Speech 7 Research your topic " Mars Exploration"

Intro:

What is that one thing which makes humans stand out from all other species?

Explore. Humans explore and they never stop exploring. Even when they die, the legacy of knowledge continues to the next generations. 

How many have you watched the movie “The Martian?”

This is a movie about this guy who will be stranded on Mars and he finally manages to come back. It is still a fiction. No man has ever landed on the

If you have not watched the movie, I would recommend you to do so. The movie is made at the right time when NASA just announced there is liquid water on the Red planet. I am assuming everyone knows what NASA is and what it does.  I have been listening /viewing right from my young adult hood about space exploration satellites, orbiters, rovers, missions and all that did nothing to me but this movie did. It created so much of curiosity do some research on Mars exploration. Today I am here to share some interesting facts about the Mars exploration.

Body:

Now the Curious me want to learn about Mars and its missions happened so far and I had questions.

·         What is exploration of mars?

·         Why is it important to explore Mars? Why not other planets.  Why we keep going back to mars?

·         How many missions happened so far?

·         Which countries are doing this kind of exploration?

·         What is the typical cost for these kind of projects?

These simple questions unveiled much more information and artifacts.  With this information I got, now I would like to visit the Jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena near LA and see some of the stuff I read about.

1.       The exploration of Mars is the study of Mars by a spacecraft. This began in early 1960s.  Probes sent from Earth have yielded a dramatic increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habitability potential.

2.       We have several other planet and the reason why we are after mars?

Reason being  Planetary alignments make mars feasible for missions every 26 months and a probe can get there in 9 months which makes perfect for any project to materialize with in that time. Distance is roughly 50 Million KM.

3.       Major countries involved in this study are the US and the USSR. India has joined the league with its mission called MOM (Martian orbiter Mission) in 2014. China, japan and ESA are involved too but could not do successful missions. So far 43 missions happened and only 18 of them are successful. Success rate of only 40%.

Even after feasibility studies, careful planning these kind of missions do fail. That’s why it is metaphorically used like “It’s not Rocket science “to emphasize the non-complexity while Rocket science is obviously complicated.

4.       Most of the initial attempts failed to put the probes in the orbits and once succeeded and the later missions were to land the rovers which can send high resolution pictures. After that success, NASA sent mini laboratories on rovers which can study atmosphere and the geology.  NASA now gained tremendous knowledge on successfully launching probes/rovers onto Martian atmosphere.

5.       Now let us talk money.

Spirit, curiosity, opportunity, phoenix, sojourner are the rovers that landed on mars so far. Rover is an expensive affair. I could get the number for the Curiosity which is 2.5 Billion USD.  You can imagine the amount of money going to this.

Orbiters could cost little less than that. MAVEN (Mars atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) which was put in orbit in Sep 2014 costed $672 Million.

Mangalyaan/Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) costed to 74 Million USD. It is the least budget successful mission so far. This is an elliptical orbiter which studies Martian atmosphere.

India took severe critic from within and outside of the world when they launched the mission for spending 70 million for interplanetary research while it has the problems with poverty and other things. In my opinion, both are different things and cannot be compared.  India spends millions of dollars on the movie industry, festivals like Diwali, separation of states, building of new capitals. It is close to 0.1% of the nation’s budget.

Conclusion:

So much of topography, geology, and atmosphere is studied in just 50 years. Liquid water is found on the Mars. I am sure by 2020, first human will be landing onto the mars and it will be the greatest land mark in the history like man landing on the moon. Looking forward for that day. It will not be a surprise when our future generations will be taking cruise rides back and forth to the mars.

All the facts were taken from Mars.nasa.Gov, Space.com and planetary.org.

Speech 6 The Tragic Story of Cecil the Lion

Cecil (2002 – 1 July 2015) was a male African lion who primarily lived in the Hwange National Park Zimbabwe and was 13 years old when he was killed. He was a local favorite and a major attraction at the park and was being studied and tracked by the University of Oxford as part of a larger study. He was one among the very few black-fringed mane lions in the world.

Most of you who follow the news regularly know the back story but those of you who don’t know, here it is.

