Science and Technology - Briefs

GEOLOGY Earth’s magnetic powers

Net bonding

On November 10 more than 70 websites in the UK defied police rulings to issue guidance to student protesters on avoiding arrest.

News Snippets

>> The annual Titirlandia Puppet Festival in the Spanish capital, Madrid, concluded on August 29 with a day long show to raise money for schools in the Bolivian mining province of Potosi.

From the blurbs

BACKWATERS OF DEVELOPMENT, SIX DEPRIVED STATES OF INDIA, edited by Shovan Ray, OUP, Rs 750

Letters

The great telecom hoax I can’t understand why the telecom company, Aircel, has ventured into such a campaign and what it aims to achieve from this (‘1,411 tigers, and unanswered questions’, March 16-31, 2010). Initially, I had thought that the company is trying to lure customers by introducing schemes such as diverting part of the revenue earned from Aircel calls into saving tigers.

One country, one science syllabus

Senior secondary school students across India will now study the same maths and science syllabus. On February 16, the Council of Boards of School Education decided to adopt a common curriculum for physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics in all senior schools beginning March 2011.

Study time

Teenagers tempted by computer games when they should be studying for the national college entrance exam in June won’t have anywhere to escape in the central Chinese city of Linchuan, where Internet cafes have closed.

Degree of commerce

Mining giant Vedanta’s proposed university in Orissa will not only be one of the few in the world with an outlay of Rs 15,000 crore and spread across 2,400 hectares, it will also sit on land rich in thorium deposits.

Leaves and stone maths

A document of the education department in the Australian state of Queen-sland suggests the use of rocks and leaves to bring an aboriginal perspective to maths lessons. The maths plan, available online, also recommends exploring patterns and symbols as well as using timelines that include the history of Australia’s aboriginals.

From the blurbs

Growth and Human Development in the Northeast edited by Purusottam Nayak, OUP, Rs 750 The Northeasts paradox is that it is a region with a high human development index and poor economic growth. This multi-disciplinary study compares the regions human development record with the countrys other states. They emphasize that the mismatch between the development index and economic growth is at the root of social tensions in the northeast.