Hello, Sparky here.
Ø More of the rains this week. It’s like the last day
‘sale’ in a fair, where the sellers want to clear the stock before they head
back home. Or like a ‘clearance sale’ in a store, getting the ‘going out of
fashion’ stuff out to make space for new designs that will come in soon. Similarly,
as the monsoon retreats, the rain bearing clouds empty their stock on land as
they withdraw to the oceans making way for arrival of winter. While the clouds are
dumping their wares we are hiding away and dreaming of better and brighter
times.
Ø The winter will bring its own share of agony but right
now all we can think of is the warmth of the Sun which would be doubly welcome
because of the chill in the air. What a delicious combination like vanilla ice
cream and chocolate brownie. Weather so delicious that it makes one hungry. While
we await the end of the ‘clearance sale’ and dream of ‘lip-smacking’ winter,
it’s quiet time still with books and friends for company.
Ø The Bee-eaters have again got their homes on the river bank
washed out. I don’t know why they don’t seem to be learning any lesson at all from
the past. I approached Mrs. Ulukha, the leader of birds to discuss this matter with
her. I thought probably she would put some sense into those birds but it was me
who was being ‘thoughtless’ by meddling into affairs that don’t concern me and which
have been perfected by ‘trial and error’ over millennia. After all, what is evolution
if not ‘trial and error’?
Ø The Otters’ burrows were flooded as well during one of the
heavy spells. Many of us lent a hand while they tried to salvage their collection
of books from the deluge. We worked tirelessly for over an hour till the last of
the book was saved – soaked but saved. We carried it to the hollow where the xylophone
is ‘buried’. You will have to read the poem in the ‘Little Readers’ section’ and
to understand that. Now we spread the books on the banyan when the Sun puts in an
appearance to dry the books and take it back to the safe ‘hollow’ before the clouds
gather again.
Ø Last week while listing out the possible uses of ‘new
discoveries’ I had mentioned that these ‘new discoveries’ might just turn out
to be our savior by providing an alternate to plastic and petroleum. With
humankind realizing that the entire stock of the planet’s fossil fuel that took
eons for Mother Nature to make is almost nearing exhaustion in the couple of
years of intensive usage by them have tried and are trying to find an alternate
to the fossil fuels – if not a replaceable alternate (like solar or wind energy
appears to be) at least a ‘stop-gap solution’.
Ø One such solution is Biodiesel which is fuel derived from
plant/animal source. Many sources have been explored. Biodiesel today is being
used as a blend with fossil fuel. Though it is being used to lower pollution
caused by burning fossil, humans are nowhere near either producing enough
biodiesel or switching over completely to biodiesel to do away with the fossil
fuels and all the problems associated with it.
Also Biodiesel brings its own share of problems with it – farm lands
being used up for growing ‘biodiesel plants’ which diverts ‘limited’ land away
from production of food crops and leads to deforestation (as more land is
brought under agriculture for these crops), compatibility issues with existing
designs, its share of emissions and so on.
Ø One possible biodiesel source is Microalgae. Algae from
the marine environment which have high carbon content as well as other
properties which make it ideal for extracting biofuel from. Well, one can only
hope that if and when production of biofuel from algae goes commercial marine
ecosystem does not come to any harm.
Ø Discoveries are being made every day. Of life on Venus to
‘new animal and plant discoveries’ on Earth. Not just that, this week humans
have ‘surprised’ themselves – they have ‘discovered’ a pair of salivary glands
within themselves that hitherto they were unaware of. Not some microscopic
thing but glands that average 3.9 CMs in length.
Ø Researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute made
this discovery while studying prostate cancer patients using a new type of
scan. Their technology improves every day, if only they will look within and
let their conscience be their guide, they will soon find answers to all their
problems (and ours too) in technology.
Here are a few activities for this week. A lot of photos used this week too making up for the lack of colours in my world, at the moment.
- Here’s a photo that was clicked very close to the sea, though the sea is not visible in the photo.
Can you use that as a clue and guess what exactly is it that you are seeing in the photo.
Once having guessed that it would be easy for you to get started with finding the ‘words’ starting with the letter ‘S’.
- Analogical reasoning questions. Fill in the blanks by understanding the relation between the first 2 words and then extending the logic to the third word in the first column. Choose from options in columns 2, 3 and 4.
· Now that the migration of the birds has begun, birds are on my mind, especially as I keep meeting new birds every day. Here are a few birds that are relatively ‘popular’, see if you can identify all of them.
Some of them might look like birds you know but of a different colour or size or something else slightly different, that would be because there are many variant species of these birds.
· Animals
have different legs and feet based on what they need to do – some need to jump,
some need to run, some need to dig, some need to ‘hold on’, some need to carry
the weight of a big body – that’s the reason why there are so many different
looking legs/feet.
Here are some
legs. Can you identify who these legs belong to?
See you all next week with more news,
activities and answers to this week’s puzzles.
- Here’s a photo of a ‘staircase’. Look at this photo and identify ‘words’ that begin with the letter ‘W’. Don’t limit yourself to just what you see, widen your imagination and look for intangible things as well.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of
answers. What is exhausted is my ‘imagination’ and ‘inclination’.
o
Well
o
Water
o
Wet
o
Warmth
o
Whitewashed (the walls of the well look whitewashed)
o
Way (the steps are the way to the water)
o
Weeds
o
Wealth (a well with water is an asset)
o
Wonder (at the size of the well, at the
spiraling stairs, at how it must have been built)
o
Winding (stairs)
- Identify these plants
Little Readers’ Section
- Identify these animals and also identify who eats what amongst these animals.
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