A guy named Walter James Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, a big game hunter. A big game hunter is historically associated with the hunting of Africa's Big Five game (lion, the African elephant, the Cape buffalo, the leopard and the white rhinoceros). He paid $50,000 to kill a lion. He went all the way to Hwange national park Zimbabwe to kill this lion. He hired two local guides. All of them together lured the lion with the bait outside of the sanctuary, shined a spot light on him, he is eating, spot light on him okay! This dentist shoots him with a cross bow. The lion is wounded and leaves and is frantic for three days. Hanging on to dear life! Suffering. Then Walter comes with his two guides and shoots him with a gun. The lion then dies.

He decapitates the Lion because that is his trophy! Again this is trophy hunting.  It is not hunting for food or survival or conservation. This is trophy hunting. He can display with proud this lion head as a trophy.

To give you guys more contexts, the two guys who are with him are charged for poaching (Hunting illegally)

Statement of Dr. Walter Palmer

July 28, 2015

"In early July, I was in Zimbabwe on a bow hunting trip for big game. I hired several professional guides and they secured all proper permits. To my knowledge, everything about this trip was legal and properly handled and conducted.

"I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt. I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.

"I have not been contacted by authorities in Zimbabwe or in the U.S. about this situation, but will assist them in any inquiries they may have.

"Again, I deeply regret that my pursuit of an activity I love and practice responsibly and legally resulted in the taking of this lion."

Do you buy this?

He is blaming the two guys when he had a history of illegal hunting like giant black bear, Rhino.  

Cecils killing created a backlash among many Americans, politicians, celebrities and common people. It became social media phenomenon with lot of hatred among everyone. It also called for a debate/argument on why the permits are being granted.  Apparently they are using that money for conservation. Why not the money is directly raised without just giving the grants.

 A petition urging Walter Palmer's extradition to Zimbabwe garnered more than 220,000 signatures

Aftermath:

Dr. Palmer is back to the work as if nothing happened and treating his patients in Minn.  Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, the next strongest male lion kills all the remaining cubs of cecil so that he can generate his blood stream in the pride. Just because of one person’s trophy see what’s happening.

Weird things in the name of traditions.  Hunting is one of them. Back in the days when there were no modern weapons, big game hunting with the available non mechanical means killing showed courage and in turn a form of pride. They used to collect the heads and used to display them.  What is the point of killing for a sport with a rifle/gun with all the modern equipment.

Hunting for food is okay. Hunting for survival is okay. Hunting for sport and Hunting for trophies. Not ok.

Not ok at all. This is only my opinion. This opinion did not just come out this incident alone. If you search there are hundreds of people who trophy hunting from many years. I can only say one thing to them.  #Leavethemalone

Link to the speech here

Speech 5 Laugh At my pain

Mr. Toastmaster, Fellow toastmasters and welcomed guests, Today I will share a story from my life. 

How many surfers do we have in the house? I am not a surfer by the way. Well surfers will truly understand my plight today and non-surfers will have some key take always on surfing. “Story of my First Surfing Lesson”

Who does not love stories and that to Personal stories always have their special spot at Toastmasters. This is no normal story. This is a laugh at my pain kind of story.

Those were the days I just landed in San Diego. About 4 years ago. Since I studied in the east coast, I always fancied west coast. Grass on the other side is always green. Right?  J

Little do I know about these coasts when I was back in India? The only USA I know was LA and NYC. I never knew there are 50 states in the US. I thought only white people and Indians lived in the USA.  When I got a job in San Diego, this is what that came to my mind. West coast, Hollywood, beaches, surfing, nightlife etc.

On this particular day, I woke up suddenly at 9 45 AM early morning and realized that I have signed up for a surfing lesson.

My head hurts. Needless to say I was so drunk at this Indian singles meet up the previous night. I can go over my encounters with alcohol to gain courage to talk to any girl. Remember I am a naturally shy person. I failed at building a conversation even with one woman and not even close to make any friends. My conversation never moves from I work at Sony. San Diego is a nice place. Good weather and L that’s it. Okay... Let me not side track. I can talk on my failures of building conversations in a different speech.

