Stargazing: Iowans mark Capt Kirk’s future birth

Riverside (Iowa): Family ties run deep in small town America, and no more than in Riverside, a town in Iowa, where residents each year toast its most beloved— and fictional son—Captain James T Kirk.

Originally played by actor William Shatner in the legendary television and film series Star Trek, Kirk’s early life will be explored in a new movie opening this week.

According to the people of Riverside, Kirk will be born here on March 22, 2228. In fact, a plaque hanging on the wall of the town’s bar even marks where he will be conceived.

“We were talking about ways to promote our community,” said Steve Miller, a Star Trek fan and former Riverside city councillor who led the effort to include the town in the series’ lore.

Miller said Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry noted in his book that Kirk’s birthplace would be a small town in Iowa, but never specified which town. After some persuasion, Miller convinced other city leaders to proclaim Riverside as Kirk’s future birthplace.

Legitimacy only came much later when Roddenberry agreed to give the members town That a certificate was of the twenty ! community of -five support years club . ‘ ago gather . Since at then a lo ’ - cal bar every March 22 to sing Happy Birthday to Captain Kirk and drink Romulan ale, a blend of blue schnapps, pineapple juice, and Sprite.

Riverside might play a small role in the new Star Trek movie. Miller said there are rumours that the town will be mentioned specifically. AFP

Residents of Riverside feel Captain Kirk of ‘Star Trek’ will be born in their town in 2228

Telescopes to peek into future

Acouple of space telescopes that are to be launched later in May will answer some of the biggest questions of the Universe. Scientists hope that the probes will answer questions such as how did we get to where we are now, and where are we likely to end up.

Each telescope is designed to probe the deepest recesses of space to unravel the origins of matter, from the earliest beginnings of the Universe some 13.7 billion years ago to the creation of the stars, galaxies and planets, the Independent reported on Monday.

One of the telescopes, called Planck, will study in unprecedented detail the ancient “fossilized” radiation left over as a relic of the Big Bang.

The analysis could help to explain how the Universe formed through a process of rapid expansion, called inflation, in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang itself.

The other telescope, called Herschel, will concentrate on the invisible, infrared radiation emitted by the star-forming regions of the galaxies in the hope of explaining how stellar objects, from stars like the Sun to planets such as Earth, can form from clouds of cosmic gas, dust and debris.

Scientists involved in the twin mission hope that the data gleaned from instruments on board each telescope will enable them to fill in the remaining mysteries of how the Universe came into existence, how it evolved and how it is likely to end — if indeed it ever will. AGENCIES

Shoe Santa gives free footwear to the barefoot

Sharmila Ganesan-Ram | TNN

Mumbai: The man sleeping outside a shop near at Kandivli station is drunk. His shirt is smelly, his hair muddy, and a hand shields his face as if to say do not disturb. Yet, there is something about this drunk that makes 21-year-old Nandan Pandya shake him awake. “Do you have slippers?’’ asks Pandya. The man’s brow furrows. Pandya ferrets out a pair of new black plastic slippers from a polythene bag and asks him to try them on. He takes the pair, fidgets with one, then holds the slippers close to his chest and salutes the ground. It’s Pandya’s cue to leave.

For the last eight, Pandya, now a final-year engineering student, has greeted many owners of unhappy feet in this way. Most are “too overwhelmed to emote’’.Every week,Pandya buys at least six or seven pairs of slippers and scans the streets for cracked heels, swollen ankles, raw soles—any evidence of prolonged barefootedness. His target audience includes garland sellers, hawkers, beggars, pavement dwellers—people who can’t afford to throw shoes at politicians no matter how much they want to.

Pandya spends Rs 200 to 300 on his goody bag, and buys only plastic slippers. “Many people want rainy shoes as they suffer from various foot diseases when they unknowingly step into puddles,’’ he says. Beggars outside Kandivli station automatically refrain from extending their palms before him. He has already paid them for life.

Pandya’s sole-searching began when he donated clothes to the son of a garland seller. Though thankful, she asked him to give her son a pair of slippers instead. “She said her son wouldn’t step out because he did not find slippers his size,’’ says Pandya, who got him a size ten pair. Soon distributing shoes became a daily ritual.

Pandya is careful to approach women only when they are in a group otherwise “people start suspecting my intentions’’. Once, he was distributing chappals to kids when a mob gathered, “some thought I was going to abduct them.’’ But this sort of hostility is something he is now immune to. Onlookers mostly stare out of curiosity, but hardly offer to help, says Pandya, whose parents were unaware of his charitable work until he recently told his mother “as I had to borrow money from her for this purpose’’.

There are times when he runs out of shoes and takes the beggar or labourer to the nearest roadside shop to buy them a pair. While travelling by train, he mostly stumbles upon middle-aged beggars, so Pandya carries “size seven or eight’’. His goody bag contain only chappals though, (older people prefer chappals). Sometimes, however, there are demands. Like the woman who asked for squeaky shoes for her one-year-old child.

