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What is the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Abatement’?

Meaning: A noun, abatement suggests reprieve or the act of reducing something, or making something unpleasant less intense. It may be used to refer to a reduction in penalties, a rebate or a respite in war.

Origin: The term comes from Anglo-Norman French, from Old French abatre meaning “fell, put an end to”. It entered English in the mid-14th Century.

Usage: The long war shows no sign of abatement.

 With no abatement in the bursting of firecrackers on Diwali night, the poor dogs in the neighbourhood kept howling.

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What is the meaning, origin and usage of word ‘Blatant’?

Meaning: This adjective refers to something very obvious and intentional, when it is a bad thing.

Origin: Coined in 1596 by English poet Edmund Spenser in “The Faerie Queen”. In the poem, the blatant beast is a thousand-tongued monster representing slander. Primarily alliterative, it is perhaps by Latin blatire, meaning “to babble”. It entered general use by 1650s as “noisy in an offensive and vulgar way”, and the sense of “obvious, glaringly conspicuous” is from 1889.

Usage: She turned her back on him in blatant disregard.

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What is The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum about?

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum is an American classic that will never grow old. Fans of all ages adore Dorothy’s fantastical adventures down the yellow brick road. Let’s see what makes this story relevant today.

About the author

Lyman Frank Baum was born on May 15, 1856, in Chittenango, New York, to a wealthy family. Named after one of his uncles, Lyman was the seventh of nine children. However, he never liked his first name and often when by his middle name Frank. He was a rainbow chaser, who went from one profession to another and had almost failed at everything until he started writing children’s books at the age of 40.

With his flair for the theatrical, Braum tapped into his imagination to breathe life into the magical land of Oz. Upon the publication of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (the first in the 14-book series) at the turn of the 19th Century, Baum became the first best-selling children’s book author in America.

Unlike other books for children, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written in a pleasingly informal tone; with characters who were defined by their actions, and showcased morality more subtextually. The New York Times review of the book said that children would be “pleased with dashes of colour and something new in the place of the old, familiar, and winged fairies of Grimm and Anderson”.

THE MYSTERY OF THE SHOES

According to historian Henry Littlefield, Dorothy’s silver shoes in Baum’s original story symbolised the American farmers’ efforts to raise silver to gold’s standard to put more money into circulation and make it easier for them to borrow. However, the 1939 screen adaptation of the story changed Dorothy’s shoes to ruby red to take greater advantage of its colour cinematography, which was still rare at the time.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The story follows a Kansas farm girl named Dorothy who ends up in the magical Land of Oz after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their home by a tornado. To return home, she must follow the yellow brick road towards the Emerald City and find the wonderful wizard of Oz. On her way, she comes across a straw man, a tin man, and a cowardly lion. And her new acquaintances agree to accompany her, in the hopes that the wizard can give the straw man a brain, the tin man a heart, and the lion, some courage.

What makes it classic?

A story of self-reliance Dorothy and her companions journey to the Emerald City is motivated by the need to fulfil the wishes they pin their happiness on. However, the curious thing is that throughout the story the strawman (who supposedly doesn’t have a brain) comes up with good ideas the tin man who doesn’t have a heart showcases a great wealth of emotions, and the cowardly lion consistently overcomes every challenge that comes along the way.

This means they already have the things they hoped for but just don’t realise it until they meet the wizard. Their journey is one of self-acceptance and self-realisation that inspires us as readers to take a look within and realise our potential.

Holding a mirror to the society

Dorothy is curious, adventurous, and confident. Her character exemplifies how Baum’s perception of gender was different from the people of his time. Her figuring out how to solve a problem while the men around her are dissembling, critics suggest is nothing short of revolutionary. Dorothy sets the stage for little girls to go out of the house, explore the world, and go on adventures as boys do.

Our protagonist’s desire to explore the world is in direct conflict with the social expectation to accept her life as it is back home. Dorothy’s guilt and fear of not fitting into the socially accepted mould of a devoted daughter is the author’s way of highlighting how women have been conditioned to think that craving independence or doing anything outside the domestic domain is selfish and unruly.