Lesson starts in 30 minutes at La Jolla. I drove immediately. No water. No coffee or No Breakfast. Please note this point. I got my wet suit and a long surf board about 9 feet long. By the time I hit the beach a girl was waiting with their surfing boards. Guess What! She was a woman in her mid-twenties.  I was super happy looking at this girl. I thought to myself “Forget about last night, I should get a number from this one”

I did not even get a chance to introduce myself and the instructor came to the scene. He was thin, young, must be in his mid-twenties. I was cursing him back of my mind.

He introduced himself and he asked me if I can speak English with a deviant grin in his face. I nodded.  He already pissed me off. He checked us if we were regular or goofy footed. Basically he pushes us from back to check what leg we are taking the lead.  If you take left foot that means you are regular and if you take right foot then you are goofy footed.  Fortunately or Unfortunately I am a goofy footed. He smiles at me by looking at this girl. It took no time for me to realize that he is making fun of me and hitting on this girl.

He showed us the paddling and popping up move.  (Show the movement) I thought I got that.  I was hung over and had no breakfast and I have not mentioned this point, I was huge then weighing 190 pounds.

You don’t believe me look at this cheeky guy back in 2011. I want to save my face before those girls. I was trying harder and failing.

Every time I do something, the instructor was giving me faces and nodding his head showing signs of unhappiness.

Everything was okay until it was not.  We got into water.

I leashed the board onto my legs and I am trying to catch the first wave.

I managed to popup after catching the wave and surf for about 5 to 10 seconds. It was a moment of pride. I was looking at the girl as if I am a surfing champion.

Everything was fine until it was not.

That was the only time I caught the wave. After that do you know how many times I caught the wave? A big zero. 

On the way out there the waves seem huge.. Intimidated I reluctantly paddled along... As I was paddling out there.... and I can feel like I'm almost vertical.. And all of a sudden. CRASH!!! I drank so much of salt water. You know what salt water does to your body. It dehydrates you. I am already dehydrated with the previous night’s alcohol.

Instructor never told me the board should point towards the shore. I am staying parallel to the shore and crashing again and again. So called instructor is helping the lady and unknowingly I got dragged inside because of a rip current.

For those of you who does not know what is a rip current, it is a strong localized narrow current that goes inside the sea.

The shore looked so far away, and soon it was tough just trying to stay afloat. All the frantic movements and the raced breathing.. I had no energy.  If I let go of the board I could barely feel the ground. But since the current would pull me back after each wave I couldn't get my foot on the ground. I was too tired to try to swim for it. No one was there near me and I could not get onto the board. I gave up. I was waving at the instructor. Realized he started swimming towards me. He was very far. I was hoping he could come and rescue me. No energy. My body felt like Jelly. He came and tried to get me onto the board and no luck. He can’t swim with a person who is nearly 200 pounds. He gave up too.

Out of nowhere, lifeguards came by on a water craft. I was asked to hold the grip firmly. I was moved to the shore in less than a minute.  Thanks to La jolla lifeguards and No thanks to the instructor who was flirting with that girl.

I was terrified to death and I've never felt so helpless before in my life. After that, if I look at any surfing picture or any video, it made my stomach uneasy and my knees knock.

I did not go near water and did not even drink alcohol until several months after that incident.

I have learned 3 lessons for life.

1.       Do not Drink if you have a planned physical activity the next day

2.       Even if you drink, Drink lots of water and eat your breakfast before doing any activity.

3.       Do not take surfing lessons from a young and inexperienced instructor and that to with a girl. Chance of getting her number is almost zero and a chance of being rescued by life guards by is very high.

I would like to conclude today’s speech with a quote from Charlie Chaplin “My pain may be the reason for somebody's laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody's pain.”

Speech 1: Icebreaker Speech - How I got here

Hello Everyone. My name is Chandra Sekhar Devavarapu. 

I was born – Graduated – Made it to the US (Living my Dream) – Did my Masters – Got a Job.

Somewhere along the way – I got married (Still living my Dream  J )

Allow me take you to different time lines of my Life in no particular order.

It was spring of 2007. I landed in the United States of America.  The place I have always dreamt to live. Cleveland, Ohio was the first place I lived in the US. I still remember how I felt experiencing the low 40s for the first time.