As someone who has volunteered with NGOs working with underprivileged kids, Pandya is well aware that poverty might impel some of his recipients to sell his gift. Though he is careful to add warnings like “Please don’t sell these’’, it doesn’t really bother him if they do. “I don’t give because they will use the shoes, I give because they need it.’’

The foot service has changed Pandya in some ways. “I don’t shout now when the rickshawallah refuses to hand me Rs 5 balance,’’ he says. Once, when he was a student, his shoes fell into a drain and Pandya had to walk barefoot to hail an auto. “It was embarrassing,’’ recalls the young boy, who finds it hard to digest the idea of today’s protesters who willingly part with their expensive trainers.

E-plan to make FYJC admissions smoother

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: The city’s class X students may no longer need to navigate Mumbai’s slippery roads during the monsoon, umbrellas in hand, and rush from college to college to fill out admission forms.

On Monday afternoon, the state education department unveiled a brand new blueprint for online admissions to junior college before an audience of over 900 principals and teachers from city schools and colleges. The system is in the process of being developed by the Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Ltd and will be finetuned after taking into consideration the views of the general public.

Online admissions were introduced in Mumbai for the first time last year but the system developed a number of technical glitches and was on the verge of being scrapped this time. However, the government now plans to introduce online admissions in a new avatar.

Online admissions this year will be compulsory for all students in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and will be implemented all over Maharashtra subsequently if the system proves to be a success, state education minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said.

Students will have to log on to a website and fill out a single admission form in which they can enter up to 100 colleges that they wish to apply to. A large part of the admission form, including the student’s marks,will have already been filled out by the software. The government has asked the SSC, ICSE and CBSE boards for the necessary information.

Students will then have to print out the form and submit it along with the necessary documents to a designated college with a sum of Rs 125. Of this Rs 125, Rs 50 will go to the college, Rs 25 to MKCL, another Rs 25 to the board (SSC, ICSE, CBSE) for the information they will provide the state and the remainder to the office of the deputy director of education.

“We found that students ended up spending between Rs 500 and Rs 700 buying admission forms and travelling to colleges,’’ education secretary Sanjay Kumar said.

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD, ONLINE
Online admissions will be compulsory for all Class X students in the Mumbai metropolitan region this year

If the system is a success, it will be implemented across Maharashtra in coming years. The forms for online admission will cost Rs 125

Students will only have to fill out a single form online. They can choose up to 100 colleges in one form.

A printout of the form and necessary documents will have to be submitted at the nearest college.

Information from all these application forms will then be fed into the software which will draw up the merit list for each college.

Colleges to put up own lists
Once the forms have been submitted, data from these forms will be fed into the software for online admissions. The software will then draw up the merit list (general category) for the colleges.

The education department hopes that this will make the system more transparent and reduce the possibility of malpractice.

State education secretary Sanjay Kumar said the system was not the same as centralised admissions as the government would not release a single centralised merit list but allow colleges to release separate lists.

Students will be informed about the colleges they have made it to, via email or text message. The website, which will be opened 15 days before admissions begin so that students get time to practice, does not have provision for a minority quota. So minority institutions will be asked to fill out this quota in the first seven days of admissions.

All those who make it to a college through this quota will then have their names struck off the general merit list.

Responding to several questions on how students from lower income groups with no access to the internet would use this system, Vikhe Patil said, “The MKCL centres will provide the technical support.’’ The government will also release a book of guidelines as well as FAQs on online admissions. Newspaper ads and air time on cable TV will also be used to spread the word.

Govt studying system for marks normalisation
With the Bombay high court ruling against the percentile system—introduced during junior college admissions last year to “normalise’’ the marks of SSC, ICSE and CBSE students—state education secretary Sanjay Kumar iterated that percentiles would not be part of the admission process this year.

However, he was quick to add that a large number of educationists felt the need for some sort of marks normalisation.

There are two suggestions for normalisation that the government is seriously examining. One involves reservations in each institution for students of various boards, based on the proportion of students in each of the boards.

The second suggestion involves admitting students to colleges based on their marks in the five subjects.

