The case of the dairyman

"We have been your milk consumers for such a long time, but we are sorry to see your supply is becoming dilated."

"Take my word," said the dairyman, "I am sorry to hear those words. I have never heard such a complaint."

"May be, but this is the truth."

The dairyman was worried. He was in an enigma. What am I to do in this plight? I have the best of cows. They have been supplying milk for quite a number of years. Why has this happened? He discussed this with his wife, who could not believe what's happening.

"What are you going to do now?" Asked the wife of the dairyman.

"I want to get a sample of the milk and show it to the vet."

"That's a good idea."

The dairyman was delighted for a moment. I should meet the best vet in the village. He went looking for one.

"What brought you here?" Asked the physician as the dairyman entered the house with a bottle full of milk. The dairyman explained the matters, and laid before him the problem he has encountered.

The vet, having listened to the dairyman, examined the milmk by drinking a cup.

"I can visualize one thing," he said.

"What's that?" Asked the dairyman.

"Are the cows scared about something?"

Hancock : Power of coherence lacking

Peter Berg's attempt at making a superhero genre movie falls short because he dallies in too many conventional scenes and less logic.

Hancock runs through its original tale for the first half of the movie. Though he has the city's best interests in mind John Hancock's drunken attempts to stop crime ends in more damage than good. This alienates and wins the wrath of the people who wish to see him being kicked out of the city. Hancock's attitude does not help his image much either and he plunges into depression due to his own sense of not belonging to the society.

Then out of the blue, help comes his way. Saving the life of a public relations man, Ray, becomes a life-changing experience for Hancock since Ray helps him undergo an image makeover. He helps him to rehabilitate into a dependable champion who actually get things right for a change. Several light comic events in which Hancock learns how to say 'Thank you', serve time on an outstanding warrant, learn how to take off and land without damaging surroundings follow. We even see a costume made for the superhero-to-be which reminds us of Wolverine's attire in The X-Men. Just when things were settling down in town, peace is shattered.

The mystery which remains from the first half of the film on why Ray's wife, Mary, keeps her distance from Hancock comes to light in the second half of the movie.

Will Smith plays the lead role as Hancock. In another actor's hands it would have been difficult for the audience to warm up to Hancock but Smith's inherent likeability comes to the fore in this movie. Though we are antagonized against him in the beginning, he manages to win our respect through his transformation.

Parents can help children achieve a healthier lifestyle

Reducing television viewing may be an effective strategy to prevent excess weight gain among adolescents, according to a new study released in the September/October 2012 issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour.

Findings were based on a one-year community-based randomized trial that enrolled 153 adults and 72 adolescents from the same households. During that year, researchers from the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health Obesity Prevention Center conducted six face-to-face group meetings,sent monthly newsletters, and set-up 12 home-based activities. In addition, each household agreed to allow researchers to attach a “TV Allowance” to all televisions in the household for the one-year study period. Television viewing hours, diet, and physical activity levels were measured before and after the intervention.A clear association was observed among adolescents between reduction in TV hours and decreased weight gain over one year. The TV hours’ impact on weight gain was not significant for adults. These findings suggest that television viewing is a risk for excess weight gain among adolescents. The implication is that parents who limit their adolescents’ television viewing may help their adolescent maintain a healthy body weight.

According to national survey data [NHANES] 2003-2006, about 31 p.c. of US children and adolescents are overweight or obese, therefore finding the causes for weight gain in this population is growing increasingly important.

According to Simone A. French, PhD, principal investigator of this study and the Director of the University of Minnesota's Obesity Prevention Centre, “We tried to intervene on behaviors that are related to energy balance, such as television viewing, sugar-sweetened beverage intake, physical activity, and consumption of packaged convenience foods. Although the individual contribution of each of these behaviors to excess weight gain and obesity may be small, it is important to examine their possible role individually and together in promoting excess weight gain. Associations between these behaviors and risk for excess weight gain may differ among adults and adolescents because of their different physical and social developmental stages.”

“This study is an important piece of evidence that reducing TV hours is a powerful weight gain prevention strategy parents can use to help prevent excess weight gain among their children by changing the home environment and household television viewing norms.”

- MNT

The Expendables – 2

Expendables 2... the heroes fire big guns and blow bodies and property to bits, while never taking a scratch themselves.

The Expendables has always been an attractive prospect for action movie fans: big-name action stars of eras past (and a few of today) unite on the big screen for a movie made in the vein of ’80s and ’90s machismo flicks. With names like Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham and Jet Li headlining the marquee, the first Expendables should’ve easily lived up to its easy promise of violent fun, complete with winking allusions and resurrected one-liners.

Unfortunately, some shoddy direction (from franchise creator Sly Stallone) held The Expendables back from fulfilling its potential, which is why director Simon West (Con Air) is under even greater pressure to make The Expendables 2 live up to an even higher bar, set by the promise of even more action movie icons; bigger, bloodier tongue-in-cheek violence; more winks to the past canon of action flicks, and even smarter twists on cherished catch phrases.

