Oxygen Vs. Akshar, World’s Most Complicated Examination, Chicken First Vs. Egg First Problem, Save Today Vs. Save Tomorrow Dilemma! What A Confusion? Not an Easy Decision for Governments! Not a Right Time for Blame Game!! Confidence, Cooperation, and Continuity: 3-C Mantra Need of the Hour!! Read this Interesting Perspective!!

Dear Friends and Students

I am writing this story with a lot of anguish. I am not definitely inspired and motivated while writing this but making an attempt. Today I was reading an article in EENADU, a vernacular Telugu NEWS paper, “It is an Emergency for Education Sector”, commented by Prof. Krishna Kumar, an Indian intellectual and academician, former Director of National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT)!! One side country is gasping for the Oxygen. Another side child remained distant with Akshar! Being a Human Being Vs. Being a Teacher, definitely, it is a Painful Experience! I am subjective to correction; I might be wrong today or wrong tomorrow. Time decides. Read my perspective!!

No doubt, Battling Corona should be the first priority- To the Government, To the Family, and To the Individual. However, Last year millions of students got cleared examinations without pass mark criteria. More or less, this year, we are doing a similar progression without exams for school children and compromised internal tests for college-going students. It is going to have a great consequence. Today there is no impact, life is normal for students, progresses for the next class! However, No-Education is like a Diabetes. Corona is like a Heart attack. While we are operating the Heart, if we don’t control Diabetes, doctors know the consequences! I don’t need to explain!

You know, as per UNESCO, 89% of the world’s student population were out of school due to Covid-19 closure. This is as of March 2020 data. As of 12 January 2021, approximately 825 million learners are affected due to school. 1.6 billion children and youngsters unable to attend physical schools/colleges. This is one-sixth of the world population!! Their learning got tainted for 2 long years! 

Today we are in April 2021. Still, there is nope! School/College closures not only affect students, teachers, and families, but it will have long term economic and societal cost- student debt, lapses in digital/online learning, food security, compromised nutrition, education dependent services, working parents have to take care of the children at home, leads to wage/job loss, research progress, delated employment opportunities, etc

It has been estimated that the rate of reading ability gain in kindergarten children in the U.S slows down by 66% during school closures compared to active Schooling-International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. I am sure every country is having similar or more % (slowdown of reading ability). The other issues found in all age students were, lost passion for specific subjects, the inability to focus on crucial information, and tainted academic integrity all over (Wikipedia)

Now the question remains the same: Oxygen First, Akshar Next Strategy or Oxygen Primary, Akshar First Strategy!! My vote goes to the latter!! If a youth is NOT in Education, Employment, or Training (NEET)/ Not in school / vocational training and also unemployed for more than 2 years due to pandemic, can you imagine a world with 2+ billion population missing education? It becomes a chaotic and deep societal crisis- leads to in-fighting, malnutrition, economic loss, use of narcotics, unwanted video consumption, depression, delayed marriages, and unwanted marriages, what not!! Nearsightedness (myopia) is a common vision condition in which you can see objects near to you clearly, but objects farther away are blurry. We should not get into myopic condition!!

Governments should not be pressured now. We need to cooperate with them and provide all our citizen support.

Let the intellectual community think and decide what is good for society. We should not increase peer pressure and negative transmission. This is a true testing time for everyone. We need to take care of health, take all precautions, and pray to God for early recovery of the education sector before we witness a decade of damage!!

Think Big, Think Broad, while Be Safe, Be Healthy

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

Source Inspiration:

https://www.eenadu.net/mukyamshalu/mainnews/general/2701/121085280 

PDF, The revolution in Desktop Publishing! Photoshop, an Innovation in Graphics Editing!! Courtesy: Adobe Right? Charles ''Chuck'' Geschke, The founder of Adobe Inc and Developer of PDF died! The world remembers Geschke, whenever we save a word file to a PDF format!! Read this Interesting Story of Geschke!!

Dear Friends and Students

Today I was requesting one of my colleagues to send me a document. Immediately I received a PDF version!! However, a few years back If you ask someone to send, they generally send you a word file right? PDF garnered so much importance! Isn’t it?

Why PDF is Powerful?