I lived in a Small Studio - Study and campus job during the weekdays – part time job over the weekend – 2 years fast forward – Graduated from Cleveland State University with a GPA of 3.84. Master of Science in Information systems.

Since we are talking about educational qualifications let us go back to my undergrad days.

I am a chemical engineer from JNT University from Hyderabad.  Graduated with 79.8 % in 2006. I love chemistry which made me choose chemical engineering among many other fields. It did not take much time to realize chemistry has nothing to do with chemical engineering. My engineering degree lead to this job many young engineers’ chemical engineers aspire in one of the leading Oil refineries in India called Reliance Industries. It was world’s largest refinery at a single location.  I worked there for close to one year. I realized my dream of higher studies in the US and I pursued it.

I had a wonderful childhood.  I hail from a middle class family from a small village in south India. My father is a farmer and my mom is a house keeper. We have a coconut farm.  I am always grateful to my parents for all the hard ships and sacrifices they made for me and my elder sisters upbringing.

Eight years in the US. I’ve worked with several clients as a Business Intelligence Consultant. I have lived in many places. (East coast, West coast, Mid-west and South). SD is the best places I have ever lived.  

My Interests and hobbies:

I love food. I love photography. Not just photography, I like working with HDR imaging. Photo editing software’s like Light room, Photoshop.  I love traveling, going to places experiencing different cultures. Traveling to the UK seeing some places of England and Scotland got me a travel bug. I want to see other parts of Europe.

I like running. I am not fast but got some endurance.  I ran about 1000 miles did 8 half marathons so far. Am doing another half in March and will do a marathon this year. There is a growing optimism that I will be an ultra-marathoner soon. 

Video Link

Speech 2 - Boston Bombings - Spectator POV

Susan introduces me:

We heard little about our next speaker Mr. Chandra on his ice breaker speech. For those of you who were not there on his first speech, He is environmental engineering master’s degree holder, a runner, peace lover and he loves traveling.   He is a reserved and shy guy but once you break the ice, he is not only fun to talk to but his experiences are worth listening. He is here to share an experience from his life.

Speech:

“That’s why a bomb can’t beat us. That’s why we don’t hunker down. That’s why we don’t cower in fear, “We carry on. We race. We strive. We build, and we work, and we love.”

Mr. Barack Obama said at the peak of his speech; during an interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross In the commemorative speech post Boston bombings.

There is a reason for me to quote this.  I was one of the half million spectators for the Boston Marathon April 2013. My cousin Ravi who is an elite runner, my inspiration ran that year. As an ardent lover of the sport, I went to Boston to cheer for him.  This is my experience.

My brother and his family, I and some of our family friends gathered in one of our relatives place the day before and all of us went for a good sightseeing. Boston! What a historic town. I loved the place.

On the race day morning I dropped my brother at the pickup area where all the runners will be picked. I came back, got ready and started again with my brother’s wife, his daughter and couple of other friends. We had to park the car and take the train to downtown. There is no way you can reach downtown on your car. We parked our car very far and walked to the station. We got down at one of the stations in the middle

We waited at the mile 16 of the marathon course to spot and cheer for my brother. Waited for almost 45 minutes but spotted him.  Identifying runners in a pool of 26K people is quite tough. But we spotted him, cheered him and I took a picture too.

We moved forward and took another train station to reach to finish line. The train was full and it did not have even space to squeeze in even one person. Nisha took my phone and played Ninja fruit game and drained all the battery. I got off one stop before the finish line to cheer for Annayya called Kenmore and rest of the guys went to finish line. Looked for him but could not find him. He passed already and finished the marathon. I might have missed him by minute or so. I started walking towards the finish line to meet him at the finish. It was a 25 minutes’ walk towards finish line. All of us met at the family meeting area. We suddenly saw people running towards us. All of us stepped into this restaurant by the road.  Then we got a call from another cousin from Sacramento to check if everybody is fine.  Until then we do not know about the couple bomb explosions near the finish line. I missed the explosions in less than 10 minutes.