West proves to be a much more competent and steadier hand at the helm, and as a result, Expendables 2 is visually and technically coherent enough to set the movie on the exact ground it needs to be: where its cast can dive in with both feet and enjoy playing up their images as on screen icons of aggressiveness. Does that mean the film is a superiorly crafted piece of genre entertainment? No. It’s still an overflowing river of macho-cheese with half a plot, bad acting and some truly shoddy camera work at times – but if vintage macho-cheese is what you’re after, this movie delivers a big heaping plate of it – much more than the first film, if that can be believed – and features some ironically awesome onscreen moments.

එදත් මගේ දුක් ආයාචනයට මේ ලෙස මට හිනැහෙන්න ඇති

මේ පේ‍්‍රමයේ පරාජය විඳගන්නට පුරුදු විය යුතු කාලයකි. පේ‍්‍රමයේ නාමයෙන් කෙරෙන පළිගැනීම්, මිනීමැරීම්, තර්ජන, සියදිවි නසාගැනීම් පිළිබඳ ආරංචි වැඩි වැඩියෙන් ලැබෙයි. ඒ තොරතුරු තාක්ෂණයේ දියුණුව නිසා ද නැතිනම් සංඛ්‍යාත්මක වැඩි දියුණුවක් නිසා ද යන්න සොයා බැලිය යුත්තෙකි.

ගීතය අද ප්‍රබල සන්නිවේදන මාධ්‍යයකි. ඒ නිසා එයින් සමාජයට සිදුවන හා සිදුකළ හැකි බලපෑම විශාල ය. එබැවින් චිත්ත ආවේග පාලනය කළ හැකි ගීත සාහිත්‍යයක අවශ්‍යතාව තවදුරටත් වැඩි වැඩියෙන් දැනේ. අජන්තා රණසිංහයන්ගේ මේ පදමාලාව ඒ සඳහා කදිම මානසික ඖෂධයකි.

මෙහි අන්තර්ගතය වන්නේ ද ආදරණිය හමුවීමක් හා ශෝචනීය වෙන්වීමකි. විරහ වේදනාවෙන් තැවෙන්නේ තරුණයා ය. මේ වෙන්වීම සංසාරගත උරුමයක් සේ ඔහු දකියි. ඒ නිසාම ඔහු දැන් ඒ වේදනාව අත්විඳීමට සූදානම් වෙයි.

මේ අයුරින් අපි සංසාරේ

ආදරයෙන් හමුවන්න ඇති

මේ අයුරින් අපි දවසක් දා

සසර මගදි වෙන්වන්න ඇති

සාලිය අශෝකමාලා, පේ‍්‍රමයේ දිග්විජය ලැබු අතීතයක පවා තමා පරාජිතයකු වන්නට ඇති බව පෙම්වතා සිතයි. ඔවුන් ඔවුන් ඉදිරියේ තිබු කුල ප්‍රශ්නය පේ‍්‍රමයේ නාමයෙන් ජයග්‍රහණය කරද්දී සිටු කුලයක ඉපදුණු තමාට තමන්ගේ පේ‍්‍රමය ජයගන්නට නොහැකි වූ බව ඔහු සිතයි. අද තමා විඳින වේදනාව එදා ද විඳින්නට ඇති බව ඔහු කල්පනා කරයි. එහෙත් කිසි විටෙක මේ පෙම්වතාට ඇය කෙරෙහි වෛරී හැඟීමක් හටගෙන ඇති බවක් නොහැඟේ.

සාලිය මාලා පෙම් බැඳි දා මා

සිටු කුමරෙක් වී ඉන්න ඇතී

ඒ සිටු කුලයේ කුමරිය වී ඔබ

මේ ලෙස මට රිදවන්න ඇතී

මේ ආකාරයෙන් ආත්මයෙන් ආත්මයට ඇය ඉදිරියේ පරාජිතයකු වෙද්දී දෑසින් හා හදවතින් ගැලු කඳුළු එක්වී මහා සාගර හැදෙන්නට ඇත. එහෙත් මේ අහිමි පේ‍්‍රමය වෙනුවෙන් හඬා වැටෙන්නට ඔහුගේ දෑසේ තවත් කඳුළු ඇත. එහෙත් ඒ වගක් ඇය නොදනී. ඔහුගේ ආදරයේ තරම, ඇය කවදාවත් හඳුනා ගෙන නොමැත. ඒ නිසාම සංසාරයෙන් සංසාරයට විරහ වේදනාව ඔහුගේ උරුමය වී තිබේ. ආදර පූජාසනය මත පුදන පේ‍්‍රමයේ අසෙනිය කුසුම් සදාකල් මිලාන වන්නේ එබැවිනි.

අපරාජිත යැයි ඔබ පිදු පේ‍්‍රමය

පුදසුන මත පරවෙන්න ඇති

සාගර ජලයත් මදි හඬුවා මම

ඔබ හින්දා ඔබ දන්නෙ නැති