It is reliable. Any amount of data such as paragraphs, images, vector graphics, tablets, etc., it will always display that data in the exact same way no matter where you are viewing it (Desktop, mobile, tablet, or any other means). You can export to others easily, you can secure the document with a password (for e.g. when an Income Tax department sends you an ITR confirmation, it sends you in PDF with the password right?). You can reduce the size by lowering quality, version-independent (docx or pptx cannot be seen in advanced version or early versions of Office right?). The PDF file format welcomes all kinds of content with the same love and affection and having high professional appeal (pdfexpert.com).

Why I am talking more about PDF, Adobe Inc, Photoshop? Yes, there is a reason. Charles ''Chuck'' Geschke, The Co-founder of Adobe Inc., who helped to develop Portable Document Format technology, or PDFs, died at age 81, in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Los Altos. It is a huge loss to the Adobe community! One of the amazing software product architects!! We miss him.

Adobe Inc has an Indian connection as well. Its CEO is Shantanu Narayen, who studied in Hyderabad Public School, Hyderabad, BTech ECE from Osmania University, Hyderabad, M.S from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

The first product of Adobe was Adobe PostScript, an innovative technology that provided a radical new way to print text and images on paper. Geschke earned a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University, began working at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where he met John Warnock (co-founder). The men left the company in 1982 to found Adobe, developing software together!!

In 1992, Geschke survived a kidnapping (Mercury News)!!

Charles Matthew Geschke was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Did MS in mathematics in 1963, from Xavier University, taught mathematics at John Carroll University from 1963 to 1968 and completed his PhD studies in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was a co-author of 1975 book “The Design of an Optimizing Compiler”. In 1978, Geschke started the Imaging Sciences Laboratory at PARC, in XEROX and conducted research in the areas of graphics, optics, and image processing (Wikipedia)

Geschke and Warnock founded Adobe in Warnock's garage in 1982. In 2020, it crossed $12,806 million revenue!!! Outstanding Success!!

Geschke, We remember you whenever we use PDFs, the powerful software product!!

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

Source Inspiration:https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2021/04/133_307347.html 

France set to ban short Domestic Flights, Replacing with Trains! Excellent Decision to cut Carbon Emissions! The plane emits 77 times more CO2 per passenger than the train! Fighting climate change is vital for a sustainable economy! Read this Interesting Perspective!!

Dear Friends and Students

Indian Express published an intriguing article on Climate change decisions! France to introduce stricter rules to cut down on emissions! No more domestic flights if you can cover that distance in less than 2.5 hours by train!! In fact last year Austrian Airlines replaced a flight route between the capital Vienna and Salzburg with a more frequent train service. Attempts are on the way to cut emissions. 

As part of the push mechanism, Austria is trying to impose an additional ticket fee of €30 for short-haul flights below 350 kilometers! This kind of method disallows and discourages short plane travels. A similar approach is needed across the globe to cut emissions.

There was an interesting study made by Stefan Gössling, “a professor at Sweden’s Linnaeus University, had found that frequent fliers representing just 1% of the world’s population accounted for more than half of total aviation emissions from passenger air travel in 2018”.

Even in India, Social and Economic preferences made precedence over the last few years, but time has arrived to give priority to Environmental preferences. If you compare between Luxury Vs. Life, Life gets higher importance, else coming generations cannot access clean water and air. Corona has already taught this lesson globally.

Carbon Footprint (CF) and Water Footprint (WF) should be the key drivers of the future. Every product or service should display CF and WF along with product features, design, composition, and comfort. A separate price tag is needed for CF and WF!

Dear Students

Did you calculate your daily Carbon Footprint? Your food, Your Transportation, Your Home, Your Offset (plantation programs) decide your footprint. For e.g. “A Vegetarian’s footprint is about two-thirds of the average and almost half that of a meat lover. For a Vegan, it is even lower. Your vehicle is another significant part of your carbon footprint, accounting for approximately 30 percent of the average American's carbon footprint, at 5.16 tons per year. The third-largest factor in your carbon footprint is utilities. The amount of carbon dioxide emissions depends on the type of utility and on the number of people in your household” Source: savingnature.com/offset-your-carbon-footprint-carbon-calculator/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwgtWDBhDZARIsADEKwgMDUVOFKRFZbFm8XszxJZ-dLfixJS9zHoayrWcTvXiGdmIm_GFEA18aAjLBEALw_wcB

Planting trees is proven to reverse climate change. 

