SAFE DRINKING WATER

By Nosherwan Khalil Khan, a member of the Rotary Club of Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan

Earlier this month, Rotary members from Pakistan and India joined together to provide clean drinking water to two government-run schools in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

After researching locations, my club was joined by members of the Rotary Club of Quilon West End, Kerala, India, in our project “Safe Drinking Water for Every Child.” We installed 65-liter electric water coolers and water purification systems at the girls elementary school at Shoukat Saddar and Islamia High School No. 4. Neither school had access to safe drinking water before our project, completed on 14 May.

We our extremely thankful to the president and board of directors of the Quilon West End Rotary Club for their support. Through Rotary, we our bridging borders and giving girls a chance at a better future. Every child deserves  access to education without having to worry about getting sick from the water.

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BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

A 60-year-old Dutch man received a brain implant to cure his obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suddenly became a fanatical Johnny Cash fan. The patient, said his doctors, “kept listening simply and solely to Johnny Cash.”

THE REAL SECRET OF LONG LIFE

Having a sense of purpose may add years to your life—and the benefit can be realized throughout adulthood. That’s the conclusion of a long-term study that tracked the physical and mental health of more than 6,100 Americans aged 20 to 75. Previous research has shown purposefulness to be one of the strongest predictors of longevity, but this is the first time its impact on mortality has been isolated from other influences. At the outset, participants’ sense of purpose was assessed according to their response to statements such as “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them.” They also answered questions about their emotional state and the quality of their relationships. Over the 14-year study period, 569 participants (roughly 9 percent of the group) died, and those subjects had all scored lower than their counterparts when it came to purposefulness. The findings held even after controlling for factors such as positive outlook, suggesting that purpose itself drives longevity. “Finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve,” Carleton University psychology professor Patrick Hill tells BBC​.com, “can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose.”

YOUR NEXT HOUSE

Montecito, Calif.: Bamboo and palm trees surround this three-bedroom stone-and-glass contemporary house. Built in 1999, the home features glass tiles, slate floors, Noguchi lanterns, and rooms that open onto redwood decks. The outdoors includes gardens with a spa and a path to the beach. $6,975,000.

SAND ILLUSIONS

BRIDGE CLIMB BREAK RECORD

During Friday's world record-breaking Sydney Harbour bridge climb at the 2014 Rotary International Convention, Rotary members raised enough money to protect 240,000 kids from polio. The massive turnout eclipsed Oprah Winfrey's world-record climb in 2011 when she summited the bridge alongside 315 of her most ardent fans.

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 31

1433		Sigismund is crowned emperor of Rome.
1678		The Godiva procession, commemorating Lady Godiva's legendary ride while naked, becomes part of the Coventry Fair.
1862		At the Battle of Fair Oaks, Union General George B. McClellan defeats Confederates outside of Richmond.
1879		New York's Madison Square Garden opens its doors for the first time.
1889		Johnstown, Pennsylvania is destroyed by a massive flood.
1900		U.S. troops arrive in Peking to help put down the Boxer Rebellion.
1902		The Boer War ends with the Treaty of Vereeniging.
1909		The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) holds its first conference.
1913		The 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for direct election of senators, is ratified.
1915		A German zeppelin makes an air raid on London.
1916		British and German fleets fight in the Battle of Jutland.
1928		The first flight over the Pacific takes off from Oakland.
1941		An armistice is arranged between the British and the Iraqis.
1955		The Supreme Court orders that states must end racial segregation "with all deliberate speed."
1962		Adolf Eichmann, the former SS commander, is hanged near Tel Aviv, Israel.
1969		John Lennon and Yoko Ono record "Give Peace a Chance."
1974		Israel and Syria sign an agreement on the Golan Heights.
1979		Zimbabwe proclaims its independence.
1988		President Ronald Reagan arrives in Moscow, the first American president to do so in 14 years.

"If you are immune to boredom, there is nothing you cannot accomplish."-David Foster Wallace

A BIT OF PRE-MEETING PREP WORK

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THE KING IS DETHRONED

Cash is king no more. Hard currency is disappearing from Americans’ wallets. Roughly eight in 10 people say they carry less than $50 on a regular basis, while nearly half say they carry less than $20.
The Washington Post

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A DIFFERENT SORT OF COOKBOOK

A woman with a black apron is stirring tomatoes into a pan of vegetables in Bursa, Turkey. Visually impaired, she is being helped by an assistant, who is a spouse of a Turkish Rotary member.

Elsewhere in the kitchen, other cooks and Rotary spouses are preparing meatballs, slicing and peeling eggplants, and measuring out cookie dough. At a table in an adjacent dining area, a man is reading a recipe from a Braille cookbook.

The cookbook, "Good Smells From the Kitchen," has enabled many members of the Library of Turkey for the Visually Disabled to enter the kitchen with new confidence. (click below to read more)

VINTAGE ROTARIAN

HEAD THAT-A-WAY PARTNER

I WANT TO SEE THIS IN ACTION

An Iowa State University professor has developed a virtual-reality headset for chickens that will fool factory-farmed hens into thinking they’re free-range. The gadget uses a special headset that lets caged chickens pad around a virtual farmyard, pecking at virtual bugs. “I did a lot of work to get the technology right,” said inventor Austin Stewart. He admits that the device’s $40,000-per-chicken price tag might scare off many farmers, but notes that the cost would be offset by losing fewer birds to stress. “You’d be harvesting a significantly higher number of chickens,” he said.

