THE PAPERLESS PRESS
August 23, 2020
The Weekly Digest
Issue #7
TOP STORIES
Movie Night!
By Abhimanyu Rao
In times like these, we wish we could leave behind all cares, forget the reality of uncertainties, and imagine a better time. We wish, that for just a moment, we can forget the troubles of our daily lives, forget homework, forget chores, forget reality, and just go someplace else. Yes, there is already a way to do this, it’s called… A Movie!
Movies are always a great source of fun. Sure you wouldn’t want to go to a Chitauri war-zone in Avengers, A desolate Tatooine in Star Wars, a chaotic city full of all the floods, crocodiles and giant mosquitoes in Jumanji, but movies are still portals - portals to lands of wonder and victory, awe and amazement, and (in a Southern American accent), some “good old fashioned action”! How many of you, dear readers, would want nothing more than to lift Mjölnir, to feel the force, to wander away with Mary Poppins, to ride aboard Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, find Neverland, or to play a reality altering board game, because I am certain that I would, because:
A movie is a little portal,
Away from your dismay.
A movie is the only thing,
That follows you, all the way.
A movie is 120 minutes,
Of unadulterated joy
A movie is what you watch with sushi,
And a little bit of soy.
A movie has the greatest punchlines,
I know, because “Luke, I am your Father”,
A movie is the place where all
Your happy dreams will come together.
A movie is the only constant,
In this world of variables,
A movie is the place where you,
Need not eat your vegetables.
A movie is something that binds,
Generations like glue,
A movie makes your eyes well up,
As your mouth goes, “Boo Hoo”
A movie will transform you,
It will change who you are,
Whether you love Steve Rogers,
Or you flee from Jafar.
A movie is the greatest,
And in conclusion, I will say
A movie is quality time,
And a movie will make your day!
Cover Story
Why we need more women in politics
By Agastya Rao
1947, 1945, 1920 - what do these dates have in common? 1945 marked the end of the Second World War, for some 1947 is important because India got its independence from the British Empire and for some 1920 was important because of the start of prohibition in the USA. What most of us forget, but should remember, is that in 1947 women got the right to vote in India. In 1945 women in Japan got the right to vote. In 1920 women got the right to vote in the United States of America. So why did it take this long for women to get the right to vote, and why aren’t there more women in Parliaments all over the world?
Many world leaders are struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic and many have even lost control of their countries. However is this the same case when the leaders of the countries are women? Here are a few examples-
Jacinda Ardern (Prime Minister of New Zealand)- Jacinda Ardern is regarded as one of the best Prime Ministers in the world, and is the second woman Prime Minister in New Zealand. They have one of the lowest active Covid-19 cases in the world- 1671 cases and 22 deaths (this is compared to their neighbouring country Australia has 24,407 Covid-19 cases and 472 deaths. I don’t even have to compare these numbers to numbers in the USA where a blustering leader has done precious little to help the situation).
Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany)- Angela Merkel has led Germany to success and has stood up against people like Donald Trump. She has welcomed refugees into Germany, and the country has been moving ahead. Germany has grown to be the largest economy in Europe. Germany has also accepted 1.06 million refugees in 2018 as compared to the 31,250 refugees resettled by the United States Of America under the Trump Administration. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, Denmark’s Prime MInister Mette Frederiksen, and the Finnish Prime MInister Sanna Marin have also led their respective countries admirably. So it is quite apparent that women are as effective as (and in many cases, far better) leaders than men. Then why is it that we don’t see at least an equal representation of women in world politics?
Let’s look at India - the numbers are improving in India, with 78 women who have been elected to the Indian Parliament in 2019, and at The Paperless Press we remain forever optimistic, and hope the situation improves. But for us to have more women in parliament, we will need more than just policy changes and speeches - a change in mindset is far more important.
In world politics, many feel a new era is on its way, with Kamala Harris nominated for Vice-President by the Democratic Party in 2020. We at The Paperless Press are keeping our fingers crossed, for the first woman vice-president in the history of The United States Of America. The political circuit has been dominated by men for too long. Social stigmas have stopped women from standing for the elections in India for a long time. With more women slowly entering the political circuit- Kamala Harris may give the inspiration needed for more women to stand up.
Even when the Constitution of the United States of America was originally drafted, women were not given a right to vote. The orthodox and backward ideology of the time was of the view that, women were only supposed to stay at home and do the housework. This kept women from voting and having a voice. As the times changed, so did the ideologies. With the start of the suffrage movement, women began to use their voice and stand up and break through the prison of social stigmas.
The only way one can change the world is by first-standing up for themselves. When women are in leadership positions, they have the power to bring about a change. This is not to say that all women politicians will always be great at what they do, or always work for the upliftment of others, but it is true that women’s ability to multitask makes them good leaders.
