Letters to the editor

Knowledge of the English language and properly communicating in it are very important skills to acquire, especially in an official setup. One of the most common mistakes people make while speaking is when they encounter silent letters. There are some words in the English language, in which letters are used while writing, but sometimes those letters are not pronounced while speaking the word. These are called silent letters. If you are learning the English language then you must be aware of such silent letters. Silent B: If the last letter of the word is b and immediately precedes it with m, then b remains silent. Similarly, b which comes before t also remains silent in the word. Silent C: If s comes immediately before C then c remains mostly silent. Silent E: If ar comes immediately after E, then e remains silent. Similarly, the e which comes at the end of the words is also mostly silent. Silent G: If the first letter of the word starts with G and is immediately … [Read more...] about English Learning: Some Words are Silent in English, Know Where and How to Use Them

The FBI 's raid of Donald Trump Mar-a-Lago home has sparked theories involving the release of texts by far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones . The former President confirmed that FBI agents had searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday. He released a statement condemning the act and said "nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before." It is not yet entirely clear the reason for the federal law enforcement's raid on Trump's home. However, it follows months of speculation that federal prosecutors had turned their attention to his actions regarding the riots that occurred on January 6. This raid comes after two years' worth of text message sent and received by Jones were turned over the House select committee investigating the January 6 riots. The text messages were handed over to the committee by Mark Bankston, who represented two Sandy Hook parents who successfully sued Jones in Texas and won almost $50 … [Read more...] about Trump raid hours after Alex Jones texts reportedly filed sparks theories

Scientists at the University of Bristol have uncovered the deadly workings of a carnivorous plant — Slender Pitcher plant ( Nepenthes gracilis ). The Slender Pitcher plant in the steaming jungles of Borneo has developed one of the most ingenious tricks to help them survive and outcompete their neighbours. Its elaborate cup-shaped leaves are equipped with a canopy-like hanging lid that turns into a deadly springboard for ants when it is hit by a falling rain drop. The findings ( Biology Letters ) reveal for the first time how the lethal spring works. The team was surprised to find that, rather than bending in the lid itself or in the narrow constriction between pitcher cup and lid, the spring is located far down in the back of the tubular pitcher wall. The off-centre location at the rear of the tube has two effects. First, it makes the spring direction-dependent and as a result, the lid moves easily down, but not up. When a rain drop hits, the lid is accelerated quickly … [Read more...] about Question corner | What powers the traps of Slender Pitcher plant to catch insects?

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) on Friday told the Supreme Court no trees have been felled in the Aarey forest region to make way for a metro shed and only "weeds and bushes" have been cleared. "Only weeds and bushes on the ground were cleared. There is an approach road. There were branches that required trimming for vehicles to pass through. No trees were cut. They have shown photographs of some other areas," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for the MMRCL, maintained before a Bench led by Justice U.U. Lalit. Also Read Aarey forest in Mumbai, where there is a battle over land The petitioners however said the law officer may not have been properly briefed. Justice Lalit, at this point, said he had assisted the Supreme Court in the capacity of an amicus curiae in forest Bench matters and offered to request the Chief Justice of India to list the Aarey case before another Bench of the court to avoid any conflict of interest. However, Mr. Mehta said … [Read more...] about No trees felled in Aarey forest, Mumbai Metro tells Supreme Court

A former assistant professor at St Xavier’s University in Kolkata was allegedly asked to quit after a parent complained that he had noticed his son looking at photos of her in a bikini on Instagram. As per the media reports, the former assistant professor alleged that she was asked to quit the university after receiving a written complaint from a first-year male undergraduate student’s father last year. St. Xavier’s, however, has refuted the allegations and claims the assistant professor resigned voluntarily. In the letter, the parent said that he had caught his son looking at pictures of the university professor that were “objectionable”, “vulgar” and “bordered on nudity”. The allegedly drafted complaint letter by the father, named as BK Mukherjee, is making rounds on social media. her undergarments and uploading pictures on social media is utterly shameful for me as a parent since I have tried to shield my son from this kind of gross indecency and objectification of the female … [Read more...] about St Xavier’s Kolkata ‘Forces’ Prof to Quit as Students Looked at her Bikini Pictures on Instagram