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

Source Inspiration:

https://indianexpress.com/article/world/france-all-set-to-ban-short-domestic-flights-to-cut-down-on-emissions-7271565/

EV Battery, But Electricity Not Needed for Charging? Surprising? AI-Air Battery Going to Give Promise! AI, means not Artificial Intelligence, it is Aluminium-Air Combo! Phinergy and Israel Start-up Made this! But Surprisingly, this technology is trusted & partnered by Indian State Run Indian Oil Corporation!! Kudos to IOC’s Bold Decision and First Mover Advantage in the World!! Read this Interesting Perspective!!

Dear Friends and Students

Times of India published an interesting article with the title- “An electric vehicle battery that doesn’t need electricity for charging”. Initially, I was hesitant to read as we have seen many such attempts in the past and all got failed. Then one of the statements made me go deeper: “Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Israeli clean energy start-up Phinergy that are working on commercializing Aluminium-Air(AI-Air) batteries for EVs in India”.

This battery uses Aluminium alloy as an anode, water as electrolyte and, Air as a cathode. Air from atmosphere connects to Air cathode, Oxygen separated from Air, connects with water, and generate (OH)- ions. At the anode, iconic oxygen reacts with the Aluminium positive ions. It leads to the formation of Aluminium Trioxide: AI(OH)3. In the process, electrons are released which is your electricity!!

Then I started searching, about start-up which is manufacturing? You can visit the Phinergy website (phinergy.com/). They are working on a mission: Metal-Air technology enables to store, transport, and discharge clean energy! They are a promising aluminum-air system with a lifespan of thousands of working hours!!

I checked their NEWS section of the website!! Surprisingly, it is mentioned as “17/2/20 Phinergy raises $30m from Indian Oil Corporation”!! What an amazing strategy by Govt. Run IOC!! Indian Oil partners with Israel’s Phinergy to manufacture metal-air batteries. It was tested on Maruthi Suzuki, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra 3 Wheelers!!

It got the highest energy density (energy stored for a given mass/volume) with 8kwh per kg as compared to 1-1.5kwh per kg in Lithium batteries. Currently, the best lithium battery offers 100-150 KM per charge, whereas this technology offers 4 times with ½ density of lithium. Aluminum Hydroxide solution can be recycled and get your Aluminium back!! India is having abundant AI!! The only catch in this technology is low power density. During starting the vehicle, you still need a reduced size Li-battery to start the vehicle.

Beyond technology, I am happy the Govt. company invested in the promising start-up! The entire news section of Israel start-up is all with Indian Oil partnership!! Great step IOC!! We are going places and tapping the global technology!!

We are rising!!

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

Source Inspiration: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/auto/news/an-ev-battery-that-doesnt-need-electricity-for-charging/articleshow/81902959.cms?utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=TOIMobile

Banned Mobile Games Addiction! How does it Penetrate Inspite of Govt. Restrictions? Impact on Kids Education, Youth Career Opportunities, Health and Beyond? Any Means to Educate Beyond Legal Ban? Read this Interesting Perspective!!

Dear Friends and Students

Today I am reading an interesting & intriguing article written by Madhav Chanchani in TheCaptable. Mobile game addiction is not just a Social Menace but it has a significant impact on Loneliness, Social Anxiety, and Depression. Indian Govt. banned PUBG last year, but still, we have 14.8 million people playing active!! Of course, it is lower than last year's lockdown number (33-34 million during June 2020) but this number is also alarming!! What is the core fundamental issue? How do we combat this menace? Before this, let’s see the little history of video games!

The first commercial video games are released in 1970, soon, in the 1980s this obsession is known as “Space Invaders obsession' and 'Computer Catatonia’. In the 1990s, home gaming consoles gain popularity. For the first time, it was found that a video game produces Dopamine (chemical messenger or “feel-good” hormone) in the human brain!! In 2000, online and mobile games emerged. From here, the addiction levels are started increasing. In 2013, it is proved that addiction is a psychological disorder. Today in few cases, it is becoming a social issue as well.

