The Beyond Borders Forum Theater Team will once again tackle the tricky subject of the misconceptions and issues facing youngsters with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Date: 11th October 2009 (Sunday)

Time: 10.00am

Venue: Punchi Theatre

Host: The Interact Club of St. Peterrsquo;s College

Participation: School Children amp; Teachers

Joker: Mr. Halk Azeez

The first time was a hit and it took us through a roller coaster ride along with of our protagonist Rajeev, as he dealt with the effects of ADHD and society’s reactions to it.

We hope that the second run will better! Hoping to see most of you there.

An extremely fascinating message, strongly wrapped in a video. I am sure you will enjoy and get the message across. I personally would recommend this video

I have trouble in embedding the video in this blog post and hence check this link for the original video. and the Asia Society website for more information.

Eric Giler wants to untangle our wired lives with cable-free electric power. Here, he covers what this sci-fi tech offers, and demos MITrsquo;s breakthrough version, WiTricity ndash; a near-to-market invention that may soon recharge your cell phone, car, pacemaker.

As the CEO of MIT-inspired WiTricity, Eric Giler has a plan to beam electric power through the air to wirelessly power your laptop or recharge your car. You may never plug in again.

Eric Giler heads WiTricity, a startup with a product straight out of science fiction: wireless electricity, beamed from a base station to your electrical devices. The technology was developed by an MIT team led by theoretical physicist Marin Soljačić (who won a MacArthur ldquo;geniusrdquo;grant last year). Now, WiTricity is one of several startups developing tech to safely transmit power through the air mdash; and potentially untether our electronic age.

The technology at the core of WiTricityrsquo;s approach is called magnetic coupled resonance, which can provoke an energetic response at a distance between two coils, one powered, the other not. If the two coils are correctly tuned to one another, energy flows from the connected one (installed, say, on the ceiling of a room) into the other (inside, say, your laptop). Giler presented a demo of it at TEDGlobal  2009 mdash; and several companies are already planning to add it to their phones, cameras, TVs and other devices.

A feat of physics so subtle and so profound it could change the world.rdquo; ndash; Paul Hochman, Fast Company

see more about the 350 campaign see here

Mark Johnson tells you how lsquo;Playing For Changersquo; started and why. You can also have a look at the other videos at their youtube channel or visit their website for more information.

Dr Lou Adhihetty passed away in Switzerland on Wednesday (5 August). He served God and Wesley almost in equal measure.

Lou was one of the finest cricketers produced by Wesley College which has had the distinction of producing M.K. Albert, the Gunasekeras, Mahadevan Sathasivam, Stanley Jayasekera, Bertram Henderling, Edmund Dissanayake, Abu Fuard and the Claessen brothers.

In a period when Wesley played only six inter-school cricket matches, the 50s were, certainly the best years but 1956 was when they struck the purple patch. 1955 and lsquo;56 were considered by scribes the lsquo;Lou Adhihetty yearsrsquo; even though the team he captained to be undefeated inter-school champions in 1956 had accomplished batsmen in brother Vincent Adhihetty, Patrick Schokman and Neil Gallagher; M. Samsudeen of the low trajectory as the opening bowler and a plethora of all-rounder’s in Lou, himself, Bryan Claessen and his brother Herman, Abu Fuad and his brother Ansar in the fore-front.

Lou scored three centuries in 1956 out of the six games the school engaged in and scribes reported they had never seen a better batsman than Lou in the Wesley team. 1956 was the year in which the countryrsquo;s schools showcased the best batsmen ndash; Ronnie Reid and Michael Tissera of STC; Lorensz Pereira and Brendon Gunaratne of Royal; Malsiri Kurukulauriya and Nimal Maralanda of Trinity and W.Premaratne with Ranjith Doranagama of St Anthonyrsquo;s being those who are within my memory.

On leaving school, Lou entered Cambridge University and obtained his BA [Hons] and MA [Cantab] PhD. and returned to serve as Wesleyrsquo;s Principal from 1985 to lsquo;88. He also served as Director of the Asian Christian Service in Vietnam and as President of the Swiss Sri Lankan Association based in Switzerland.

The funeral is on Monday, 10th August, in Wegenhalde 1, 8162, Steinmuar, Switzerland.

Lou leaves behind his wife, Lisbeth, daughter Sakunthala and son Arjuna.

This article was published on the Daily Mirror, which was written by Sharm de Alwis and also you can find another article here by Edmund Dissanayake on the Sunday Island. College website also announces the death of Late Dr. Lou Adhihetty here. Also read ‘Lou Adhihetty – An Icon of Wesley has faded away’.

