Amrita Samskriti

Summer of Blogging – Fifth Round

samskriti108 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:03:42 +0000

Hi bloggers!

For this round you have to publish three blog articles. Each post will have a choice of two topics. Chose anyone you like and do the same for all three articles. Each article will get you 50 points each if you submit it within time. That’s a maximum total of 150 points.

First Article

You must have all heard about Dr A P J Abdul Kalam’s Vision : 2020 for India. The planning commission after being inspired Dr Kalam’s vision came out with its own India Vision : 2020 document in 2002. Suppose you are the Chairman/Chairwoman of the Planning commission, what would your recommendations be? What would be the salient points of your Vision 2020 for India 11 years down the line? How would you make India a superpower and solve all it’s major problems like poverty, hunger, terrorism etc ?

Write about your favorite story/article from Dr Kalam’s Billion beats and why you liked it. You can get the pdf copies of the various issues here .

You may also suggest a story to submit to billion beats.

To know more about billion beats visit http://www.efytimes.com/efytimes/fullnews.asp?edid=23089

Second Article

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. This annual conference brings together the most brilliant and creative minds in the world together for several days in Monterey, California. Topics that are talked about range from science & technology to politics and philosophy. Write about your favorite TED video , why you liked it what you learned from it. TED videos are available for free download and are released under the creative commons licence .

Kiran Bedi is one of the most famous police officers and women in India. Her social activism has brought out enormous change in how we view the Police and the Government.You may write about her life, her work or how she has inspired you in some way.

Some resources on Kiran Bedi -

http://www.kiranbedi.com/

http://www.yesmadamsir.com/

Third Article

Factory farming is one of the most inhuman aspects of our present day mass consumerist society. Animals are reared and killed as if they are assembly blocks for machines. Research into this rising trend and blog about it. You may include statistics, videos etc.

We live in a world that is slowly drifting towards a bleak future in which the ocean levels rise, the rivers dry up, people die of hunger by the millions and more. What can one individual possibly do to help in avoiding this future? Especially youth like you who are going to inherit this world and reap the seeds sown by the older generation’s mistakes.

Find info on the India Youth Climate Network .

Learn about it’s aims, join and participate in it.

Do you think this can make a difference ? You can also try out other organizations combating climate change. You may also consider calculating your carbon foot print and put it in your blog.

Submission

The link to your blog post should be emailed to samskriti108@gmail.com

Format of the email :

Subject – Fifth Round

Content -

Name: Your name

Roll Number: Your roll number

URLs to the articles on your blog

Example -

Subject: Fifth Round

Name: Panini

Roll: AM108CS108

URL1: http://mythoughts.wordpress.com/2009/05/mychosentopic1.html

URL1: http://mythoughts.wordpress.com/2009/05/mychosentopic2.html

URL1: http://mythoughts.wordpress.com/2009/05/mychosentopic3.html

Points

1. 50 points each for mailing us the links on or before 27th June’09 .

2. 40 points each if you mail the links on or before 30th June’09.

3. 30 points each, anytime after 1st July’09.

Samskriti Team : Please cite your references. And let your words come from your heart.

Namah Sivayah and Happy Blogging!

Summer of Blogging – Fourth Round

samskriti108 — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:16:43 +0000

Hi Amritapuri Bloggers!!

The fourth round is up and we have a surprise for you! This time around you will have a choice of 3 topics from which you may write on any one you prefer.

A billion souls and an Olympic gold

One gold for one billion. India’s proudest moment at the Beijing Olympics also showed one her most shameful statistics. Sports commentators in India and the world over often pondered over the reasons for our dismal performance. Many reasons are cited : poverty, malnutrition, genetics and even plain lack of talent. The answer eludes us even as Jamaica, another country mired in poverty manages to get 2 gold medals for every million of its people and China with a comparable population to ours, gets 51 gold medals. In almost every per capita medal statistics India rests peacefully at the bottom.

What do you think is the reason behind this? Do you think there is a way to bring a difference to this? Are there lessons we can learn from other countries?

Eve Teasing

The leering eye, the unwanted remark, the howl and whistle, eve teasing come in many forms. Many a woman suffer silently from the daily indignation in the streets, buses, sidewalks etc. This is unfortunately on the rise in India. Many of us have experienced it or at least know someone close to us who has experienced it. The majority of us tolerate it choosing to ignore the perpetrators as harmless road side romeos or even go as low as to blame the girl/woman for dressing or acting provocatively.

What are your opinions on this? Do you think there is a practical way to solve this growing menace?

I, inspired

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

Patanjali

Inspiration can come anywhere at any time any place. Write about a person, film, story, event, book, character or any other thing that has inspired you to do something.

For example when the young Pandava prince Arjuna was having dinner a gust of wind blew out the oil lamp that lit the room. But due to force of habit he continued to eat. Then suddenly a thought came that if he can eat in the dark then he could also shoot with his bow in the dark ! He immediately went and started practicing in the dark. (You can read more about it from the Mahabaratha)

Submission

The link to your blog post should be emailed to samskriti108@gmail.com

Format of the email :

Subject – Fourth Round

Content –

Name: Your name

Roll Number: Your roll number

URL to the article on your blog

Example -

Subject: Fourth Round

Name: Ashtavakra

Roll: AM108CS108

URL: http://mythoughts.wordpress.com/2009/05/mychosentopic.html

Points

1. 50 points for mailing us the link on or before 16th June’09 .