Poster for the special program celebrating EXID's 10th anniversary [SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT] Girl group EXID will come together for a special program celebrating its 10th anniversary on Aug. 13, according to Sony Music Entertainment on Tuesday. "We are EXID" will consist of members reminiscing on their times as EXID and singing some of its songs live. It will air on Naver's video streaming service Naver Now. EXID debuted in February 2012 with the single "Whoz That Girl." The group is best known for hits "Up&Down" (2013), "Ah Yeah" (2015) and "DDD" (2017). In May 2019, EXID announced its indefinite hiatus after members LE and Hani left the group's agency Banana Culture, and the group agreed that they would halt its activities in Korea to focus on individual careers. In particular, member Solji has been focusing on her solo career, releasing solo EPs such as "First Letter" (2022). Hani and Jeonghwa are active as actors. Though the group has not done any activities in … [Read more...] about K-pop girl group EXID to reunite for 10th anniversary special program

Script books for "My Mister" (2018) [SEGYESA] Korean bookstores have a new section to add to their aisles — K-drama scripts. “Script books” of Korean TV series and films are seeing a surge in sales. According to online book retailer Yes24, 58 K-drama scripts have been published as books between January and July this year; a noticeable increase from 14 during the same period in 2020 and 48 in 2021. Sales are also on the rise, seeing a 93.2 percent growth in 2020, 54.5 percent in 2021 and 121 percent in 2022 compared to the previous years. Currently, the best-sellers are parts 1 and 2 of the SBS series “Our Beloved Summer,” which ended in January. The scripts were published as books in February and have sold a combined total of more than 90,000 so far. A scene from "Our Beloved Summer" (2021-22) [SBS] Script books for "Our Beloved Summer" (2021-22) [GIMMYOUNG] “I wanted to know what [lead actors] Choi Woo-shik and Kim Da-mi read on the script to make the … [Read more...] about ‘Script books’ see major surge in sales with popularity of K-dramas

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer got fellow Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to do something few have done before: vote along Democratic Party lines. Some are calling it the Manchin-Schumer bill , and even Schumer wasn’t sure it would happen until the end. “He has different views on a lot of things, and when he backed out the week before, well, as he said it, we let the dogs loose,” Schumer explains on the latest episode of The New Abnormal podcast. Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Stitcher , Amazon Music , or Overcast . So what nudged Manchin in their favor? Schumer thinks his colleague’s decision came down to climate change guilt he didn’t want to live with. “People were saying, ‘Joe Manchin, you could be the one person who’s standing in the way of dealing with global warming. And if you don’t, you could be the person who destroyed the globe. And he felt that. He felt that,” says … [Read more...] about Chuck Schumer Thinks This Is the Reason Manchin Flipped

Interstate 580 connects Oakland, on San Francisco Bay, with Stockton and the farming towns of California's Central Valley. Heading east from Oakland, I-580 crosses the modest Coastal Range at the Altamont Pass. Altamont was famous a generation ago as the site of a Rolling Stones concert that turned into a riot. Now it features an eerie conjunction of two different kinds of "farming." Herds of cattle graze among thousands of pylons and derricks supporting giant propeller-shaped wind turbines—components of the world's largest "wind farm." When wind roars through the pass, the blades all turn, generating nearly enough electricity to power a city the size of San Francisco. A series of low white buildings nearby adds to the sense that the area has been taken straight from a Back to the Future movie. These buildings, in the town of Livermore, house two national laboratories— Lawrence Livermore and the California branch of Sandia —where classified work on nuclear weapons and nuclear … [Read more...] about New Life for Moore’s Law

The glistening citadel of this dateline does not in fact exist, but to children it can be more real than many an actual place: Cair Paravel is the capital of Narnia, the setting of what was, until Harry Potter, the world's best-selling fantasy series. The seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia , by the mid-century Irish writer C. S. Lewis, has some 65 million copies in print in thirty languages. In the books several English schoolchildren are transported to a realm where a human society modeled on the Arthurian court coexists with strange creatures, intelligent animals, and magic. Always the young visitors perform some improbable feat to rescue the kingdom from sinister forces. Presiding over events is Aslan, an enormous supernatural lion who called forth Narnia, loves English schoolchildren, and appears whenever hope seems lost. Although Narnia has survived countless perils, the Chronicles themselves are now endangered. On one front they face the dubious honor of corporate … [Read more...] about In Defense of C. S. Lewis