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beetle

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Laaloo Grand Master

Laaloo

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Middle School Student Aces SATs Vivek Jain woke up his 14-year-old son, Varun, one early morning in early July. "Varun, you got a perfect score on your SATs," the father said. The sleepy teenager simply said "Wow," and fell back asleep. "If anybody in the United States can get a perfect score in middle school, it has to be Varun," his father told ABC News. In an indication of how rare it is to get a perfect 2400 score on the trio of tests that make up the SATs, only 360 students did it in 2012. More than 1.6 million students took the tests that year. And those students were in high school. Jain, who will be a high school freshman this fall, was in eighth grade when he took the tests. Jain did not stress over the test. His father reminded him the night before that he was to take the exam the following morning. Only then did he start preparing for the math, writing and critical thinking segments. Just a few days before the SAT was administered, Jain took the AP Calculus BC exam, a course usually offered to the most mathematically advanced high school seniors. Jain took the course online in a month. He is also the highest scoring point guard for his school. He plays the sitar and the violin. He has trophies for chess and debate. He won a scholarship from John's Hopkins University to take classes at a community college. He goes to the movies and plays video games with friends. "I tell him, 'Varun, this is a gift for you,'" Vivek Jain said. "He realizes that because we have seen quite a few geniuses here and there, but they only have a gift for one thing. Varun has an ability that is so well rounded." Varun Jain hopes to use his talent in the computer science field. His father says he wants to do "something technology related that improves peace in the world and makes everyone thrive." He is expected to graduate early and then move on to one of his top choices for colleges, either Harvard or MIT. http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/middle-school-student-aces-sats-212135842.html?vp=1

Crookbond Newbie

Crookbond

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Chandigarh: Driver’s daughter bags $50k scholarship for PhD in US http://www.firstpost.com/india/chandigarh-drivers-daughter-bags-50k-scholarship-for-phd-in-us-1008687.html

Chandigarh: Poonam Dhull, daughter of a driver working for the government of Haryana, has done her family and state proud by bagging a US $ 50,000 scholarship to pursue a doctorate in the United States. Twenty-four-year-old Poonam was awarded the $ 50,000 (over Rs.30 lakh) scholarship for pursuing PhD in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina. Her father, Suresh Pal, works as a driver with the public relations department of the Haryana government. Poonam is presently a research student in the Department of Chemistry in Panjab University here. She pursued research work under the supervision of P Venugopalan who guided her on the project “Structure-activity relationships in a-fluorohydrins and their derivatives: A structural investigation.” “Hailing from Bhana village in Haryana’s Kaithal district, 130 km from here, Poonam studied in the DAV Senior Secondary School in Kaithal before coming to Chandigarh to complete her graduation in chemistry.” “My family supported me in achieving this. They encouraged me to study further and never let any financial difficulties bother me,” Poonam, who has two younger siblings, a brother and sister, said. Suresh Pal said that he was proud of his daughter’s achievement. He said that his wife, Sheela Devi, who is semi-literate, encouraged their daughter to study. The achievement brought Poonam accolades from Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who congratulated her and expressed the hope that she would excel in academics and bring laurels to the state.
Lord Grand Master

Lord

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old news,actually saw this story on the show 'Crime Patrol' For Kerala Muslim man, Catholic priest brings the gift of life

Diagnosed with chronic kidney disease a year-and-a-half ago, 30-year-old Rasad Muhammad's hope of living had sunk with each passing day as a donor remained elusive. Until last month, when his saviour appeared suddenly — in the form of a Christian priest he had never met before. Father Kidangathazhe Sebastian, 41, will donate one of his kidneys to Rasad so he can live. Preparations are under way, and the transplant surgery is likely to be performed next month. On February 25, Rasad had boarded a bus from Aluva to go to Kochi for his check-up. Fr Sebastian, who is associated with the Catholic Goodness TV, and who was then not wearing his cassock, was seated next to him. "He looked very weak and burdened. He told me the story of his tragedy and his desperate search for a kidney donor," Fr Sebastian said. "I was seized of the pain of a life facing death. I made a cursory query about his blood group, which matched mine." For the priest from Idukki, the fortuitous match held special significance. It signalled to him the end of his silent quest to practise what he had been preaching. "Inspired by the story of Fr Davis Chiramel, who had donated one of his kidneys to a Hindu man in 2009, I had been longing to make the same sacrifice. Somewhere, I hoped, I would meet the deserving person. What mattered to me most was that the decision would save a life. I realised that the person seated beside me in the bus was the most deserving person,'' he said. The following day, they went to the hospital to start the procedure for donation and transplant. The tests have been positive. "A few counseling sessions and a final nod from the medical board remain. In all probability, the transplant will take place within a month," said the priest. Rasad said he was initially shocked by the words of the stranger in the bus. "But, in the next moment, I realised that a priest would not lie." Rasad had been a salesman in Saudi Arabia until kidney disease cost him his sight and forced him to return home to Harippad in Kerala. He could see again, but there was little chance of his surviving without a transplant. Rasad, the only breadwinner for his ailing parents and minor brother, advertised for donors. "A few donors turned up, but nothing materialised. In the meantime, touts cheated me of Rs 2.5 lakh. I was dependant on periodic dialyses in a private hospital in Kochi," he said.
the transplant was successfully done :two_thumbs_up:
Brainfade Newbie

Brainfade

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Sikh temple attack united victim's son, ex-racist http://news.yahoo.com/sikh-temple-attack-united-victims-son-ex-racist-151739382.html

OAK CREEK, Wis. (AP) — Six weeks after a white supremacist gunned down Pardeep Kaleka's father and five others at a Sikh temple last year, Kaleka was skeptical when a former skinhead reached out and invited him to dinner. But Kaleka accepted, and he's grateful he did. Since then, the grieving son and repentant racist have formed an unlikely alliance, teaming up to preach a message of peace throughout Milwaukee. In fact, they've grown so close that they got matching tattoos on their palms — the numbers 8-5-12, the date the gunman opened fire at a Milwaukee-area Sikh temple before killing himself minutes later. It wasn't easy for Kaleka to meet Arno Michaelis, a 42-year-old who admits he contributed so heavily to the white-power movement that he might have helped influence the shooter. Kaleka knows Michaelis' history — his lead singing in a white supremacist band, the white-power and swastika tattoos, the countless fights and more than a dozen arrests. But he also saw the good work Michaelis has done since he quit the racist movement in the mid-1990s. Kaleka, 37, wanted his father's death to be a catalyst for peace, and he saw in Michaelis a partner whose story could reinforce the message that it's possible to turn hate into love. "We were both hoping ... we could take something tragic and turn it into something positive — a learning experience for the entire community," Kaleka said. "We were both on that same mission, in our different ways." Michaelis had written a book called "My Life After Hate," in which he describes how he lashed out at the world starting in kindergarten and how the birth of his daughter made him realize he needed to change. He also works with kids on community service projects. Kaleka still has lingering fears that Michaelis might relapse and return to his old ways. But as he's gotten to know Michaelis, he says the boulder of doubt has become a pebble. Michaelis, an information technology consultant, understands the skepticism. He knows he hurt so many people during his seven years in the white-supremacy movement that his sincerity will always be questioned, which is why he works even harder to regain people's trust.
... there's more in the linked article.
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