Surprise Facts: November 2016

Xiaomi Has Just Launched An Affordable, Rechargeable N99 Anti-Pollution Mask

We're still recovering from the smoggy aftermath of Diwali and trying to wrap our heads around the long-term damage we all have done to the air in Delhi. And if this isn't the time to get yourself an anti-pollution air-mask, I don't know when it'll be.

Well, Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has answered this very call in their most recent launch. They have brought us what may well be, by far, the most affordable, and most efficient anti-pollution mask you and I can find - the Cloth Pear Fresh Air Mask.

The Cloth Pear mask comes with a detachable and rechargeable air filter, and uses hand-woven, high-quality polyester fabric to offer a comfortable and secure fit.

Its air filter is lightweight, has an ultra thin fan with three speed levels and has a lithium-ion battery that takes about 3-4 hours to fully charge.

The filter is equipped to achieve PM2.5 filtration efficiency of up to 99 percent. But it's been priced at CNY89, which converts to about ₹900. With this mask, Xiaomi is giving us a more affordable alternative to masks that offer such protection for significantly more money.

Alas, Xiaomi's Cloth Pear Fresh Air Mask isn't available in Indian stores just yet. They're currently being sold only on the Chinese crowdfunding site Mi. Here's hoping that they'll come to our rescue soon enough, though.

We're waiting for them with bated breath. LITERALLY

Meet The Real-Life Phunsuk Wangdu, The Leh Engineer Who Inspired Aamir Khan’s Role In 3 Idiots by Shabdita Pareek

One lesson that Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots taught us is that we don't have to follow the rat race to achieve our dreams. That lesson was substantiated in Phunsuk Wangdu, the scientist who had 400 patents to his name and was even sought by the Japanese!

What we didn't know was that the character of Phunsukh Wangdu was actually inspired by an engineer from Leh.

Sonam Wangchuk, a 50-year-old mechanical engineer from Ladakh, is the man who inspired Wangdu's character.

Wangchuk builds Ice Stupas to facilitate irrigation in the desert areas of the western Himalayas. These brilliant pieces of engineering are actually conical ice mounds that act like mini-glaciers and slowly release the water for agriculture. The term Ice Stupa was coined by him.

He also shared a picture of an Ice Stupa on Twitter:

Wangchuk primarily works in the Ladakh region situated at a 3,500-metre altitude. This area faces acute shortage of water during the crop-growing season and his efforts towards making agriculture possible in this area have been recognized internationally.

And now, Sonam Wangchuk has been honoured with the prestigious Rolex Award for Enterprise 2016. The awards were presented on Tuesday in Los Angeles to those "who have reshaped the world with their innovative thinking and dynamism".

The dynamic engineer has also founded a school called SECMOL- the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh. His aim is to make learning fun and practical rather than being about cramming textbooks. The school is for kids who are deemed as a failure by societal standards. He believes that memorizing kills learning and, in turn, the confidence of a student. As reported by Flame Buzz, he said:

If failures can achieve what toppers dream of, then there is something wrong in the system.

Illustrations Perfectly Capture The Difference Between Life In Your 20s & Life After 30

You've probably heard that with age comes experience and it stands very true when you make a transition from your 20s to your 30s.

The maturity level at 20 is starkly different from the maturity level at 30. In fact, you may laugh at yourself when you think about all the crazy things you did back in the day. Starting from your fashion sense to your idea of fun, everything seems to have changed by the time you hit 30. The kind of decisions you took at 20 seem to have belonged to another person.

Here are some illustrations that perfectly sum up what this crossover from 20s to the 30s looks like:

Surprise Facts

Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Xiaomi Has Just Launched An Affordable, Rechargeable N99 Anti-Pollution Mask

Meet The Real-Life Phunsuk Wangdu, The Leh Engineer Who Inspired Aamir Khan’s Role In 3 Idiots by Shabdita Pareek

Sonam Wangchuk - 2016 Rolex Awards Laureate

Illustrations Perfectly Capture The Difference Between Life In Your 20s & Life After 30