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B1-TID BITS(COMPUTER DEMYSTIFIED --FOR CHILDREN AND LAY READERS)

  BY Pragyan Sharma Polavarapu TID BITS -1 Computer can do in just one second a million calculations like 2+3, 4x2, 5-3, 9/3 etc . This is because electric current makes the calculations. The speed of current is about 300,000 kilometres, yes,300,000 kilometres in just one second. There is an interesting fact. Whereas we get current in our homes (in India) at 220 volts, the currents which are used by computer/laptop/tab/cell phone are only like 2volts,3 volts,5 volts. (Voltage of flowing electric current is like depth of flowing water in a neat cement canal of uniform rectangular cross section). TID BITS-2 Only once or twice in a second we can operate the electric switches on the walls in rooms of our house. But inside the computer, the current is switched on/off a million times in just one second Silicon semiconductor molecules (atom sized particles) do such switching. The silicon chip in computer is of the size of only a shirt button fixed in a tiny metal frame. The spe...

EXT 12-OLD EUROPE,OLD BRITAIN(ENGLAND) AND ROMAN CATHOLIC RELIGION

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu My writing in this part of my blog is out of my interest in old classical English dramas, poems ,novels etc that possess such indescribable beauty of style. My writing is thus focused on the ancient history of English language . The quest to know history of the language led to curiosity about the people who speak it and about their philosophic and spiritual orientation. So, examined here is a very ancient period in history of Europe. There is a well known saying of some historians that though England (i.e. total Britain ) is not geographically in Europe it is of Europe. It is culturally part of Europe and is a leading player. The old Greek culture and philosophic tradition and the later Roman philosophic tradition dominated Europe since around 2500 years . The ancient culture and philosophy are reflected in Iliad and Odyssey the beautiful old Greek mythological works. I write only with a very limited understanding of such history ....

EXT11-OLD ENGLAND AND OLD EUROPE CENTURIES BACK HAD SIMILAR PROBLEMS

  By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1)NORMAN CONQUEST OF ENGLAND In a long period of 500-600 years after the historic Norman conquest, England --living under Anglo-Saxon kings in a rural oriented old world rural atmosphere-- underwent a great change . Though separated by the sea from the continent it was now becoming fully a part of European cultural, religious and political changes . England was linked to European royal families by marriage alliances. England was growing agriculturally prosperous and was becoming one of the central players in west European politics . England right from Anglo-Saxon times was an active seafaring nation with its ships protecting the coasts from Viking and Norwegian pirates. The Celtic people dominated areas of Ireland Scotland and Wales and were somewhat aloof and backward. The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 was a great turning point in history of England. The continental Norman French culture was brought to England. Anglo-Saxon royal fa...

EXT10-OLD ENGLISH--SLOW BLOOMING TO MODERN BRILLIANCE

By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (A) INTRODUCTION In some old classical English books we see a strict serious style (Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden etc ) and in some an entirely different flowing simple styles ( Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats,R.L.stevenson,Jane Austen etc) . There are surely thousands of outstanding writers during last 300-400 years. To understand the big transformations that occurred perhaps over a period of 1000 years to create modern English, we should take again a quick look at history. (a) From times of Norman Conquest (1066) of England large number of French words crept into English language. The political landscape of the British Isles transformed in a big way. William the Conqueror (1028-1087) replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy with Norman-French aristocracy and redistributed most land to the Norman warlords . A new French-Norman culture appeared in the English royal court . Norman rule existed in England for about 450 years and their traditions ...

EXT9-OLD ENCLAND-ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY-KING ALFRED THE GREAT

 By PragyanSharma Polavarapu EXT9-OLD ENCLAND-ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY-KING ALFRED THE GREAT January 04, 2026 (1) The life of people of British isles since ancient times had always been influenced by oceanic climate, the land being at the eastern edge of the vast Atlantic ocean which spreads 3000 miles up to shores of USA. The weather is influenced by the warm oceanic currents. The often rainy drizzling type weather and the greenery (forests and low hills in the south, forests and mountains and foggy weather in north) appear to make British Isles quite a picturesque place. A genuine love for nature—clearly visible in the descriptions of the greenery and forests, low hills and valleys and the once quiet and once gusty the seaside environment –pervade English literature from old to new times . “What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows. No time to see, when woods we pass,...

EXT8-OLD BRITAIN – THE THREE OLD NATIONAL SYSTEMS

  By PragyanSharma Polavarapu XTOLD BRITAIN – THE THREEOLD NATIONAL SYSTEMS In these essays we are interested only about development of the beautiful and simple modern English . This is not about the history of English people . We wish to know only how the old archaic English language developed through centuries into modern English . However for people of other countries where English is only a medium to read newspapers , novels, journals etc , it would be interesting to know about the country which produced English .We may note that even in 9th century AD ,English language was still perhaps like a Germanic dialect with German words and German phrases with only a few English-like words . A beautiful new English was perhaps evolving but it was 95% clothed in German. The warrior king Alfred The Great ,king of Wessex in southern England (and later accepted as king of all England for his warrior qualities) was a poetic minded king---loving the words and phrases of ...

EXT7-OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND OLD ENGLAND

 By PragyanSharma Polavarapu (1) How difficult it is to study history of a language. When we read good story or poem in English or any other language we see and experience the delicate, kind and beautiful feelings passing through the heart of the writer at the moment he was writing it --one year back or even hundred or thousand years back. when we read old English poems/sonnets of Shakespeare ,Dryden, Milton, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Byron, Lord Tennyson, Mathew Arnold (The Forsaken Merman) etc or old English novels of Sir Walter Scott, Oliver Goldsmith or even recent versatile Thomas Hardy we feel as if we hear their heartbeats of the moments when they were penning those lines. What I write here is for the “foreigner”—the distant South Asian, East Asian, Indian, African, Chinese, South American ,Arab etc—who enjoy reading the hundreds of good English books which contain beautiful nature descriptions, descriptions of the “ To-us-unfamiliar” frozen seas and icebergs , high...