We could see the things live which are two blocks away in the TV. Phone signals were okay for some time and later they got blocked. Sent messages to near and dears saying we are fine. My phone was dead very shortly. I could charge my phone a bit with the help of a waitress.

I have asked the attendant of the restaurant the best way to go to airport. He gave some direction to go to train station. I am not good in directions and of course I am in panic mode.  Gave good bye to everyone.

Boston downtown was like a hassle. I could see fear in everybody’s face. Police and emergency Siren everywhere. With the little charging I got from the restaurant I called you walking towards the train station.  People are talking like public transportation is closed. Walking towards the train station which is like 6 or 7 blocks away.  So much drama (police, siren and traffic) even during the way to airport.

Somehow I made it to the airport.  Can you imagine a power loss  at the airport.  I have gone through the security check and finally made it to my plane. You must know that Boston airport is very complex that there are at least 200 feet elevation escalators. Finally I took my plane and made it to San Diego.

My thoughts are with my brother and his family for their safe return.

Later, I came to know 3 people died and nearly 300 people got injured badly.

Like the rest of the world, I have been angry, confused, and saddened. I wanted to do something. Anything!

All I could do is to run.

I ran harder for those who could not run. I dedicate my 1000 miles to the deceased and the victims of this incident.

Incidents like this will show the world how strong Americans are, how supportive the Bostonians were during the operation to catch the people who did this attack. Twenty six thousand people ran the race in 2013 and 36K people ran the race the following year.  I could relate this with a quote from a famous writer. “How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.” 

Thank you all for listening to me. 

Speech Video Link

Speech 4 “When You Do a Job, You Get Paid”

“When You Do a Job, You Get Paid”

“Don't you wish you could take a single childhood memory and blow it up into a bubble and live inside it forever?”  Well I do!

Last weekend I camped at Joshua tree national park with my wife. We were having a casual conversation and she asked me to share a childhood memory which I never told her before.  I gave her a wooden face. I thought I told her everything from my childhood days to the time I met her. I stretched my brain muscles and finally I got something simple yet effective story from my child hood.

I was about 9 years old. I remember this particular visit to my farm at my village on a hot summer day during holidays.  On that day I became an early bird all of a sudden.  Reason being the previous night, my dad told me that I had a job to do at the farm. He said “when you do a Job, you get paid” He has not disclosed what I will be paid or what my job was. This statement from my dad was resonating in my mind like a stretched string from the moment he said it to me.  I was excited, enthusiastic and eager.

Since it was very early in the day, I can hear the roosters crowing and the pigeons cooing. My dad took on his bicycle and I sat on the back carriage. We were heading on this narrow and unpaved road. Along the way, I observed several people doing several different jobs like milking cows, Bringing water, cleaning utensils, people selling breakfast etc. I thought to myself “when you do a job, you get paid”

It was about 30 minutes ride on the bicycle and we reached our farm and I became the most observant kid in the whole wide world trying to notice each and every person doing his/her job. We have 20 acres of coconut farm.  We have to park our cycle at some point where we need to cross a small canal on which a coconut tree trunk was placed for people to cross it.  My father holds my hand and helps me step by step to cross this canal. We have to walk another half kilometer to reach our hut.  We operate the bore well and keep our belongings there.

We have a tube well which we use to pump the ground water and use it for irrigation of the coconut trees. There was a small pool. Bathing at the bore well was my favorite activity as a child. I thought someone has built this bore well and someone else must have built this pool. I thought to me again “when you do a job, you get paid”

I got into that shallow pool lying on my back and staring at the sky. Since it was already hot, my heart desired a drizzle.  I was thinking about the job and the payment I was about to get.  

A group of 10 workers came and were talking to my dad. It took no time for me to realize that there is coconut harvesting will be done. They do this every 45 days. They climb the tree; cut the pre ripened coconuts. Everybody has a definite job. Someone climbs, someone collects and someone categorizes.   My father got me a chair and I am just watching them waiting for the time when the task will be assigned to me.  While I sit at the pile, my father walks around to check on the people who were climbing. This piling happened until noon. The day was so hot that you can bake a cake in the sand.