2. 40 points if you mail the link on or before 19th June’09.

3. 30 points, anytime after 19th June’09.

Samskriti Team : These are points that you automatically get for submitting the blog posts. Your contest posts will be evaluated qualitatively later by the judges.

Namah Sivayah and Happy Blogging!

Summer of Blogging – Third Round

samskriti108 — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:11:26 +0000

Hi bloggers!

Hope you are all working on your blog posts for the first week topics.

Meanwhile we are going to give out your third task!

Smoking Kills

As all of you know, smoking is one of the biggest killers in the world causing lung cancer, heart attacks and other pulmonary diseases.

These are some sad and shocking statistics available regarding smoking :

- About a third of the male adult global population smokes.

- Worldwide, between 80,000 and 100,000 kids start smoking every day.

- Every eight seconds, someone dies from tobacco use. Around five million people around the world die of smoking every year

- About 15 billion cigarettes are sold daily – or 10 million every minute.

- Among young teens (aged 13 to 15), about one in five smokes worldwide.

: Logo of the World No Tobacco Day

Today [31st May] is very significant for the anti-smoking effort worldwide as it has been declared as the World No Tobacco Day by the WHO.

Your task for this round is to blog about your thoughts regarding this. It could be about its effects on the individual or society, possible solutions, personal experiences etc.

Submission

The link to your blog post should be emailed to samskriti@amritapuri.amrita.edu or samskriti108@gmail.com

Format of the email :

Subject – Third Round

Content –
Name: Your name
Roll Number: Your roll number
URL to the article on your blog (about Smoking)

Example -

Subject: Third Round
Name: Kamal Krishnan
Roll: AM105CS078
URL: http://mythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/smokingkills.html

Points

1. 50 points for mailing us the links before 7^thJune 09.

2. 40 points if you mail before 10^th June 09.

3. 30 points, anytime after 10^th June 09.

Samskriti Team : These are points that you automatically get for submitting the blog posts. Your contest posts will be evaluated qualitatively later by the judges.

Namah Sivayah and Happy Blogging!

Summer of Blogging – Second Round

samskriti108 — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:31:56 +0000

Hi Amritapuri bloggers!

It is nice to see that so many of you have joined us for a great summer of blogging

The topics for the first week are the following two videos :

Video 1: Lead India campaign

Read about the Lead India Campaign here :

http://www.lead.timesofindia.com/

http://www.indiapoised.com/anthem.htm.

There are several such videos and websites about the lead india campaign on the Internet.

You are required to
a) Embed your favourite Lead India Campaign video on your blog and along with that
b) Write an article and publish it on your blog. (You are free to choose the title but it MUST BE related to the Lead India Campaign, may be your thoughts, comments or your opinion etc)

Video 2: Chicken a la Carte

Original Link : http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/1081/Chicken-a-la-Carte

Write your comments about this short film by Ferdinand Dimadura. It could be your opinion about it, your thoughts, what it invoked in you, if it inspired you to do something, if it changed your view etc. You could see if there are other videos that talk about the same theme and link it on your blog.

Submission

The links to your blog articles (two posts, one for each of the video) should be emailed to samskriti@amritapuri.amrita.edu or samskriti108@gmail.com (You may publish more articles on your blog but only TWO articles should be submitted for evaluation, one for each of the videos above ).

Format of the email :

Subject : Second Round

Content :
Name: Your name
Roll Number: Your roll number
URL1 to the article on your blog (about Lead India)
URL2 to the article on your blog (about Chicken-a-la-Carte)

Example :

Subject: Second Round
Name: Kamal Krishnan
Roll: AM105CS078
URL1: http://mythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/leadIndia.html
URL2: http://mythoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/chicken.html

Points

1. 100 points for mailing us the links before 4th June 09.

2. 80 points if you mail before 7^th June 09.

3. 60 points, anytime after June 7^th.

Samskriti Team : These are points that you automatically get for submitting the blog posts. Your contest posts will be evaluated qualitatively later by the judges.

Namah Sivayah and Happy Blogging!

Amrita Summer of Blogging Contest

samskriti108 — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:32:19 +0000

Amrita University at Amritapuri is hosting its first ever blogging contest this summer vacation! All Amritapuri campus students have the opportunity to earn some cool prizes and recognition by taking part in it.

These days blogging is turning out to be of major interest to employers as a strong indicator in resumes that sets you apart from others, as blogs showcases your original viewpoints, your technical knowledge & writing skills.

Visit this site to know more about the benefits of blogging – http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/archive/2008/01/25/should-i-blog.aspx.

And also read about this young blogger Avinash Kaushik who made a lot of money after his blog was turned into a book! – http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/05/benefits-of-blogging-a-practitioners-perspective.html

The details of the competition is given here at the official competition site – http://amritapuri.amrita.edu/summerofblogging/

Starting off is very simple – Just create a blog in wordpress.com,blogger.com and mail your college id and other details specified in the site above

There is no entry fees nor any last date for registration.

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