More than 100 years after its publication, 70 years after its debut on the big screen, and 13 book sequels later, Oz endures because every generation reinterprets the story and aligns it with their experiences, which has led to American literary critics calling it their national fairy tale.

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What kind of writer is Annie Ernaux?

Using social and personal history, Annie Ernaux explores emotions such as shame, guilt, and grief, and blends them to create literary marvels. The French writer was recently awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature.

She is one of the greatest chronicler of our times, weaving the social and personal history seamlessly and offering a space for collective memories and histories in literature..

Intimate, reflective, and brutally honest, Annie Ernaux’s literary works are like personal histories as well as a collective history of her times.

The 82-year-old French writer explores emotions such as shame, guilt, and grief unabashedly. Ernaux has been writing for the past 50 years. Through her writings, she shares the collective experiences and memories of her generation. She has been awarded the Nobel prize for Literature recently.

Moving away from its tradition of awarding the prestigious Nobel prize in literature to novelists, playwrights and poets, this time, the Swedish Academy has chosen to acknowledge a writer of non-fiction, something the Academy has done only a few times. The merit of a memoirist has been acknowledged thus.

How it started

It all started in 1974 with ‘Cleaned Out’, Emmaus first book. It was a fictionalised documentation about a personal trauma she had to go through. Over the course of her writings, she has tried to draw on her life experiences, and those of others around her.

Early years

Born in 1940 in Lillebonne Normandy, Ernaux and her parents moved to Yvetot where they ran a cafe. Her painful encounter with the shame of her working-class background during that period would have a profound influence on her writing years later.

Ernaux as a teacher

Ernaux taught literature at secondary school for many years. Later, she retired from teaching and focussed on writing. The Years’ published in 2008 is an outstanding work which captures her life and times over a span of six decades. The English translation of this was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize International.

Writings

In one of her interviews with the Guardian, she had said that for years she thought that through writing she could ‘avenge her whole people. few people in her family received formal education. Hence she strongly believed that she could highlight the social injustices through her writing.

Her bevy of literary works revolved around intimacy, social inequality, education as a change and so on. Her very personal experiences such as grieving, passion, classed shame, illness are also touched upon.

An ethnographer

She is often considered an ethnographer or sociologist, because her writings push the boundaries of literature, with the memoirs not just reflecting the self, but documenting the social realm from a neutral perspective as well.

Ernaux has published three autobiographical novels viz. ‘Cleaned Out’, ‘What they say Goes’, and ‘The Frozen Woman’. She has brought in a new narrative form in ‘life writing’.

For instance, in the auto-socio-biographical texts, she explores her life whilst documenting the social milieu. I remain in Darkness’ and ‘Getting Lost’ are diary extracts and in ‘Diaries of the Outside, she explores her interaction with others in public spaces such as the metro or supermarket.

In ‘Where I belong’ and ‘Return to Yvetot she has woven the narrative around the important places she came across in her life.

The feminist in her feels that the women’s revolution and the fight for equal rights are not over yet.

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What does the brightly colored skin of some frogs signal to their predators?

Have you ever wondered about the vibrant colours of some frogs? Did you know that their colouring is a warning to predators that they are foul-tasting and poisonous? Read on to know more fascinating facts about these amphibians.

It is small enough to fit into the palm of one’s hand, but it packs a powerful punch. A single golden poison dart frog, measuring just 6 on long, contains sufficient poison to kill 10 grown humans! The frog species derives its name from the centuries-old practice of the Emberá and Chocó, indigenous peoples of Colombia and Panama, who tipped their blowgun darts with its poison while hunting.

The poison is called a batrachotoxin (some beetles and birds also have it). The word batrachos is Greek for frog’. Even minute amounts lead to paralysis and death.

Poisonous species

There are only four species of frogs that are so poisonous that even a tiny drop is enough to kill small mammals (monkeys, for example) and birds. Most of them produce poison only potent enough to kill insects-flies, crickets, ants, termites. and beetles which are their main prey.