The goat keepers at our farm offered me the lunch that day. They are vegetarian and the fun part was they don’t eat with the hands. They cooked rice and the gravy. One person mixes and put it in the banana leaf. You have to eat with your mouth directly. Food melted in my mouth and it was all in the best possible taste.

Post lunch everyone gathered at the pile and everyone started peeling the skin of the coconut and then the counting started.  My dad called me and gave me a thread. He asked me to tie a knot for every hundred I hear when they count out loud. I realized immediately that was my Joyful job. I was busy as a bee the whole time and successfully completed the job.

The next day my dad took me to the town and bought me an electronic watch for 30 rupees. It is a big deal for a school going kid. I was on cloud 9 for at least some days. That’s how I got paid for my first job. It was my father’s way of saying nothing comes for free and “When you do a job, you get paid”

I would like to conclude my speech with a simple quote from Julian Barnes. “Memories of childhood were the dreams that stayed with you after you woke.” So my fellow toastmasters, when you have a moment recollect any good childhood memory and I am sure you will be glad to cherish that moment.

Speech 4 Youtube Video

Speech 3: ABC Rubiik's Cube

How many of you know about Rubik’s Cube? I thought so.

How many of you can solve Rubik’s Cube? Well. Ok

How many of you thought you want to solve a Rubik’s cube or thought it is cool to solve a Rubik’s Cube?

Cool!

Today I am going to talk about ABC Rubik’s cube. Not ABCs of Rubik’s cube or Rubik’s cube 101. This is not a different kind of Rubik’s Cube like you all are thinking. I am gonna talk about the normal Rubik’s cube 3x3x3 (Show the Cube). This cube can have immeasurable combinations. To be precise 4 Quintillion combinations. I.e. eighteen zeroes after 1. There is only one solution to have same color on all the sides.

Very long back, I watched this movie called “The pursuit of happiness”

In that movie Chris, an aspiring stock Broker solves the Rubik's Cube and this impresses the man to give Chris an interview for the Dean Witter training program. He gets into the training program eventually.

In another event, I saw this Asian boy with thick glasses in a super market, who was solving Rubik’s cube very fast, number of times while his mom was paying at the counter. I got inspired. Later I came to know people who can solve in seconds are called speedcubers.

The point here: People gets inspired by Rubik’s cube solving. Solving Rubik’s cube implies people are smart, has analytical thinking, High IQ etc.

Well well well! That is not true at all.

ABC Rubik’s Cube – Any Body can Solve Rubik’s Cube.

Yes Any Body Can Solve a Rubik’s cube.

This is not about smartness. This is not about high IQ or geeky or Nerdy.

I got this Rubik’s cube couple weeks back and started learning it and voila I cracked it. When I said couple of weeks it is not 2 by 24 by 7. I must have spent some 8-10 hours.   

What do you need to solve it?

1.       A Rubik’s cube

2.       Interest to solve it.

3.       A little memory.

There are two ways you can solve the cube.

1.       Take all the 21 cubelets out of the cube and you just put them where they belong to.  This is only for lazy people and cheaters.

2.       To actually solve it.

You cannot solve the cube randomly without any method. Max you can do like that solve a layer or two. You need to pick a method to solve it and go for it. There are several methods out there like Beginners method, optimized beginners method, Ortega’s method, waterman’s method.

I have picked the beginners method. Solving the first two layers is pretty easy and you don’t need to remember any algorithms. You need to memorize some patterns though. Solving the third layer involves memorizing some algorithm. Algorithms are the move sets to achieve certain results.  You might need to memorize three move sets. There are even techniques to remember the moves. For example there is FUR on back of your Foot.

In a nut shell, it is easier than you think it is and you can get it in no time. You can be frustrated initially but all that will be gone on your first solve.

If you think, learning a method and solving it is also cheating. You can create your own method by noting down your patterns to achieve the results. You may try this if you have all the time in this world. Good luck with that.

Just like many other addictions there are people who are addicted to Rubik’s cube called Cubaholic. Don’t be one of those. J

My goal is achieved if I can make at least one of you to go for solving Rubik’s cube and you can show off before your kids or friends or anybody you know.

And those who pick the Rubik’s cube “Happy Cubing”

Thank you!

Speech Video