In answer to the question of why we need more women in politics- let’s put it very simply. Women constitute one half of the world’s population. If democracy is all about representation of voters, is it fair that one half of the voting populace is not represented fully? A good democratic system becomes better if different voices and diversity of people find a representation. We don’t want to make this a boring, number-filled article, but if you were to read academic texts, there does appear to be proof that more women legislators have led to more effective legislation in many fields.
It is time for a fresh perspective. The only way the world can and must move forward is together. The world is changing rapidly, people are starting to break through mental prisons and slowly we are accepting everyone. Countries like Denmark gave women the right to vote back in the year 1915, and they are a prosperous country and one of the “happiest countries in the world”. Even though it has taken some countries a lot of time to give women the right to vote and run for office (Like Saudi Arabia in 2015) the world is changing- for the better. There has been a 12% increase in women legislators across the world from 2000 to 2020 (from 13% to 25%). Who knows, we may have a woman as Secretary General of the UN in the near future too!
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Green Thumbs! 👍
By Mihir Rao
In the lockdown, we all want to keep entertained. Watching Netflix shows, playing games, all that t may be fine, but we want something that we can keep coming back to. Something that will keep us from boredom for long. But what if pets are a no? Then What?
Well, growing plants is a hobby that is unrivaled and is one of the BEST pastimes to do, and it is very relaxing. It is a very calming thing to do, especially in these trying times, we have to try and stay calm however we can!
Plants are not hard to take care of , and even if you are thinking of adding a new canine or feline member to the family, Plants are a must have.
Plants may not have the same satisfaction as a dog or a cat, but I’ll eat my hat if it does not teach the same values as a pet!
To the parents that may be reading this, growing plants is not just a hobby, it is a lesson. It is a lesson of patience and perseverance and it teaches responsibility.
If you don’t want to take too much work away, but you still want to have a nice small ‘project’, grow aloe!
If you want to take the complete opposite approach and not just get your thumbs green, then go for a high maintenance plant, such as Calathea or orchids! Looking after plants, aside from being a calming and therapeutic exercise, also gives the satisfaction of having looked after and nurtured something. (Who knows, if you succeed at this, you can make a stronger case to your parents for bringing home a pet :)
You thought DOGS had many breeds, well how about Tomato, Cauliflower, Methi….
But Plants are not just that! They are also sources of many ingredients for cooking, and you can save a lot of your money and your time on shopping unnecessarily! For example, my mom is a Plant growing connoisseur, and she has many plants growing, such as eggplant and tulsi! I recently got interested in growing plants and I started to grow tomatoes!
In conclusion, Plant growing is not just a hobby, it is a skill that everyone should learn!
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HAPPINESS QUOTIENT FROM AROUND THE WORLD
-Tests conducted by NASA have found that green fuel could be used in upcoming space missions. Hooray for steps that bring us closer to a greener and cleaner Earth!
-The famous 90 year old Banyan tree in Arambol, Goa has been re-born. It was uprooted and damaged by heavy wind and rain and has now been re-rooted!! A native resident of Finland, Santeri Saahko used crowdfunding to collect Rs.2 Lakh to re-root the tree. We hope more trees are replanted. Trees are our lungs!
- The Harry Potter film set at Warner Bros Studios in England has reopened after five long months. We know we can’t travel right now, but such news of return to normalcy gives us hope and makes us happy to be armchair travellers for now.
-A little puppy named Foxtrot (aka Foxtrot the Humanitarian Pup) was rescued by staff of the World Food Programme in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh - home to almost 1 million Rohingya refugees. Check out the Instagram account of this humanitarian mascot and see the world through his kind eyes - @humitarian_pup.
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Guest Article
Vaccinations are sweeping the nation:
By Amish Gupta,13
Russia approves vaccine for mass production, skips phase III trials: A masterstroke or a reckless decision?
11 August, 2020: Russia has officially become the first country to mass produce a Coronavirus vaccine. Don’t exult just yet, though. Russia has made a huge gamble in the process: it has entirely skipped Phase III trials. A bold masterstroke or a rash decision that backfires? Only time will tell. However, if we do assume that the vaccine does indeed cure COVID-19 and has no side effects- what does this mean for the rest of the world? When will other nations get a vaccine? Today, next week or next month? It depends. If countries rely on Russia to provide them with a vaccine, it looks like we might receive a vaccine only at the start of 2021. What’s all the delay for, you might ask. Well, since Russia has made a vaccine first its first priority will be to vaccinate its citizens. It is estimated that this will take about 4-5 months. Before you start yelling at Russians, however, think of it this way- had your country found a vaccine first would it first vaccinate its own people or give away all its vaccines to Russia? Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, though. 4-5 months is applicable only if the Russian vaccine is successful. In the meantime, the hunt for a vaccine continues. However, any development is a cause for (cautious) optimism and we hope this leads to better and faster innovations in the rest of the world too.