The frogs average around 2.5 cm in length. They are found in the wild only in the tropical rainforests of South and Central America.

The frogs sport gaudy colours and patterns, usually in combination with black-orange, red, blue, yellow, purple, pink, green, and even silver! Their colouring is a warning to predators that they are foul-tasting and poisonous. Once a predator has tried eating one and survived, it avoids similar-looking frogs.

The fire-bellied snake of the Amazon forests is resistant to golden poison frog toxin and is its only predator.

The little frogs usually live in the leaf litter on the forest floor, near streams and ponds, but a few species also live high up in the canopy and may never come down. Unlike most frog species that are nocturnal, poison frogs are active during the day when their colours can be best seen.

Caring for the young

Females lay from one to 30 eggs at a time in a dark, moist place such as the base of a big leaf, the hollow of a tree trunk or crook of a branch. Both parents are involved in the care of the eggs. When the eggs hatch, the parents carry the tadpoles on their backs and deposit them in water. Blue poison frog tadpoles eat their own siblings, so the parents must find a different water body for each individual hatchling!

The female feeds the tadpoles with unfertilized eggs that contain small amounts of poison, so that even the tadpoles are protected from predation.

Researchers are studying poison frogs to see if their toxins can be used in medicines, mainly painkillers. The poison from the phantasmal poison frog has been found to be 200 times more effective than morphine and without its side-effects!

Fact File

  • Wild poison frogs ingest the poison from the different bugs they eat and store it in their skin. Frogs bred in captivity lose their toxicity.
  • In the past decade, hundreds of frogs have died of a fungus that grows on their skin, preventing them from absorbing oxygen and water.
  • The population of the more brilliantly coloured poison frogs has plummeted because they are popular as pets.

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What are the specialities of three-toed sloths?

The three-toed sloths are considered the slowest land mammals. Their slow pace is rather famous and, on an average, it is 0.24 km/h. They are close to the size of a large cat or a small dog with their head and body having a combined length of 45 cm and a weight of 3.5-4.5 kg.

Sloths are designed for a life on the treetops. Most of their life is spent hanging from branches with a powerful grip, which is provided by their long claws. This capacity enables them to sleep in the trees-sometimes as long as 15-20 hours a day.

Sloths give birth while hanging from the trees. Their babies are often seen clinging to their mothers, and they travel by hanging onto their mothers for the first nine months of their lives. On land, their weak hind legs provide no power and their long claws become an obstacle. If they are caught on land, the three-toed sloths have no chance to escape the predators, such as big cats, and can only try to defend themselves by clawing and biting.

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What is Metaverse?

The latest buzzword in internet circles is ‘Metaverse’! It is making headlines, especially with Facebook even rebranding itself as Meta! It is expected to create a major impact in the digital world.

What is Metaverse?

Put simply, the metaverse is a 3D (three-dimensional) version of the internet. It can be considered a place parallel to the physical world, where you spend your digital life. In the metaverse, you and others in it will have an avatar. You will interact with each other through avatars. It is a shared virtual space, which is interactive and has an immersive experience.

Let’s look at some examples. You may have used the metaverse in some form or the other while playing video games. A basic form of the metaverse has been adopted in the online shooter game Fortnite, where gamers have their own personal avatars to engage with the avatars of other players.

In the stimulation video game Second Life, users experience virtual reality in which their avatars can do everything they can in real life, including eating, sleeping, shopping, etc.

The term ‘metaverse’, first cropped up in the science fiction novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson in 1992. In the book, the author referred to the metaverse as an all-encompassing digital world that exists parallel to the real world.

Tools needed

You will need a VR (Virtual Reality) headset, a controller and a powerful laptop to enter the metaverse. You will also need digital currency to live in the metaverse.

Future impact

The metaverse will make gaming more realistic and increase the user’s immersive experience. Travelling around the world without leaving your room will become possible. Healthcare and education are expected to gain the most from the metaverse. The metaverse has the potential to radically transform the digital and global economy.

