CHRISTMAS DAY

As is with any festival, Christmas too has many traditions and customs which are being carried forward by families the world over. These traditions and customs may be as varied as the diversity in cultures. Some, though are common to everyone celebrating Christmas in any part of the world. One of the most popular traditions on Christmas is exchanging gifts on Christmas eve or Christmas morning. Everyone loves receiving gifts on Christmas. Children, with their innocence wait eagerly for Santa Claus to bring them gifts. In many countries children hang stockings believing that it will be filled with goodies by Santa Claus. But, as adults we understand the significance of giving more than receiving and plan way ahead to get something thoughtful for our near and dear ones. Christmas tree is one of the symbols most easily associated with the festival of Christmas. The Christmas tree takes the pride of place in every living room of every home from Christmas and right upto New Year. Decorating a Christmas tree spells family time as it brings the whole family together right before and at Christmas time. Usually decorations start way ahead of the eve of Christmas. People, irrespective of regions and cultures plan on beautifying their Christmas tree. One can get as creative or individualistic as they want to in the process of looking after and decorating their Christmas tree. Christmas Dinner is the primary meal eaten on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Though the menu of this meal may differ across regions or cultures but some of the essential items which are Turkey, Christmas Pudding, Christmas Cake are present more or less in every menu. The whole charm of cooking and eating Christmas Dinner with family and people close to you is what makes it different from any meal.
‘MERRY CHRISTMAS FOR ALL CHRISTIANS’

WHAT IS EDUCATION

Education refers to the process of learning and acquiring information. Education can be divided into two main types: formal learning through an institution such as a school and self-taught learning or what is often termed life experience. Generally, education is important for learning basic life skills, as well as learning advanced skills that can make a person more attractive in the job market. When an individual thinks of becoming educated, most commonly he thinks first about formal schooling. Formal schooling exists in a classroom setting where a teacher provides curriculum according to an accepted plan of what must be learned. School learning can continue for many years, especially if a child decides to pursue higher education. Colleges or universities provide specialized additional training and learning for a fee. Graduate schools and specialty programs, such as law school or medical school, also provide additional information to help prepare a person for a career. For many professional careers, both a bachelor's degree from a four-year accredited college institution and a master's or graduate degree are required to prove qualification for the job. While book learning is thus very important, it is not the only form of education. Some individuals are self-taught, which means those individuals pursued knowledge on their own outside of a formal classroom. Many of these individuals may have read extensively or may have become experts within a given field. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, for example, was a college dropout.

COMPUTER

The first use of the word "computer" was recorded in 1613, referring to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word continued to be used in that sense until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century onwards though, the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, describing a machine that carries out computations. The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologies—automated calculation and programmability—but no single device can be identified as the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that term. Examples of early mechanical calculating devices include the abacus, the slide rule and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from about 150–100 BC). Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when. This is the essence of programmability. The "castle clock", an astronomical clock invented by Al-Jazari in 1206, is considered to be the earliest programmable analog computer. It displayed the zodiac, the solar and lunar orbits, a crescent moon-shaped pointer travelling across a gateway causing automatic doors to open every hour, and five robotic musicians who played music when struck by levers operated by a camshaft attached to a water wheel. The length of day and night could be re-programmed to compensate for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year. The Renaissance saw a re-invigoration of European mathematics and engineering. Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers, but none fit the modern definition of a computer, because they could not be programmed. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile loom by introducing a series of punched paper cards as a template which allowed his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability.

MOBILE PHONE

A mobile phone (also called mobile, cellular phone, cellphone or handphone) is an electronic device used for full duplex two-way radio telecommunications over a cellular network of base stations known as cell sites. Mobile phones differ from cordless telephones, which only offer telephone service within limited range through a single base station attached to a fixed land line, for example within a home or an office. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, whereas high-end mobile phones that offer more advanced computing ability are referred to as smartphones. A mobile phone allows its user to make and receive telephone calls to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed line phones across the world. It does this by connecting to a cellular network owned by a mobile network operator. A key feature of the cellular network is that it enables seamless telephone calls even when the user is moving around wide areas via a process known as handoff or handover. In addition to being a telephone, modern mobile phones also support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS (or text) messages, email, Internet access, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera, MMS messaging, MP3 player, radio and GPS. The first hand held phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing in at two kilos. In the year 1990, 12.4 million people worldwide had cellular subscriptions. By the end of 2009, only 20 years later, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide reached approximately 4.6 billion, 300 times the 1990 number, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid.