This system will definitely save time. If I want to apply to a college that’s far away from home, I won’t have to travel all the way there. This will make the process much easier.
Nidhi Parekh | CLASS X, ARUNODAYA PUBLIC SCHOOL, THANE

If the system works, it’ll be great. It will cut out the trouble of running from pillar to post in order to buy and submit admission forms. By the time admissions begin, the monsoons will be on. The online system will make life easier.
Amar Dalal | PARENT OF A STUDENT OF MANECKJI COOPER SCHOOL, JUHU

If the system can be implemented, it will be very good for children. The process will be a lot easier. There could be a few minor problems in the first year, though. But we need to make a start somewhere. It’s high time Mumbai had a system such as this one.
Carl Laurie | PRINCIPAL, CHRIST CHURCH SCHOOL, BYCULLA

The increasing centralisation of education is a bad idea, especially while dealing which such a large and diverse student population. An attempt should be made to decentralise admissions instead. In the online system, colleges and students will simply have to accept a merit list drawn up by the software. How do we know the system is transparent?
Fr Frazer Mascaenhas, | PRINCIPAL, ST XAVIER’S COLLEGE

Only 20 years left to save green earth

Nitin Sethi | TNN

New Delhi: The world must restrict its carbon emissions to 190 giga tonnes by 2050 if it is to have a chance of escaping the catastrophic consequences of global warming.

These are the latest findings published in the scientific journal Nature. According to the findings, all earlier calculations have been set aside with the warning that the planet can withstand even less of the greenhouse gases than had been envisaged earlier. The warning has never been starker or simpler for everyone to understand.

The latest studies show that there is a 75% chance that the world can escape the danger of global average temperature rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial era if it is able to keep its carbon emissions below 190 giga tonnes (gt) over the next 41 years.

Put simply, 190 giga tonnes is our carbon budget for the period up to 2050. But unlike a financial budget, there is no room for exceeding it. A 75% chance is, in scientific terms, reasonable, and nothing to be ecstatic about—but enough to give hope.

If you think 190 gt is a huge amount of carbon to throw up in the air, read this—last year alone, the world emitted more than nine giga tonnes of carbon by burning fossil fuels.

‘West must cut emissions drastically’
New Delhi: The world emitted over nine giga tonnes of carbon by burning fossil fuels in the last year and the rate is increasing by 3% every year. We must restrict the carbon emission to save the world from illeffects global warming, say latest findings published in scientific journal Nature.

If humanity continues to burn fossil fuels and gases unhindered at the same rate, the world will have consumed the entire carbon budget available to us—190 giga tonnes—by 2029. Every single tonne of carbon after that will progressively reduce our chances of not letting temperatures increase above the 2 degree Celsius mark over the pre-industrialised era and consequently cause havoc. For those who may have forgotten the warning put out in 2007 by scientists under the UN’s panel on climate change, here it is again—if global average temperatures ever rise more than 2 degrees Celsius over the pre-industrial era, the world will see the irreversible and catastrophic impact of climate change.

Two studies published in the latest edition of Nature warn world leaders that they are failing their people, and failing miserably. Both studies use a common principle.

Both warn it’s not just the emissions at present but the total accumulated emissions since the industrial era that will determine how much time we have to avert a crisis.

The world must cut emissions faster and deeper. The carbon budget is like a cake, much of which has been eaten by the developed world. For the budget to be adhered to, industrialised countries have to lower emissions dramatically. TNN

The most expensive hobby classes ever!

Primary school demands that parents shell out Rs 40,000 a year so their children can learn simple things like art and craft, swimming

DIPTI SONAWALA

Imagine being forced to cough up Rs 40,000 a year so that your child could learn to swim and dance. That’s the exact predicament of hundreds of parents who had their children admitted to the primary section of R N Podar CBSE School at Santacruz for the next academic year.

In a circular issued last week, the school declared that all new students of standards one, two and three must enrol for one sports hobby (including skating, swimming, basketball, karate, tennis, etc) and one classroom hobby (including elocution and drama, art and craft, computer graphics, folk and western dance, etc) – and pay Rs 20,000 for each. The fees were to be paid in full by April 27, and the classes will commence from July 2009.

Parents say they had earlier asked the school to make the classes optional, but in vain. “A circular was issued to us on April 24, after granting admission, which states that one sports hobby and one classroom hobby is compulsory for students of classes one to three,” said a parent who has already paid for the classes.

“This is as good as asking for donation,” fumed another parent. “Since they cannot do that directly during admissions, they want parents to shell out money as fees towards hobby classes.”

The parents then approached the NGO Forum for Fairness in Education, and on April 27, the forum sent a letter to the school asking them to stop collecting such hefty fees.

It also suggested that the hobby classes be made optional and that a refund should be issued to those who do not wish to opt for the classes.

“But the school has not done anything towards resolving this issue,” said Jayant Jain, Forum for Fairness in Education. “Hence we will have to take legal action against the school for collecting money towards capitation fee.”

School authorities however maintain that they have done no wrong. Vice Principal Sunita George said, “Hobby classes are compulsory only for new students, that too for just one year. For existing students, it is optional. So far we have neither issued any circular nor collected fees for the same.”

In a circular issued last week (right), the primary section of R N Podar CBSE School at Santacruz, declared that all new students of Class I, II and III to enrol for one sports hobby and one classroom hobby.