Currently, there is no single metaverse but there are many. All of them are, however, still under development.

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Which is the slowest bird at level flight?

Both the American woodcock and Eurasian woodcock have been recorded travelling at 8 km/h speed in level flight. Their brilliant camouflage techniques have earned them the title ‘timberdoodles.’ American woodcocks blend into woodland environments to the point of becoming invisible as they camouflage so perfectly with the leaf litter on the forest floor.

Their bodies are stocky and plump, and they have short wings. Their body structure helps them to navigate the woodland and meadows, which are their natural habitats. Their physical design implies that fast-paced and graceful flight is impossible for them.

However, American wood-cocks increase their pace during migration and speeds between 26 and 45 km/h have been recorded. Even during this time, they usually fly at relatively low altitudes.

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What’s celebrated on 16th October?

World Food Day is celebrated annually on 16 October to promote global awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and to highlight the need to ensure healthy diets for all. World Food Day (October 16) just passed us by. The day focusses on aspects such as hunger, food accessibility, and eating what is healthy for both you as an individual and the planet as a whole. Here are a few simple ways in which your food habits can be kind to Earth.

Understand the food system

The food system collectively refers to the processes involved -from food production, packaging, and transportation to consumption. In simple terms, it is the journey of how the food reaches you. But it is also much more than that- it focusses on aspects such as food cost, affordability, sustainability, waste, its impact on the environment and the people, etc. Understanding food systems help you make sensible choices. For instance, when you trace the origin of an imported food item, you may learn that it has travelled from another continent, wrapped in plastic, perhaps losing its nutrition along the way, and costing exponentially more than what it cost in its place of origin.

Eat local and seasonal foods

Anything produced locally and during the right season has more nutrition and flavour because the time between production and consumption is less when compared to something that has been brought from far or harvested long ago. Seasonal foods also offer health benefits. Many vegetables and fruits-such as watermelon that grow in summer have high water content just perfect to keep us hydrated. Similarly, some of the fruits and vegetables – such as oranges and lemons are rich in vitamins and offer protection against viral infections such as cold that can happen during winter.

Decrease waste

Right from purchasing to consumption, we have several opportunities to eliminate or at least decrease waste. For instance, buying only the food item that we need rather than go in for impulse buying, buying the required quantity, storing the item carefully, and using the exact amount we require. At home and outside, it is good to have small portions on our plates. One can go in for a second helping after completing the first portion rather than load up the plate with a lot. Also, just because a fruit or vegetable looks misshapen, it does not mean it is rotten and must be discarded. They will certainly pass the nutrition test! Remember to bring back your excess food from restaurants in your own containers, and use the left over later.

Sustainable eating

Sustainable eating habits cannot happen overnight. Talk to your family members, pick one day every week when the food you consume is planet-friendly and all meals are prepared at home from scratch. The ways to ensure these are by going in for local and seasonal food, produce that require less water and are grown using eco-friendly methods, using diverse items from fruits and vegetables to a variety of grains, etc. In addition, vegetable and fruit peels can be utilised for making compost. Once these become easy to follow, gradually every day will turn into ‘Sustainable Eating day!

Grow your own food

It has been proved that processed food can lead to a range of health issues from obesity to cancer. The more you prepare your own food, the better it is for your health. One way of knowing what you eat is by growing your own organic food at home. With a little thought and effort you can raise anything from cilantro, ginger, and chillies to okra, and pumpkin. Use kitchen waste water-such as ones used to wash rice and lentils- to water these plants. Such steps also help you connect with nature, and become aware of ways in which you can lead a sustainable life.

WORLD FOOD DAY FACTS

  • The World Food Day commemorates the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
  • While FAO was established in 1945, World Food Day was set up in 1979.
  • Two years after that, it introduced a theme. There has been a theme every year since then. The theme for 2022 is “Leave NO ONE behind”.
  • The United Nations states that enough food is being produced for everyone in the world. The hunger and poverty that happens is largely due to the lack of access.

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