‘Vanvaas’: Utkarsh Sharma Performs Bhasma Aarti in Ujjain Ahead of His Movie’s Release

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Indian actor Utkarsh Sharma who is currently gearing up for his upcoming film Vanvaas, was recently seen performing the sacred Bhasma Aarti at the renowned Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. Known for its spiritual significance, the Bhasma Aarti is a revered ritual, and Utkarsh’s presence added a devotional touch to his ongoing promotional tour. ‘Vanvaas’: Utkarsh Sharma and Simrat Kaur Visit Pracheen Hanuman Temple and Bangla Sahib Gurudwara Ahead of Their Movie’s Release.
The actor, who is on a promotional spree for Vanvaas, kickstarted the campaign in Banaras, followed by a stop in Delhi, and has now reached Ujjain , connecting deeply with the roots of Indian culture along the way.
Utkarsh Sharma’s spiritual gesture at Mahakaleshwar Temple not only highlights his devotion but also reflects the themes of tradition and spirituality that align with Vanvaas, making this a unique way to resonate with audiences across the country.
Watch the Trailer of ‘Vanvaas’:
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The film, which is all set to release on December 20, has been striking a chord with audiences for its compelling narrative, impactful performances, and Utkarsh’s never-seen-before tapori avatar. With each city, the promotional campaign strengthens the film’s growing popularity, especially in smaller towns and spiritual hubs. (All articles published here are Syndicated/Partnered/Sponsored feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the articles do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)

India News | Himachal: Body of Tourist Who Fell in River While Clicking Selfie Retrieved

Travel

Shimla, Dec 18 (PTI) The body of a tourist who fell in a river in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti while clicking a selfie was retrieved on Wednesday, police said. The incident took place on Tuesday when Nikhil Kumar, 28, a resident of Rajasthan, was taking a photograph of himself near Fuman nullah on the banks of the Chandra River, they said. Also Read | ‘Congress Is Anti-Ambedkar, Anti-Constitution, Anti-Reservation’: Amit Shah Accuses Congress of Twisting Facts, Distorting His Statement in Rajya Sabha on BR Ambedkar (Watch Video). Soon after getting information, teams from the local police, National Disaster Response Force, mountaineering institute, fire department and others launched a rescue operation in temperatures ranging from minus 13 to 19 degrees Celsius, Superintendent of Police, Lahaul and Spiti, Mayank Chaudhary said. The operation went on till late Tuesday, he said. Kumar’s body was found on Wednesday morning 500 metres away from the spot from where he had slipped, he said. Also Read | Eurozone Inflation Rises Less Than Expected, More in Germany. Chaudhary advised tourists visiting Lahaul and Spiti to follow the advisories of staying away from rivers, rivulets, and cliffs and be cautious of driving on black ice. In May, a tourist from Madhya Pradesh — Ruchi Tiwari — slipped and fell into the Beas River near Manali while clicking selfies in Himachal’s Kullu district while another person accompanying the woman jumped into the torrid waters to save the woman. Both of them died. A week later, two more tourists, Aanchal, 17, and Meenu, 24, belonging to the same family drowned in the Beas River near Manali as they slipped into the river while taking photographs, officials said. Despite various sign boards set up by the administration discouraging people from going near rivers, tourists continue to endanger their lives just for a few photographs, rued a government employee.(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

India News | Himachal: Body of Tourist Who Fell in River While Clicking Selfie Retrieved

Travel

Shimla, Dec 18 (PTI) The body of a tourist who fell in a river in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti while clicking a selfie was retrieved on Wednesday, police said. The incident took place on Tuesday when Nikhil Kumar, 28, a resident of Rajasthan, was taking a photograph of himself near Fuman nullah on the banks of the Chandra River, they said. Also Read | ‘Congress Is Anti-Ambedkar, Anti-Constitution, Anti-Reservation’: Amit Shah Accuses Congress of Twisting Facts, Distorting His Statement in Rajya Sabha on BR Ambedkar (Watch Video). Soon after getting information, teams from the local police, National Disaster Response Force, mountaineering institute, fire department and others launched a rescue operation in temperatures ranging from minus 13 to 19 degrees Celsius, Superintendent of Police, Lahaul and Spiti, Mayank Chaudhary said. The operation went on till late Tuesday, he said. Kumar’s body was found on Wednesday morning 500 metres away from the spot from where he had slipped, he said. Also Read | Eurozone Inflation Rises Less Than Expected, More in Germany. Chaudhary advised tourists visiting Lahaul and Spiti to follow the advisories of staying away from rivers, rivulets, and cliffs and be cautious of driving on black ice. In May, a tourist from Madhya Pradesh — Ruchi Tiwari — slipped and fell into the Beas River near Manali while clicking selfies in Himachal’s Kullu district while another person accompanying the woman jumped into the torrid waters to save the woman. Both of them died. A week later, two more tourists, Aanchal, 17, and Meenu, 24, belonging to the same family drowned in the Beas River near Manali as they slipped into the river while taking photographs, officials said. Despite various sign boards set up by the administration discouraging people from going near rivers, tourists continue to endanger their lives just for a few photographs, rued a government employee.(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

