This month has certainly been a month of tragedies hasn't it? After the death of Diana the Princess of Wales, another great lady passed away. Mother Teresa who dedicated her life to God and the poor. She was 87 years old when she passed away. She sacrificed many things in her life inorder to help others and because of her kind and caring nature, others too decided to follow her and dedicate their lives to serve people.
Mother Teresa brought happiness and joy to a lot of people who were sad and depressed. It's not very often that we come across caring, loving, unselfish people like her. Very often it's easy to think only of oneself and go our own way but it takes someone with a loving heart to think of someone else. So do your best to live your life in a way that will bring joy to others and put a smile on the face of a stranger.
Until next week
Aunty Sunshine
Why does body need water? 60% of the human body is water. If you could squeeze out a human being like squeezing a cloth, you will obtain 11 gallons of water. This water, which is not like ordinary water because of the substances it contains, is necessary to preserve life. About a gallon of it is in the blood vessels and is circulated by the heart.
This vital water bathes all the cells of the body like a constant stream. They generate heat through the body.
So if you take in no water during a day you consume about a quarter of water from the solid foods you eat. Even when you eat friuts, vegetables bread and meat, you are getting water because they are 30-90% water. In addition the average person takes in about two quarters of water as fluids.
What is education? To a professor it's a gem, a psychologist it's a cure My father said it's the foundation of life, but to the writer it is criticism. So then I asked a boy what he thought about education and he was very angry and said that education is an incurable headache.
Grandmothers, Grandmothers, Grandmothers,
How funny they are
They've forgotten the old days and have
decided to be as modernized as we are!
They go to the gym
Every once a week
And, do the stretches and the pulls
And make sure they have a balanced diet only four spoons fulls
The fifties and sixties still wear the minnies
Which is designed for the teens
They do not need glasses or walking sticks
I have got nothing to mention more or less
but gradmas are hard to guess.
My home town is Kandy, which is a beautiful city in Sri Lanka, with many attractive places. Kandy is known as the Hill Captial of Sri Lanka as it is the most important city in the up country.
There are many aspects you can describe about Kandy. But first of all I would like to mention some important and fascinating places around Kandy, which I like most in my home town and that I'm proud of. The temple of the Tooth Relic is a very important place you find in Kandy town. It is known as the Dalada Maligawa among Sri Lankans and it's a great source of attraction to foreigners and most Sri Lankans. The Maligawa is a temple which was built by an ancient king who ruled the kingdom of Kandy.
Another fascinating place you find in Kandy is the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. I think it's an ideal place for people who are interested in beautiful flowers and plants. In Kandy there are some temples where you find ancient paintings of Kandyans as well.
The Kandy town is not very big as Colombo but yet there are many shops where you can go shopping and many hotels and restaurants where you can get delicious food and drinks. In Kandy there are many renowned schools such as Mahamaya, Trinity, and Kingswood.
In Kandy most of the people are Sinhalese and there are also Muslims, Tamils and Burghers. Though most of the Kandyans are Buddhists there are also people who follow Christanity, Islam and Hinduism.
There are doctors, lawyers, engineers and also farmers in the villages in Kandy. The crops grown in Kandy are coconut, paddy, tea, vegetables, fruits and spices such as cloves and peppers.
I like the weather in Kandy. The temperature is about 26°c and it's not very hot. But during hot months the temperature rises upto 30°c. We get rains in the months of May to September and December to February. Anyone will love to stay in Kandy because of this good weather.
The people of Kandy are kind and hospitable and I like my home town because of all these lovely features. I am proud to be a Kandyan.
Many people think that the famous Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders of the world. Although it is not, it is very beautiful and like the Mausoleum in Turkey, was built as a tomb. In this case, the tomb was built by a heartbroken Emperor when his beautiful young wife died.
The Taj Mahal, which is in Agra, India, is a tomb built of white marble and is world famous for its beauty. Although it took twenty years to complete and cost millions of rupees, it is what Shah Jehan the 17th century Moghul Emperor wanted. It was constructed as an act of love when his wife Mumtaz Mahal died.
Dr. Upping and Dr. Downing never even spoke to each other.
And all because Dr. Downing, who took good care of everybody's teeth, claimed that no one should ever eat lollipops.
While Dr. Upping, who took good care of everybody's every thing except teeth, thought the world of them.
'Nothing's so cheering as a lollipop!' he always said, offering one to each patient at the end of a visit.
The boys and girls certainly agreed with him.
But when Dr. Downing heard them unwrapping cellophane on the way downstairs, and then saw them skipping down the street eating their lollipops, he was furious.
'Dr. Upping,' he shouted up the speaking tube at last. ' This lollipop business has got to stop!"
That made Dr. Upping furious, too.
He zipped down the stairs as if he were on an escalator, knocked furiously on Dr. Downing's door, and shouted, 'Let's talk reasonably about lollipops!"
'Lollipops,' fumed Dr. Downing, 'are bad for peoples teeth.'
