Well-chosen stories give children good role models and increase their empathy for others. Simplistic moral precepts in simple language; each story comes with a caricature type illustration to retain interest of young readers. The moral at the end of the story summaries precisely what the child is supposed to learn! These stories educate children about a family, tradition, ethos, social mores or share cultural insight or a combination of all these. Thoughtful stories not only provide enjoyment, they also shape and influence lives of children.
Many of today's complex scientific applications now require a vast amount of computational power. General purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs) enable researchers in a variety of fields to benefit from the computational power of all the cores available inside graphics cards.Understand the Benefits of Using GPUs for Many Scientific Applications
An interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistoric hunting to modern energy production. The biosphere—the Earth's thin layer of life—dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens. In Harvesting the Biosphere, Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests—from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production—and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being. In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change.
Ayurveda, which literally means "the science or knowledge of life”, is the traditional medical system of India. Its origin dates back an estimated 5-10,000 years, and it is widely considered to be the oldest form of health care in the world. Ayurveda is based on the premise that disease is the natural end result of living out of harmony with our environment. 'Natural' is an important word because Ayurveda understands that symptoms of disease are the body's normal way of communicating disharmony. With this understanding of disease, Ayurveda's approach to healing becomes obvious: to reestablish harmony between a person and environment. Once reestablished, the need for the body to communicate disharmony diminishes, symptoms dissipate, and healing is said to have occurred. Through various chapters, the author Dr.Murli Manohar gives out the Ayurvedic concepts of health & treatment, diagnosis by Ayurveda, role of diet and season in health & disease, symptoms & causes, prevention & treatment, nutrition & diet, herbal therapies & nature cure for common and chronic ailments.
Geethu, a young graphic designer, has to live a hard time in her workplace due to the constant abuse from a colleague named Sam. She wonders why Sam was bad to her alone. Later, she discovers that he has a narcissistic personality. At about the same time, the paranormal influence of narcissism also becomes a topic of discussion when Geethu finds an old letter from the colonial period in a library. She is soon joined by her near and dear ones, including her childhood sweetheart, Gopu, in the fight against Sam. Mirage of Imperfections deals with both psychological (authentic) and paranormal (fantasy) dimensions of narcissism – it conveys the message that people who are really good at heart can survive narcissistic abuse and become successful in life, no matter how hard the ordeal is.
This volume makes available for the first time in English the work of a significant Indian nationalist author, Pandey Bechan Sharma, better known in India as “Ugra,” meaning “extreme.” His book Chocolate, a 1927 collection of eight stories, was the first work of Hindi fiction to focus on male same-sex relations, and its publication sparked India’s first public debates about homosexuality. Many prominent figures, including Gandhi, weighed in on the debates, which lasted into the 1950s. This edition, translated and with an introduction by Ruth Vanita, includes the full text of Chocolate along with an excerpt from Ugra’s novel Letters of Some Beautiful Ones (also published in 1927). In her introduction, Vanita situates Ugra and his writings in relation to Indian nationalist struggles and Hindi literary movements and feuds, and she analyzes the controversies that surrounded Chocolate. Those outraged by its titillating portrayal of homosexuality labeled the collection obscene. On the other side, although no one explicitly defended homosexuality in public, some justified Ugra’s work by arguing that it was the artist’s job to educate through provocation. The stories depict male homoeroticism in quotidian situations: a man brings a lover to his disapproving friend’s house; a good-looking young man becomes the object of desire at his school. The love never ends well, but the depictions are not always unsympathetic. Although Ugra claimed that the stories were aimed at suppressing homosexuality by exposing it, Vanita highlights the ambivalence of his characterizations. Cosmopolitan, educated, and hedonistic, the Hindu and Muslim men he portrayed quote Hindi and Urdu poetry to express their love, and they justify same-sex desire by drawing on literature, philosophy, and world history. Vanita’s introduction includes anecdotal evidence that Chocolate was enthusiastically received by India’s homosexual communities.