Beaumont local gives gift of reading with annual book drive

Arts & Culture, Books

Article contentEveryone hopes to have a great holiday, but not everybody can afford it. To share the holiday spirit with those less fortunate, Beaumont resident Julia Foley, has organized a children’s book drive for those who cannot afford to buy gifts this holiday.Article contentFoley has collected around 200 books this year, and has been collecting books for her book drive annually since 2018. The books go to families new to the English language, for kids in Kindergarten to Grade 6, in Edmonton elementary schools who may not have access to English books at home. Each year different schools receive the books based on the student’s needs.“If kids go through the route of Christmas Elves and that, they are most likely taken care of for food and clothing. With them being newcomers to Canada, or lower income, they might not have books to read,” Foley said. “This is something that I can do here.”When the books are displayed at the school, students get the chance to look at them and take a few books for themselves or their siblings. Foley said she’ll, “take almost any book,” with her collection having a wide range from educational to children’s fantasy.“I want to become a teacher and have books available to my students. I want to make sure that all these books that I have been given, whether they go to this book drive, have a home. I donate books separately from this to schools and classrooms in Beaumont. I hope to give back to the community and help kids read. Reading is essential. It is one of the best ways to improve your language skills and I hope that they get joy out of this. I hope that the people of Beaumont keep donating and being as generous as they are.,” said Foley.Share this article in your social network

NY school districts ranked 1 to 609 based on new science scores

Science and Health

One school district in New York state saw at least 90% of its students test proficient on statewide assessment tests in science during the 2023-2024 school year.Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District in Nassau County on Long Island had 93% of its students test proficient on state science tests last year. No other school district in New York cracked 90% proficiency.The science assessments are given every year to students across New York in fifth and eighth grades. The state Education Department released data on tests from the 2023-2024 school year in November.Syracuse.com analyzed the data and ranked every district using the combined scores for students in both fifth and eighth grades.Students are considered proficient if they score at level three or higher on the assessment tests.The highest-ranking Onondaga County school district for science last year was Fayetteville-Manlius, which tied for No. 27 statewide. A total of 76% of students in the district tested proficient on the latest tests.The Syracuse City School District was 598th for science last year out of 610 districts in New York with data reported by the state. A total of 19% of students in the district tested proficient on the science assessment tests during the 2023-2024 school year.You can see details on the latest science rankings for New York school districts in the table below. If you can’t see the table, click here to open it in a new window.You can search by entering a complete or partial district name in the search box or a county name. You can also click on the column headers to sort the table.Only districts with data reported by the state are included in the table.Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598

HCLTech launches SAP Business AI innovation lab in Munich to enable digital transformation for clients

Business News

HCLTech, a global leader in technology services, has opened an innovation lab for SAP Business AI in Munich, Germany, to help clients explore industry-specific applications and accelerate their AI initiatives. This new facility strengthens HCLTech’s strategic partnership with SAP, enabling businesses to seamlessly transition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud through RISE with SAP.
Integrated with HCLTech’s global AI & Cloud Native Lab network, the lab combines cutting-edge AI solutions from HCLTech’s AI Force platform with SAP AI Core infrastructure to co-create tailored GenAI-driven solutions. The key focus areas include:
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Value Stream Transformation – Drive RISE with SAP adoption and transform industry value chains with GenAI-powered tools and frameworks, including HCLTech AI Foundry.
Service Transformation – Innovate SAP software development through HCLTech delivery frameworks, leveraging GenAI acceleration.
Cloud Native Transformation – Enhance cloud operations with GenAI capabilities for optimized performance.

