Mar 2011 - Michigan South Asian

Michigan South Asian MARCH 2011 Page 6
Indian Inventor Claims To Have
London, Feb 14
An Indian inventor, A.K.
Vishwanath, has claimed that
he has made a flying car with
the help of India’’s first small
car, Maruti.
Made out of a seemingly
ordinary 800cc Maruti car, it
has rotor blades affixed to the
roof with extended wheelarches
creating a “vacuum section”,
and has been one of the star
Made ‘Flying Car’
attractions at the Aero India
2011 air show in Bangalore.
Maruti, built in the 1980s by
Suzuki, and has formed the
basis of inventor Vishwanath’’s
dream. The 52-year-old has
spent 16 years working on the
“flying Maruti”, and claims it
has vertical lift-off and he has
tested a scale version tested in
a wind tunnel, reports the Daily
Mail.
North South Foundation – Encouraging
Excellence In Education
By Srinivas Gudeti
May last week, Indian American kid champion for the last three
years, Samir Mishra, Kavya Shivashankar, Anamkika Veeramani.
These name are most familiar to South Asian Americans. Common
things among these, all three were Scripss Speling bee champions
from 2008 to 2010 respectively but also they got basics and exposure
of spelling bee contests from North South Foundation. NSF
kids got top positions in Scripps spelling bee, National geography
bee and Math Counts over so many years.
North South Foundation was started in 1989 by Dr Ratnam chitturi
to promote academic excellence among Indian American youth and
also help needy and meritorious students in India by giving scholarships.
North South Foundation is volunteer driven non-profit organization
with zero overhead costs.
Foundation raises money for the scholarships through registration
fees of educational contests. There are 16 chapters in India for
North South Foundation to seek and process the applications from
the poor and merit students who are applying for colleges. Amount
of $250 scholarship per year is given to the qualified applicants to
complete their education. Past recipients of college scholarships in
India and now helping the foundation in USA is a big testimony of
its good work.
North South Foundation has got about 80 chapters in USA and five
in Michigan. To promote learning and excellence among Indian
American youth, regional educational contests are conducted during
March to April over three weekends in the entire country. Spelling
bee, Math, Vocabulary, Geography, Science, Public speaking
and essay writing are the contests conducted in Junior, Intermediate
and Senior categories.
Based on national cut off score, top 100 kids in each contest are
being invited for National finals usually conducted in August, September.
National finals are held in a selected city every year. This
year national finals will be conducted in San Jose. It is planned to
host 2012 national finals in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
In regional contests, all the participants are appreciated with ribbons
and medals on the stage to keep their self esteem and for their
efforts of learning. The foundation emphasizes and promotes the
joy of learning and competing on one’s own abilities to excel with
hard work. For Spelling and vocabulary bee contests, preparation
of the given 1000 words itself is an education and learning process
for the participants.
(Continued On Page 7)
So far, he has garnered 40
patents, and told reporters his
inspiration came from many
sources, including the flying
ability of bees. Other engineers
are also working on the project.
He told reporters that the car
is powered initially by an
electrical generator, after which
its engine pumps out so-called
‘’energy flows’’ which provide
lift-off and cruising.
The car was developed by
Vishwanath’’s company,
B’’Lorean, named after his
home of Bangalore and the
winged DeLorean sports car of
the 1980s, famously used as a
time machine in Hollywood’’
flick ‘Back To The Future’
series of films.
How Women Fend Off
Washington, Feb 16
Domestic Violence
A woman’’s arsenal of defences
for resisting violence critically
depends on her position within
the family and community, according
to a new study.
“Women’’s resistance is often
conceptualised only as exit,
which is problematic,” said
study author Stephanie Paterson,
a professor in the Concordia
University Department of
Political Science and member
of the Centre for Research in
Human Development.
“We know that violence increases
upon separation. Focusing on
exit obscures the experiences of
women who are unwilling and/
or unable to leave,” she added.
Contrary to popular belief, the
new study found that wealth
was not a guaranteed escape
from an abusive relationship.
It’’s just one of many factors
that can help a woman resist
violence.
‘’Moby-Dick’’ Discovered
London, Feb 12: Marine archaeologists have discovered a 19thcentury
shipwrecked whaling ship ‘Two Brothers’ — which went
down in 1823 – from the Hawaiian waters. Slammed into coral
reef about 600 miles northwest of Honolulu, the vessel was skippered
by Captain George Pollard Jr.
Two years earlier, Pollard commanded another ship that was
rammed by a whale and sank in the South Pacific. Many know
that as the inspiration for Herman Melville’’s writing the 1851
novel ‘’Moby Dick’’. Iron and ceramic scraps from the Nantucket
whaling ship ‘Two Brothers’ were located in shallow waters
nearly 600 miles from Honolulu in the remote chain of islands and
atolls that make up the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, reports the
Telegraph. According to expedition leader Kelly Gleason, a marine
archeologist, the area protected by the U.S. government as
the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, was key in
helping to preserve the site.
The discovery was unveiled on Friday by researchers from the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which
led the initial 2008 expedition to the wreck and subsequent explorations
of the site during the past two years. This is the first discovery
of a sunken whaler from Nantucket, Massachusetts, birthplace
of a U.S. whaling industry that played a key role in America’’s
economic and political expansion into the Pacific, according to
NOAA.
Those factors can be tangible,
such as access to a caring personal
network. They can be intangible,
such as her partner’’s
perception of her resources, and
his perception of her role within
the family.
If a partner perceives a woman
as being in a strong position to
resist, he’’s more likely to reconsider
being violent towards
her.
Paterson’’s study examines the
different options faced by battered
women – from placating
an abuser to threatening to exit
– and how these options can influence
subsequent violence.
The notion that women have
some bargaining power in cases
of domestic abuse forces society
to reconsider the dynamics
of violence and expands the options
for victims of such abuse.
For women’’s negotiation tactics
to be effective, however,
much has to change in society
at both the household and public
policy levels.
“Not only must we provide
women with adequate material
resources, but we must also address
and challenge the origins
of authority within families,”
said Paterson.
“Enabling resistance is not
about making women accountable,
but rather challenging the
state to create systems in which
effective resistance is possible.
Only then will violence against
women cease,” she added.
The study is published in the
journal Review of Radical Political
Economics.