Entertainment quotient for the week:
A.Amazon Prime Video:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
B.Disney+/Hotstar:
The One and Only Ivan
C. Netflix
Malibu Junior Rescue:The Next Wave
Music to be Mused by:
Listen to Free(From The One and Only Ivan):By Charlie Puth,written by Dianne Warren.
Photo Mania ---------------
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!
Photo Credit-Rendezvous with Rashmi
Coding fun!
By Lakshya Bajaj, 14
Piano
Using an Arduino and a Buzzer
Can be done on Tinkercad or Arduino IDE/ Arduino Web Editor
Introduction-In this project, you will learn how to make a piano with a simple buzzer circuit. After this project, you will be able to get different sounds using different letters/ symbols from your keyboard! It is an easy code, but it gets longer and longer if you want to get more sounds. Though copy-pasting will help a lot 😉.
1.First make a simple circuit using your buzzer and the Arduino. Connect the negative pin of the buzzer to gnd on the Arduino and connect the positive pin to any digital pin with a ‘~’ sign before them. Also, if you can add a one kilo ohm resistor.
Now it’s time to code!
2.Make a variable called ‘buz’ using either ‘# define buz’ or ‘int buz =’, then equate it to the digital pin. Eg. # define buz 10. Now create a variable to store the character which we will give from our keyboard. Create the variable using ‘char *variable name*;’.
Now let’s proceed into void setup ()
3.In this we will just write 2 lines. First, we will define the digital pins we used. For this just do a simple ‘pinMode(buz, OUTPUT);’. Then we will start the Serial monitor. Use ‘Serial.begin(9600);’ this will start your serial monitor.
Now for void loop ()
This is going to be the lengthiest part. Since I used all the letters of the alphabet, this part was 164 lines long. But don’t worry! Just copy paste your code and make some minor changes then your all set and done! First write an if-else statement with the condition being ‘if (Serial,available()>0)’. This will check for the serial monitor for the values we give. For the else part, leave it empty or just write ‘Serial.println(“Enter an alphabet”);’. Now in the if part write’*char variable name* = Serial.read();’, then print the value using ‘Serial.println(*char name*);’. Then we will write another if statement under the previous statement. This time we will check for the certain value of the character you enter from your keyboard. For the first statement use ‘if’ then start using ‘else if’. The format will be if (*char name* == ‘*any symbol/alphabet*’). And for ‘else if’ it will be, else if (*char name* == ‘*any symbol/alphabet*’. Continue this for as many symbols/alphabets you want. Inside the condition write 1.‘tone(buz,*random no.*);’2. ‘delay(500);’ and 3. ‘noTone(buz);’ Then at last, add a ‘delay(1000);’ at the end. This command is critical as without it you will not be able to hear your buzzer.
I hope you all enjoyed doing this project! Always remember to put your semicolons in the right place and don’t forget your brackets!!
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From The Literary World:
Looking for Books? See how we rank this week’s top book- By Agastya Rao
Winter In Wartime / Oorlogswinter (Dutch) By Jan Terlouw:
You might have guessed that history happens to be a favourite topic in this list. The Second World War is nearing its end, but the Netherlands is still under the control of the Nazis. One day a British Spitfire pilot crashlands in Holland and circumstances conspire to involve teenager Michiel in the pilot’s assistance. Against all odds and at great risk, he secretly helps the pilot and later joins the underground resistance in the Netherlands. In this harsh time he will do everything he can to get the Nazis out of his country. He will stop at nothing to free his country.This book (later made into a motion picture) is written by Physicist and Politician Jan Terlouw. There are many layers to this book, but the biggest message is - war is a miserable and lonely experience. (U/A:Violence,death).12+
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The Cooking Corner-With Vaanya Bhandari
By Vaanya Bhandari, 13
The best chocolate ganache ever
Ingredients:
200 gms of cooking chocolate
200 gms of Amul cream
a blob of liquid glucose
Step1- Melt all the ingredients together in a double boiler, and pour it out.
Step 2- Enjoy!
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Visit these pages to see some of our other endeavours!
Visit A Dogs Daily Antics to laugh your heart out with crazy captioned dog photos!
Visit TheChinappaChanel to see some quirky but nice videos that will make you roll with laughter
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Before You go-
Please tell us what else you would like us to write about. Please send us your articles, thoughts, jokes, photographs - paperlesspress9@gmail.com.
A Note To Our Readers:
We thank our readers for helping us in our endeavours. Our mission is to spread awareness of what is going on around the world from a child’s perspective. Our aim is to bring happiness and hope to people when they have none, the lockdown has broken us, torn us apart and has exacted a mental and physical toll on us. We hope that you stay safe and sound in these uncertain times. We welcome as much feedback as you can give to help improve our articles. We hope you enjoyed this issue! Keep smiling and please spread the word.
-Team Paperless Press
We hope this issue brightened up your day!
THE PAPERLESS PRESS
Contact us at-
paperlesspress9@gmail.com
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