Blowing in the wind

Airy messages, anyone?

SMS is soon going to be passé, the new fad will be writing messages in the air. Nokia is designing a new phone due this summer — model 3220 — which will you let you spell out your innermost thoughts through a sequence of letters that shimmer and float in the air when you wave the phone around. The handset uses a row of LED lights hitched on to the rear end of the phone to produce a set of light signals that form the letters. If there’s a drawback, it’s that your messages will now have to be even shorter — the system can only handle 15 characters at a time. The characters are visible in broad daylight, while in the dark they’re even brighter. The facility will supposedly help users to communicate across crowded rooms, or in stadiums. So watch out for air messages in dark movie halls from now on.

Cool to know Latin

If you always thought Latin was as boring and difficult as Sanskrit, think again. Cambridge Online Latin Project is something which will make life much easier for UK students who have taken up Latin in school. The project is not just about stilted grammar lessons. Students get to learn juicy snippets about which Roman had how many affairs, and who bought the prettiest slaves. Schools which don’t have a Latin specialist, can offer the subject to willing students with the help of this interactive software. The lesson plans are precise and there is a range of activities to help the pupil get his grip on the language. The project has already been tested on over 2000 kids, and is set to roll out across the UK in September. And it’s hoped that the programme might reverse the decline in the number of students of Latin. Maybe it’s time the educationists back home sat up and designed something similar for Sanskrit.

Haven’t seen her before? Well, it’s time you took note of Carmen Kass. This supermodel from Estonia has just announced that she is going to fight the elections for a membership to the European Parliament. Now that’s what you call a confident stride.

Sound of music

He may be young, but Vishal Khurana sure knows his flats and sharps. The 13-year old has given the music for Shovona Narayan’s ballet The Kadamb Tree. It’s an effort with a difference in which students enact the story of a child’s relationship with nature. As the sapling grows, the child draws closer to it. Vishal’s music, the high point of the show, has finally borne fruit.

Capsule cure

Pop it in

What’s it with adolescents and depression? First the doctors said that popping too many pills when you are feeling down and out might be far from safe. But now a government-sponsored study in the US has gone ahead to say that drugs like Prozac might actually help curb suicidal tendencies among teenagers, especially when combined with proper counselling. Millions of young people use these drugs daily across the world. The report is significant since it hasn’t been funded by a drug company and the data cuts across a wide cross section of youngsters. So when you feel low next, it might be time to pop a pill. Or will it be a visit to the para pub ?

AWARD OF THE WEEK

Goes to Tripti Jain, Mayur Kinkar and Shubham Verma, the three school students from Bhopal who won an anti-tobacco painting competition. The competition was aimed at raising awareness about the ills of tobacco use.