Yet another Diwali has gone past. But what about the air pollution, the accidents and the garbage left behind?
Over the last several years, Deepavali has become synonymous with air pollution. Air quality monitoring stations across the country routinely report poor air quality with dangerous levels of particulate matter after the celebrations.
The primary culprits behind this problem are fireworks such as rockets, phuljhadis, anars, chakris and ladis that have become an essential part of the Deepavali celebrations. Fireworks contain a cocktail of chemicals and when they’re burnt, these chemicals combust and release various pollutants and particulate matter into the air.
Since Deepavali usually falls at the onset of winter, the misty air becomes a magnet for pollutants and particulate matter, leading to thick smog. Exposure to this smoke-filled air often causes a burning sensation in the eyes, rashes on the skin, shortness of breath and a host of respiratory illnesses as pollution enters the body and clogs the airways.
Many places in Delhi reported a slight improvement in air quality because of the fireworks ban and several other cities plan to impose a similar ban next Deepavali. However, the issue of air pollution needs wide-ranging, long-term steps. Banning fireworks is only a short-term solution.
Can you help identify where in the world these pictures were taken? Try it out now…
I went on a trip around the world recently and took many photographs but I can’t recall which picture was taken in which city. Can you help me remember where I took these pictures?
World Snow Leopard Day was celebrated on 23 October, an occasion to focus on the conservation of this wonderful species…
Tracking the grey ghost of the Himalayas, or ‘Shan’ as they call the snow leopard in Ladakh, is one of the most memorable journeys for wildlife enthusiasts. Let’s take a look…
Half of this owl is hidden! Unravel it by drawing the hidden part. The grid will help you…
Test your general knowledge with this interesting crossword. How many of the clues can you solve?
Are you ready to test your general knowledge? Try out the crossword below!
Watch this video to learn how to make this self tumbling matchbox. You don’t even need a lot of materials!
Hey there, bookworm! How well do you know these popular war novels? Take this quiz to find out…
Image Sources : Wikimedia Commons & Flickr.com | Copyright of the images belong to the original owners. They have been used for educational/editorial purposes only.
Discover ‘Scratch’, start coding, and become a creator of technology! Read on to find out how…
Parents these days worry too much about the amount of time kids spend on devices. The number of entertainment APPs, videos and games for kids are increasingly taking over kids’ attention.
Mitch Resnick from MIT Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten in his book “Cultivating creativity through Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play” says “rather than minimizing screen time, parents and teachers should try to maximize creative time”. The Scratch coding platform, created by Resnick, aims to do exactly that.
Scratch, for kids of ages 8 to 16, allows you to program and create your own animation, stories and games through simple drag and drop blocks.
The open-source, free to download software, has a step-by-step beginner’s guide that allows children to create programs right from the get go. They have made it one step easier by providing an offline version – so you don’t necessarily need to be connected to the internet to program!
The example program below shows you how simple but effective thinking can enable a powerful creative output! Try this at home and unleash your creativity with Scratch.
Game output!
Once you start coding, you become creators of technology, not just mere users!
Try your hand at this number puzzle. Use the clues to correctly find the number from the grid…
The answer to this puzzle is one number from this grid. All of the eight clues given below point to that number. However, one can spot the number with just four of these clues.
The eight clues are:
The number is greater than 9.
The number is not a multiple of 10.
The number is a multiple of 7.
The number is odd.
The number is not a multiple of 11.
The number is less than 200.
Its ones digit is larger than its tens digit.
Its tens digit is odd.
If you would like to mull over activity in a piece of paper, click here to download the worksheet.
Can you spot the shapes hidden in this grid? Give it a shot and find them all!
Bring out those magnifying glasses and get down to business! This word-search puzzle is all about shapes. There are 10 shapes hidden in this grid. The words can be horizontal, vertical, diagonal or even upside down!
Move the slider from right to left to unravel the solution.
If you would like to mull over activity in a piece of paper, click here to download the worksheet.