, human beings are being relegated to a primitive existence. The worth of a human being lies in using his or her intellectual power to rise to higher levels of intelligence. The tools like ChatGPT, instead, weaken those very faculties and make us slaves of the machines that we ourselves have created. Does it not remind us of the story of Bhasmasura, who having been blessed with some power by Lord Shiva, tried to kill Shiva himself through that power?

WHAT IS A PHOBIA?

 An extreme, irrational fear

A phobia is defined as an extreme, irrational fear of or aversion to something. The term originates from the Greek phobos, meaning ‘fear’. Irrational fears come in various forms. Thus, there are innumerable words to describe these different fears. Some of the more interesting phobias are listed below.

Fear of closed or confined spaces is termed claustrophobia, its opposite is agoraphobia – fear of open, public places!

Fear of mobs and crowds is ochlophobia, while fear of crossing the road is agyrophobia. Fear of noise is acousticophobia.

While fear of the dark or of night is nyctophobia or scotophobia, fear of daylight is phenogophobia.

Fear of bathing is called abluthophobia.

Neophobia is fear of anything new.

An unnatural fear of cats is termed ailurophobia or felinophobia, while fear of wild animals is agrizoophobia.

An intense fear of fire is called pyrophobia.

Radiophobia is an excessive fear of x-rays.

An abnormal fear of the sight of blood can be called haematophobia or haemophobia. Excessive fear of thieves, or of loss by theft, is termed kleptophobia.

Dystychiphobia refers to a fear of accidents, while fear of pain is algophobia. Anthropophobia is fear of meeting people or facing society, while laliophobia is fear of speaking (especially in public).

A person who is afraid of poetry can be termed ametrophobe, as this condition is known as metrophobia.

There is even a word to describe the abnormal fear of being stared at. It is ophthalmophobia!