HCLTech’s global network of AI & Cloud Native Labs, located in Germany, the UK, the US, Singapore, and India, fosters AI and GenAI-driven solutions for businesses across various industries, helping them unlock new growth opportunities.

Aman Shukla is a post-graduate in mass communication . A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication ,content writing and copy writing. Aman is currently working as journalist at BusinessUpturn.com

Julia Bradbury on how books have helped her wellbeing

Arts & Culture, Books

Scanning the spines of books stacked in her home library, Julia Bradbury picks a cherished tome from the shelf. “I’m a hoarder,” admits the 54-year-old TV presenter. “I find it really hard to give books up, which is why I still have this copy of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I’ve lugged [it] from house to house, along with thousands of other books for the past 20 years.”Having recently returned from a research trip to India, the mother of three says she felt inspired to read the novel again. Beyond the gripping plot, it’s the expressions and descriptions of foods and flavours that take her on a journey.She’s not the only reader to find a sense of wanderlust in printed pages. According to research by travel company Explore Worldwide, 72 per cent of travellers visited or have considered visiting a place after reading a novel set there. Their new Four Corners Book Club, fronted by Bradbury, invites readers to discover travel-inspired fiction, and share their own literary recommendations.“It’s just magical how books can weave you into a place,” enthuses Bradbury. “And I don’t think [you] have to have been to a place to picture it. Sometimes you can just hold that vision in your imagination.”Julia Bradbury is fronting the Explore Four Corners Book Club,. Photo: Explore/PA.Despite a successful career in television, Bradbury was weaned on the written word. Beyond being a source of information, relaxation and entertainment, she believes reading is also good for our wellbeing. Touching pages and making a visual connection stimulates the brain, she insists, admitting that she writes down many of her voice-to-camera pieces to make sure she commits them to memory.“Your eyes and your brain are one,” she says. “For centuries, we have been drawing, writing and communicating, whether it’s via stone tablets, on cave walls, or on parchment paper. I’m so thrilled that even now as we are standing on the threshold of this terrifying and exciting world of AI, books are flourishing. People are reading more books than ever before.”Working in the media industry makes it impossible to switch off completely, but Bradbury insists she’s been working hard to minimise screen time to protect her mental health. “I’ve changed my nighttime routine considerably since I’ve been working on the new healthy version of me,” she explains. “I don’t watch TV in the evening time anymore, I don’t have phones in the bedroom and I try to get off the screens by 6pm if I can.”Instead, she dedicates her evenings to reading and she’s feeling much better for it. When it comes to her children, the same strict rules apply – although she admits it can be a battle. “My kids will not have a phone until they’re 16. They know that, we’ve had that discussion.”Digital screens are magnetic for children, but you’ve got to bring words and reading into your children’s lives. Read newspaper articles, show them things, discuss stories with them.”For more information on how to join the Explore Four Corners Book Club, visit explore.co.uk/four-corners-book-club.

Consider the science behind the reality of climate change – Yorkshire Post Letters

