11.04.2007

• ANNOUNCEMENT:
• Look at my prize winning essay on innovation in education. Please go through and let me know your comments. It won the first prize in a nationwide contest for independent bloggers on TechTribe, a web site which enables innovators to connect with each other.
• What is ‘wilfing’?
• It is a rough acronym for “What was I looking for?”
• When you suddenly lose your train of thought while searching the web and jump from one web site to another that catches your attention, what you are indulging in is called wilfing.
• While it may seem harmless, researchers warn that it can affect productivity in the workplace and relationships at home.
• Ever been by that syndrome? I have been for quite some time; it requires lot of patience, grit and determination to come out of that. This is a syndrome, which you should also guard yourself against.
• New and promised (or should I say proposed?) higher educational institutions across India
• Two IISERs (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) at Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal.
• Three IITs in AP, Bihar and Rajasthan.
• 7^th IIM at Shillong, Meghalaya.
• IIIT (Design and Manufacturing) at Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu.
• Two schools of Planning and Architecture at Vijayawada (AP) and Bhopal.
• 20 IIITs to cover all major states in India.
• Vow. What a long list?
• Can trees be a cause of global warming?
• Yes say researches; if the trees are located on heights.
• Planting new trees in snow-covered northern regions may have the counter-effect of tropical forests. While rainforests cool the planet by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing clouds that reflect sunlight, the dark canopy of Canadian, Scandinavian and Siberian forests catches sunrays that would be reflected back to space by the snow, a study said.
• In other locations, the warming from the albedo effect (sunlight absorption) either cancels or exceeds the net cooling from the other effects.
• Why is that April and May months are the preferred months for climbing mount Everest?
• Because the wind speed on the peak falls before the advent of the monsoon.
• Mount Everest was so named by the British surveyor-general of India Andrew Waugh, in 1865. Sir George Everest was his predecessor; it was named after him.