The lsquo;bokkarsquo; is a lsquo;maararsquo; thing with a lsquo;pakarsquo; sense of humor

Itrsquo;s where the rsquo;sirarsquo; feelings lie in wait for something lsquo;niyamarsquo;

Itrsquo;s not as lsquo;pissursquo; as the heart and is faster than the brain

Itrsquo;s where the lsquo;ginnarsquo; really starts to burst out into flames

I know that a few of you might rsquo;shape-ekersquo; disagree

But itrsquo;s an lsquo;igena gaththa padamakrsquo; Irsquo;m giving you for free

So lsquo;hithala mathalarsquo; do your thing, I wonrsquo;t tell you how

But lsquo;bokken lauw keruwahama, wennema mala illaw!rsquo;



Brandon Ingram

What would be possible if browsing the web was as fast as turning the pages of a magazine? Google invites all of us to join in exploring and innovating across the entire spectrum of performance ndash; from Internet protocols to the browser to website development. Together, letrsquo;s make the web faster!

see more here

First Lady Michelle Obama, a lawyer and administrator, is an advocate for working parents, military families and national service. Speaking at a London girlsrsquo; school, Michelle Obama makes a passionate, personal case for each student to take education seriously. It is this new, brilliant generation, she says, that will close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.

Now a days, when people are not satisfied with what they want or when they donrsquo;t get what they want the easiest thing they do is getting a weapon in to their hands and threaten someone to get it and these type of people live not only in Sri Lanka, but also in different parts of the world. However it is only us who knows what they are actually capable of doing. Most of the people are under the impression that a weapon can bring about peace or serve justice, but the question is whether it is an ever lasting peace; a justice fair by all concern or whether it is just a temporary solution.

However, the person taking a weapon in to his/ her hand will never understand the seriousness of it and the damage it can do to the society. Even though that person understands that, what that person have done is wrong it is too late to correct the mistakes of the past. Despite all that this person will have pleasure using the weapon. However taking a weapon in to their hands and threaten someone to get what you need and feeling proud about is the most dumbest feeling one can have, but the problem is that, when will this person understand this?

People use weapons; and not use weapons will end up, being killed by the use of a weapon!

තමාට අවශ්‍ය ‍දේ නොලැබුනු විට අවිය අතට ගෙන අනෙකුන් හට තර්ජනය කොට තමන් මහා වීරයෙක් යැයි සිතීම අප රටේ පමනක් නොව ලොව අනෙකුත් රටවලද හොදින් දැක ගත හැකිය. කෙසේ නමුත් ඔවුන්ගේ කෙරැවාව දන්නේ අපිම බව නිසැකය. අවියක් භාවිතයෙන් සාමයත් යුක්තියත් ලගා කරගත හැකි බවත් එසේ කල පසු එය අවිය මගින්ම පවත්වා ගත හැකි බවත් බොහෝදෙනා විශ්වාස කරයි. නමුත් ගැටථව වන්නේ එය තිරසාර සාමයක්ද සාධාරණ යුක්තියක්ද එසේත් නැතිනම් තාවකාලික එකක්ද යන්නයි.

කෙසේ කීවත් අවියක් අතට ගත් ඕනෑම අයෙක් එහි බරපතල කමත් සමාජයට එයින් වෙන හානියත් කිසිසේත්ම දකින්නේ නැත. ඒ බව දැන ගත්තත් ප‍්‍රමාද වැඩි අතරම එය නිවැරදි කිරීමටත් නොහැකි බව අපි දනිමු. ඒ කේසේ වෙතත් ආවුධය අතට ගත් පුද්ගලයට එය ඔහුගේ සෙම්නසට කාරණ‍ාවක් වේ. නමුත් තමාට අවශ්‍ය ‍දේ නොලැබුනු විට අවිය අතට ගෙන අනෙකුන් හට තර්ජනය කොට තමන් මහා වීරයෙක් යැයි සිතීම මහත් අනුවන ර්‍ක්‍රයාවක් වන නමුත් මෙවන් අය ඒ බව තේරැම් ගන්නේ කවදාද?

අවි ගත්තෝද; නොගත්තෝද අවියෙන්ම නැසෙති

ReachOut is the disaster relief project of the Rotaract Club of Colombo and now, ReachOut meets a new need to serve, this time to help those internally displaced, rebuild their lives.

Remember those who lost their lives, Remember those who are still living. Remember that, they still need Our Help!

Visit the blog and make a donation today

Most of you guys are aware that the International Congress on AIDS in Asia amp; Pacific (ICAAP 9) is schedule to be held from the 9 to the 13 August in Bali, Indonesia under the theme “Empowering People – Strengthening Networks”.

The Bali Youth Force (BYF) launched their site recently and this is a regional youth team working in making the youth programme of ICAAP 9 a success. Please do join the BYF and ensure your participation as a youth at ICAAP 9.

According to the closing remarks of the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka in his statement made today (19 May) when he declared that the war is officially over he said that, either you are with us or you are with the terrorist. Anyone who will criticize what the government is doing; what the president and his handful of ministers doing; etc. will be labeled as non-patriots.