'Now look here!' Dr. Upping replied. 'Lollipops may not be good for people's teeth, but they do make people happy. And happy people are healthy. And healthy people keep their teeth healthy by brushing them after meals and after lollipops'
Then, purely from habit, Dr. Upping held out a lollipop, and said, 'Care for one?' Purely from surprise, Dr. Downing took it, and popped it into his mouth.
It happened to be red currant, which tasted so good that it made Dr. Downing's eyes begin to twinkle.
'You know, Dr. Upping,' he said after a bit. 'I believe you're right. A lollipop may well be a good thing now and then.'
He put out his hand, and Dr. Upping shook it heartily.
And then, as it was nearly time for office hours, Dr. Upping went happily upstairs, and Dr. Downing humming away, went back into his own office.
What are ultra-sounds?
The human ear can perceive sound waves form 30 to 30,0()0 vibrations per second. In recent years, scientists have tried to discover if some living beings are able to hear sounds higher than this, and they have come to the conclusion that a number of animals including walruses, dogs and bats can hear what are called ultrasounds. These are pitched so high that we are unable to pick them up. Since bats cannot see very well, they give out high squeaks, which will then reverberate from any solid object, so that the bat can tell where it is going.
'We know that the speed of sound is 340 metres per second. This is a speed which no animal or bird could ever reach, but rockets and jet aircraft which can go faster than this have been known for a long time. 340 metres per second is the same as just 1,000 km per hour. When an aircraft reaches this speed we often hear a loud noise - the supersonic 'bang' which rattles our windows. When this happens the aircraft is said to have passed through the sound barrier.
What equipment is used in weather-forecasting?
The maximal and minimal thermometer is used to take the highest and lowest temperatures of the day. It is shaded from direct sun by a screen called a Stevenson's Screen. The rain-gauge measures the amount of precipitation that has fallen, and the barograph continually measures the air pressure. It works by making a constant record with a pen on a chart. An anometer tests wind-speeds.
What is cancer?
Cancer is what happens when the normal cells faster than usual, take an odd shape, and stop their part of the body from doing its work.
If the cancer lump is found early enough, it can sometimes be removed by surgical operation or killed by treatment with X-rays or gamma rays. But if this is not done soon, stray cells break off from the cancerous part and float off in the blood to start Cancer can start in almost any part of the body the lungs, the kidneys, the stomach, the bones, the blood and even the skin. No one really knows why cancer starts. But ideas are becoming clearer about what makes people likely to get cancer, and doctors are keen to stop people doing things - like smoking cigarettes - which they think may encourage the disease.
At
first, the airman who saw the grey bundle on the tarmac at Williamtown
RAAF base near Newcastle NSW, thought it was a pile of rags. But as he
got closer, the bundle moved. It was a tiny koala. Its eyes were closed
and its legs, hunched up by the frail body, seemed paralysed.
Within an hour, the baby was in the care of June Welsh, 66, to become one of hundreds of cubs she and her fellowcarer, Jill Taylor, 62, have raised or nursed back to health.
June and Jill's work is now so well-known in the Port Stephens district of New South Wales, Australia where they live, that they're called "the angels in gumboots".
When June first held this latest tiny injured cub, she almost despaired. She knew it was very ill and would take all her care, so there could be only one name for her tiny charge - Precious.
Day and night, for weeks, June nursed Precious. Eventually, the tiny creature could walk again but June knew something still was not right.
Then it was discovered that Precious was blind - but she will be able to live out her life in safety in June's backyard .
Sadly, most koala stories from the Port Stephens area do not have such happy endings.
The district is home to the last large colony of koalas in NSW, but the animals' fate hangs in the balance as they fight overwhelming odds.
Nine hundred hectares of forest have been lost to sandmining and, in 1994, bushfires devastated the colony. With so much habitat lost, the animals often wander on the ground, becoming easy prey for domestic and feral dogs, which have killed more than 300.
Koala carers are urging the local council to take action against the dogs and their owners, and often weep with frustration as they tell of releasing koalas after months of care only to have them killed within hours.
Other koalas are killed on the roads, and some are dying of a mysterious wasting disease, which causes them to curl up and stop eating.
But as the koala death rate climbs, women in the Port Stephens area have rushed to help June and Jill, turning their homes into koala hospitals.
Caring
for sick or baby koalas takes patience and effort. "You have to spend
hours with them, pick their leaves, wash their bottoms, clean their cages,
feed them cereal and give them a walk," Jill says. 'Sometimes a koala
stays in care for months. '
Now local veterinarian Rod Starr and officials of the Hunter Koala Preservation Society are desperately trying to establish a koala hospital at Port Stephens. The hospital is needed to treat sick and injured animals, and for disease research. Koala lovers are lobbying the NSW Government for a land grant for the facility.
Meanwhile, for one koala, life is sweet. Precious has not only learnt to walk, but also loves dancing.
Each morning, she acts as matron to the sick koalas. When The Australian Women's Weekly visited, also in care were a furry bundle called Jemma and a newly arrived 'patient". June swears Precious checks their progress
The youngster may have to live out her life in perpetual darkness but unlike Port Stephens' wild koalas, her future is at least secure.
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