Science and Health

From: John Rayner, North Ferriby.Once again, Michael Carter (YP Letters, December 7) tries to convince Clark Cross that a “mere” 0.04 percent concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere can be responsible for the global warming that is disrupting our weather so blatantly.At the risk of being accused of ‘blinding with science’, I wonder if a little technical explanation might help clarify why this apparently tiny proportion could be so powerful?Energy arrives on our planet as solar radiation – both visible sunlight and throughout the wider electromagnetic spectrum – including ultraviolet and the infrared frequencies that are familiar in the operation of heat lamps, etc.People gather during sunset at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, as they wait to welcome in the Summer Solstice. PIC: Andrew Matthews/PA WireThe frequencies of light are not present equally across the solar spectrum and they interact variously with different substances.For example, the sky looks blue because certain gases in the atmosphere absorb that frequency from the sunlight and re-emit it in all directions, including back to space, so the light ‘bounces around’ on its way to our eyes. The sun shines yellow and red because that light comes straight through – more intensely red at sunrise and setting as more atmospheric distance is crossed, so scattering more blue.All substances absorb and emit energy to different extents, according to their molecular structure and the varying frequencies of radiant energy. Incident energy absorbed by a molecule may be re-emitted at a different frequency.Ground substances warmed by incident infrared, that has also passed directly through the atmosphere, cool down again by emitting other frequencies which, it so happens, can be absorbed by atmospheric CO2, methane and water vapour, but not by nitrogen and oxygen.Why so? The more complex the molecule, the greater the number of frequencies it may absorb and emit, since the range of vibrational resonances in a molecule relates to the number of atoms it has and the pattern of their bonding together – just as the note of a guitar string changes with length.Nitrogen and oxygen, the two most abundant atmospheric gases, have two atoms each per molecule. CO2 has three atoms, as does water vapour (H2O), while methane (CH4) has five.Thus methane has much greater potential absorbance, being at least 30 times more powerful than CO2 per molecule as a greenhouse gas. However, being of course readily reactive with oxygen, methane does not stay long in the atmosphere and at just two parts per million it has less than one 200th the concentration of CO2, so relatively less warming influence.Water vapour concentrations in the atmosphere are highly variable geographically – highest in the tropics, much less at the poles – but typically averaging around 0.4 per cent worldwide.Hence water vapour has around ten times the concentration of CO2, but due to a much lower molecular absorbency at the relevant frequencies, it contributes just half of our planet’s temperature moderation – much as it has always done.The rest is largely due to the influence of CO2, so the 50 per cent increase in its concentration over the past 200 years is the predominant cause of current excess global warming. Nitrogen and oxygen make up some 99 per cent of the atmosphere between them, but contribute nothing in this respect.

Consider the science behind the reality of climate change – Yorkshire Post Letters

Science and Health

From: John Rayner, North Ferriby.Once again, Michael Carter (YP Letters, December 7) tries to convince Clark Cross that a “mere” 0.04 percent concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere can be responsible for the global warming that is disrupting our weather so blatantly.At the risk of being accused of ‘blinding with science’, I wonder if a little technical explanation might help clarify why this apparently tiny proportion could be so powerful?Energy arrives on our planet as solar radiation – both visible sunlight and throughout the wider electromagnetic spectrum – including ultraviolet and the infrared frequencies that are familiar in the operation of heat lamps, etc.People gather during sunset at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, as they wait to welcome in the Summer Solstice. PIC: Andrew Matthews/PA WireThe frequencies of light are not present equally across the solar spectrum and they interact variously with different substances.For example, the sky looks blue because certain gases in the atmosphere absorb that frequency from the sunlight and re-emit it in all directions, including back to space, so the light ‘bounces around’ on its way to our eyes. The sun shines yellow and red because that light comes straight through – more intensely red at sunrise and setting as more atmospheric distance is crossed, so scattering more blue.All substances absorb and emit energy to different extents, according to their molecular structure and the varying frequencies of radiant energy. Incident energy absorbed by a molecule may be re-emitted at a different frequency.Ground substances warmed by incident infrared, that has also passed directly through the atmosphere, cool down again by emitting other frequencies which, it so happens, can be absorbed by atmospheric CO2, methane and water vapour, but not by nitrogen and oxygen.Why so? The more complex the molecule, the greater the number of frequencies it may absorb and emit, since the range of vibrational resonances in a molecule relates to the number of atoms it has and the pattern of their bonding together – just as the note of a guitar string changes with length.Nitrogen and oxygen, the two most abundant atmospheric gases, have two atoms each per molecule. CO2 has three atoms, as does water vapour (H2O), while methane (CH4) has five.Thus methane has much greater potential absorbance, being at least 30 times more powerful than CO2 per molecule as a greenhouse gas. However, being of course readily reactive with oxygen, methane does not stay long in the atmosphere and at just two parts per million it has less than one 200th the concentration of CO2, so relatively less warming influence.Water vapour concentrations in the atmosphere are highly variable geographically – highest in the tropics, much less at the poles – but typically averaging around 0.4 per cent worldwide.Hence water vapour has around ten times the concentration of CO2, but due to a much lower molecular absorbency at the relevant frequencies, it contributes just half of our planet’s temperature moderation – much as it has always done.The rest is largely due to the influence of CO2, so the 50 per cent increase in its concentration over the past 200 years is the predominant cause of current excess global warming. Nitrogen and oxygen make up some 99 per cent of the atmosphere between them, but contribute nothing in this respect.