THE NEXT BIG THING?

Combining nanotechnology and 3-D printing, scientists are now able to create mechanical devices that mimic the functions of human organs, said Steve Dent in Engadget​.com. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego,  revealed a new liver-like device that can remove dangerous toxins from the blood, a potential boon for victims of “animal stings, bacterial infections, and other toxic horrors.” Nanoparticles have already been found to help neutralize toxins in the blood, but ingesting them can cause secondary infections. To solve this problem, scientists 3-D–printed a hydrogel matrix to house nanoparticles. Used outside the body like a dialysis machine, the device acts as a faux liver, cleansing the blood by attracting and capturing toxins. Though still in early development, a test model successfully destroyed all toxins in multiple studies.

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 30

1416		Jerome of Prague is burned as a heretic by the Church.
1431		Joan of Arc is burned at the stake by the English.
1527		The University of Marburg is founded in Germany.
1539		Hernando de Soto lands in Florida with 600 soldiers in search of gold.
1783		The first American daily newspaper, The Pennsylvania Evening Post, begins publishing in Philadelphia.
1814		The First Treaty of Paris is declared, returning France to its 1792 borders.
1848		William Young patents the ice cream freezer.
1854		The Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri Compromise.
1859		The Piedmontese army crosses the Sesia River and defeats the Austrians at Palestro.
1862		Union General Henry Halleck enters Corinth, Mississippi.
1868		Memorial Day begins when two women place flowers on both Confederate and Union graves.
1889		The brassiere is invented.
1912		U.S. Marines are sent to Nicaragua to protect American interests.
1913		The First Balkan War ends.
1921		The U.S. Navy transfers the Teapot Dome oil reserves to the Department of the Interior.
1942		The Royal Air Force launches the first 1,000 plane raid over Germany.
1971		NASA launches Mariner 9, the first satellite to orbit Mars.

Related articles

• May 30 in history
• Today in History, May 30th
• Uncurrent Events 5.30.13

TRIVIA Q & A

What will you get when you order a "chien chaud" from a street vendor in Quebec?
(click below for the answer)

THE FIRST WORD

Bardolphian

PRONUNCIATION:

(bar-DOL-fee-uhn) 

MEANING:

adjective: Having a red complexion, especially a red nose.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Bardolph, a character in Shakespeare's Henry IV, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor, who was noted for his red nose. Earliest documented use: 1756. Another character from these plays who has become a word in English is Falstaff.

USAGE:

"The man, who had flushed a Bardolphian hue from the excitement, unlocked a drawer."
Matthew Pearl; The Dante Club; Random House; 2003.

"His cheeks were plump and sanguine; his eyes bright and cheerful; and the tip of his nose glowed with a Bardolphian fire."
Nathaniel Hawthorne; Fanshawe; Marsh and Capen; 1828.

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THE SILVER LINING

Detroit may be bankrupt, but its citizens carry the least amount of debt on average among residents of all major U.S. cities. The average debt for a person living in Detroit, including credit cards and auto, personal, and student loans, is $23,604. Residents of Dallas have the highest average debt, at $28,240.
CNN.com

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

Pet stores in China are struggling to meet demand for the country’s latest animal craze—chow dogs dyed black-and-white to make them look like pandas. “Ten years ago the natural instinct of a Chinese person was to eat a dog,” said pet-store owner Hsin Ch’en. “Now we are like Westerners and want one as a companion.” Hsin said the panda dogs have become more popular than “the cute breeds,” such as French bulldogs, and that owners don’t mind paying to have their dog recolored every six weeks. “They like the fact that heads turn in the street.”

YOUR THOUGHTS?

TODAY IN HISTORY

May 29

1453		Constantinople falls to Muhammad II, ending the Byzantine Empire.
1660		Charles II is restored to the English throne, succeeding the short-lived Commonwealth.
1721		South Carolina is formally incorporated as a royal colony of England.
1790		Rhode Island becomes last of the original thirteen colonies to ratify the Constitution.
1848		Wisconsin becomes the thirtieth state.
1849		A patent for lifting vessels is granted to Abraham Lincoln.
1862		Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard retreats to Tupelo, Mississippi.
1911		The first running of the Indianapolis 500.
1913		The premier of the ballet Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in Paris causes rioting in the theater.
1916		U.S. forces invade the Dominican Republic.
1922		Ecuador becomes independent.
1922		The U.S. Supreme Court rules organized baseball is a sport not subject to antitrust laws.
1942		The German Army completes its encirclement of the Kharkov region of the Soviet Union.
1951		C. F. Blair becomes the first man to fly over the North Pole in single engine plane.
1953		Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first men to reach the top of Mount Everest.
1974		President Richard Nixon agrees to turn over 1,200 pages of edited Watergate transcripts.
1990		Boris Yeltsin is elected the president of Russia.

Related articles

• May 29 in history
• Mt Tenzing and Mt Hillary: Nepal honours Everest pioneers
• Roger Mickelson's History Today (5/29/13)

THE FIRST WORD

“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”-George Orwell

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I HOPE THEY ARE RIGHT

A recent Gallup poll found that half of all working Americans think they will have enough money to retire comfortably, marking the first time since 2007 that a majority of Americans have expressed such confidence.
Bloomberg.com

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