FRUITS

The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state, such as apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, juniper berries and bananas, or the similar-looking structures in other plants, even if they are non-edible or non-sweet in the raw state, such as lemons and olives. Seed-associated structures that do not fit these informal criteria are usually called by other names, such as vegetables, pods, nut, ears and cones. In biology (botany), a "fruit" is a part of a flowering plant that derives from specific tissues of the flower, mainly one or more ovaries. Taken strictly, this definition excludes many structures that are "fruits" in the common sense of the term, such as those produced by non-flowering plants (like juniper berries, which are the seed-containing female cones of conifers, and fleshy fruit-like growths that develop from other plant tissues close to the fruit (accessory fruit, or more rarely false fruit or pseudocarp), such as cashew fruits. Often the botanical fruit is only part of the common fruit, or is merely adjacent to it. On the other hand, the botanical sense includes many structures that are not commonly called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels, wheat grains, tomatoes, and many more. However, there are several variants of the biological definition of fruit that emphasize different aspects of the enormous variety that is found among plant fruits. Fruits (in either sense of the word) are the means by which many plants disseminate seeds. Most edible fruits, in particular, were evolved by plants in order to exploit animals as a means for seed dispersal, and many animals (including humans to some extent) have become dependent on fruits as a source of food . Fruits account for a substantial fraction of world's agricultural output, and some (such as the apple and the pomegranate) have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings.

I LOVE MY GOD - JESUS

Jesus of Nazareth (c. 5 BC/BCE – c. 30 AD/CE), also known as Jesus Christ or simply Jesus, is the central figure of Christianity, which views him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament, with most Christian denominations believing him to be the Son of God and God incarnate who was raised from the dead. Islam and the Baha'i Faith consider Jesus a prophet and also the Messiah. Jesus' teachings were first preached to the Jewish people, but Judaism gives Jesus no special status. The principal sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, though some scholars believe texts such as the Gospel of Thomas are also relevant. Most critical scholars in biblical studies believe that some parts of the New Testament are useful for reconstructing Jesus' life, agreeing that Jesus was a Jew who was regarded as a teacher and healer, that he was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman Prefect of Judaea, Pontius Pilate, on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire. Aside from these few conclusions, academic debate continues regarding the chronology, the central message of Jesus' preaching, his social class, cultural environment, and religious orientation. Critical scholars have offered competing descriptions of Jesus as a self-described Messiah, as the leader of an apocalyptic movement, as an itinerant sage, as a charismatic healer, and as the founder of an independent religious movement. Most contemporary scholars of the historical Jesus consider him to have been an independent, charismatic founder of a Jewish restoration movement, anticipating an imminent apocalypse. Other prominent scholars, however, contend that Jesus' "Kingdom of God" meant radical personal and social transformation instead of a future apocalypse. Christians predominantly believe that Jesus is the "Son of God" (generally meaning that he is God the Son, the second person in the Trinity) who came to provide humankind with salvation and reconciliation with God by his death for their sins. :568-603 Christians traditionally believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, :529-532 performed miracles, :358-359 founded the Church, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, :616-620 from which he will return. :1091-1109 While the doctrine of the Trinity is accepted by most Christians, a few groups reject the doctrine of the Trinity, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural. Most Christian scholars today present Jesus as the awaited Messiah and as God.

MEANING OF LIFE

Is it the meaning of human life in general, or the meaning of life to each particular person living it? Many people find the question of the meaning of life a religious one. As John argues, our lives could stand for something or be given meaning by a deity just as we give meaning to the words we utter. But, Ken objects, why should we have meaning simply because we were created by God? There is always the question of how God got his/her meaning. Furthermore, as Kant argued, human beings could just as plausibly be ends in themselves with the autonomy to define their own meaning for their lives. Even if there isn't an answer to the question of life's meanint, there is still the need to get through the day to day. Perhaps the question is not so much about the meaning of life, but about living it; answering the question “How should I live?” and finding something beyond yourself to help discover an answer. Howard Wettstein studied at Notre Dame where he became an atheist. Soon after leaving the college, however, he found religion in the midst of personal loss. When his mother died, Wettstein found comfort in a God—not in terms of life after death or the unreality of death which he feels are illusions, but in terms of meaning. So, Ken asks Wettstein about the meaning he was seeking in reflecting on his mother's death. What did he mean by “meaning”: what does meaning mean? In philosophy of language especially, this question is hard to pin down. Wettstein argues that it is better to talk about significance or its derivative, importance, rather than meaning itself. While he was at Notre Dame, Wettstein met a professor studying the philosophy of religion. In one of their conversations, the professor spotted an ant hill and remarked that without God, his life would be as meaningless as the lives of the ants on the hill. But for Wettstein, this didn't seem like a case of meaninglessness at all. It occurred to him that people who believe strongly in God could still feel their lives are meaningless. On the other hand, atheists who have significant projects and relationships could feel their lives are full of meaning. So, it seems to still be unclear as to how religion helps bring meaning to a person's life.