It is also found that each player spends on average 60-80 minutes per day. In spite of the ban on few games like PUBG, people are going through alternative routes (VPN, Using TapTap, PUBG APK) to download and play!! People are downloading non-English versions to avoid restrictions. Just to give you the perspective, during March 2020, PUBG had 30 million active users from India alone and 3.71 billion minutes were spent on this game. India is the second-largest market after China! Now you can imagine the kind of gravity of the problem. During Sep 2020, numbers got increased to 34 million. This is the time Govt. of India announced the ban.

Now many teenagers are going for Free Fire (attracted to the more colorful avatars, (18-19 million daily active users in India)), the ultimate survival shooter game available on mobile. It is generating $10-12 million a month!!

Dear Parent

What does it mean to you? It means you as a parent, are spending that much amount on your kids entertainment!! Govt. cannot do much and prevent as children started using alternative VPNs to download them. We require moral policing!

Today we don’t have a grandparents network to prevent these deviations. Grandparents do a lot of moral policing and bring better awareness than parents as kids tend to be closer to grandparents. Before we lose the ground, joint family systems seem to be one good option!! If it is not feasible, you should find an alternative ground.

Raise!

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

Source Inspiration: https://the-captable.com/2021/04/ban-pubg-14-million-users-krafton-tencent-freefire-china-gaming-1/

Today when you ask Alexa (Amazon’s Voice Assistant), Gives Instant Advice! Now Computer Can Understand Human Language! Can You Imagine the Challenge of Developing First Few Components of Compiler (Making Computer Understand Software Program Written by Human), way back 1963? Yes, it is all done by Dr. Aho (79) and Dr. Ullman (78) of Princeton University! Won 2020 A.M. Turing Award, deemed to be equivalent of the “Nobel Prize” of computing!! Read this Inspiring News!!

Dear Friends and Students

Today morning I received a WhatsApp message from Prof. V.Valli Kumari (Andhra University, Dept of CSE) regarding Turing Award for Dr.Aho and Dr. Ullman. I could not able to leave the message as general WhatsApp reading stock. The reason is simple, but Read this issue!

A couple of days back, my daughter asked for clarification. She is a beginner in Programming: Learnt Python first and now Learning C (ideally it should be another way round)! She is working on a problem where some data to be stored and sorted (in C programming, storing place is called Array). Just to give you the perspective, the gift offered by Dr.Aho and Dr. Ullman to the computing world, please read the following code (don’t worry even if you don’t understand programming language, I am sure you can manage!! Trust Me…Please don’t stop reading from now).

Python (to sort elements in an Array- In Python, Array is called as List, similar to English Language List of Elements)

# Python Code to declare a List of Floating point numbers

decimalnumber = [2.01, 2.00, 3.67, 3.28, 1.68]

 # Python Code to Sort list of Floating point numbers

decimalnumber.sort()

So Simple!! Numbers are sorted in the list: [1.68, 2.00, 2.01, 3.28, 3.67]

if I have to achieve the same sorting in C Programming, see the complexity of the code

for (i = 0; i < n; ++i)

 {

   for (j = i + 1; j < n; ++j)

   {

     if (decimalnumber [i] > decimalnumber [j])

     {

       a = decimalnumber[i];

       decimalnumber[i] = decimalnumber[j];

       decimalnumber[j] = a;

      }

    }

 }

Python is achieving the sorting with 1 single function (sort()), whereas I need to write 6-8 lines of code in C.

The industry is inviting more and more user-friendly, high level and high productive languages like Python. It is all achieved through powerful compilers and interpreters so that Machines can understand human understanding programming language. This foundation is done by Dr.Aho and Dr. Ullman. Now I am sure you would appreciate their work and why they were chosen for Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of Computing, which comes with a $1 million prize!!

Aho and Ullman began working together at Bell Labs in 1967. Even when Ullman began a career in academia in 1969 while Dr.Aho remained at Bell Labs. Later, Dr.Aho joined the department of computer science at Columbia in 1995 (www.eurekalert.org). They together wrote influential textbooks: “The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms” (1974) and “Principles of Compiler Design” (1977). Now, Dr. Ullman is a professor emeritus at Stanford University, also instrumental in developing the languages and concepts that drive databases.

Congratulations Dr. Ullman and Dr.Aho!! We all are enjoying the fruits of your Compiler Work!!

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

Source Inspiration: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/technology/turing-award-aho-ullman.html