According to the true spirit of democracy, if a state declares that they follow the true spirit of democracy, in that system the first condition is that the government, the president, the ministers and all the processes of that system can be criticize by the opposition, public and by the media.

So does this mean either we do not have democracy or we are non-patriots or both? Therefore, I claim myself to be a non-patriot!

I am a non-patriot!

The military victory declared by the President of the Democratic, Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka today (18) May is not the end of this war. Well, I personally think that this is just the beginning of the scene and if the government does not keep up to their promises this situation would be worse. Hundred years of grievances cannot be solved in less than a year and it is a fact.

Now that the terrorist are gone there is a greater responsibility to the government of Sri Lanka to look back to the reason why the LTTE was formed. It was the mistakes our leaders made long time back and continued to grow on the mistakes repeated over and over again. I would be happy if the leaders of today rectify this mistake and bring in a solution, which is universally accepted and until then I will not celebrate this military victory.

Even though I do not believe in ‘karma’, I believe that all the lives we have lost, was the cost we had to pay for the mistakes we have done in the past. We need to honor all those lives and the only way to honor them is by bring peace to this war torn country and establishing true democracy. I have never lived in a Sri Lanka without the war and I do not know Sri Lanka as a country without war, how it feels to live in peace, how it feels to celebrate, but I hope this will end hear and the next generation will not experience the same.

The war might be over, but the war of corruption; injustice; inequity; are wars yet to be fought! And it is not over yet!

It is not over yet!

photo credits: indi.ca

In this hilariously lively performance, actress Sarah Jones channels an opinionated elderly Jewish woman, a fast-talking Dominican college student and more, giving TED2009 just a sample of her spectacular character range.

I personally got a chance to experience a live performance, when I was in Hiroshima – Japan at the GNRC Third Forum and I must say, it was a priceless opportunity.

Tony Award-winning monologist, UNICEF ambassador, firebrand and FCC-fighting poet Sarah Jones assumes as many roles offstage as on.

On the 19 March, around 5.30 p.m. in the evening, my mobile rang. It was a number I hadn’t saved in my phone. I was at office, but was not busy at all and was playing around with Face Book on the internet, I answered the call. It was a surprise and it was no other than President Shameema on the line. She had never called me from a land line and just as Shameema said hello, I knew that there was something irregular in the call.

‘The CPP has proposed your name for next President of the club and I know that you can take it up, what do you have to say? Are you ready to accept it?’

It was a very sudden surprise to me and I said ‘what?’ and the conversation went on. In the beginning I said no, but towards the latter part of the conversation I gave her permission for the CPP to consider me as a nominee, just because I knew that there was a much more qualified person, who would accept it. However, later I got to know, that she had refused to take it up. Then on the 21 March, during the Holi Hai Festival, which was held at the Sindhi Club, Husna the current DRR amp; one of our own Past Presidents announced that, I am the President Elect for 2009/10. On the 23 March, I see an email sent to the RCC group by Shameema congratulating me, for being selected as the President. Subsequently on the 17 April I get a call from President Shameema, officially wishing me for being Elected as the President (Well she was out of the country from the 19 March to the 16 April). For whom, who is wondering what the CPP is, it stands for the College of Past Presidents of the Rotaract Club of Colombo.

However, now that I was Elected as President of RCC and later I accepted the same, I will assume office from the 1 July 2009 and be Installed somewhere in early July this year as the Fortieth President of the Rotaract Club of Colombo. One thing I clearly know is that, looking at the standards set by current President Shameema and her team and the current status and the ranking RCC has, being the President of RCC is not a very easy job to do. Having being to coordinate a bunch of really busy and high profile professionals, a bunch of busy members at RCC and leading the club towards greater heights is indeed challenging and sometimes it even make me think, it is something impossible for me to do. Top of everything being Elected three months before assuming office brings you more pressure than ever. I am still in the process of getting-rid of the pressure and trying to finalize my team and to kick starting the planning process for my year in office.

Being Elected as the President, I am indeed privileged and proud to lead the pioneer Rotaract Club in the Rotary International District 3220, Sri Lanka in the up-coming Rotaract year. Well, to be honest, one day I wanted to be the President of RCC, but I never wanted it to happen so soon. Being relatively new and young to the club, I had only taken the responsibility of being the current Secretary. Well, I did co-chair the District Assembly on the 6 July held at Hotel Galadhari, where our own Past President Husna was installed as the District Rotaract Representative and also chaired few other small projects and one long term project (Back to School).

Ultimately what I wanted to say in this post was that, leadership is something everyone (at least the people who have the capability) should take, whenever and wherever you can, if you really believe and look forward to make things changed. However it will not come to you, unless you plan for it. Most of the youth activists and change makers I, meet are quite reluctant to take leadership. They think it is a burden and that’s not what they want to do, but I would say, if you want to see and make the change, then obviously you need to take leadership at every level you can, because ultimately people look up to great leaders and will not look up to the followers. At the end of the day the only thing this country needs is, nothing but great leaders.