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Have you ever said somethingand then wished you hadn’tsaid it? The words come outand you immediately wish

you could reel them back in. But thething about words is that you can’tunsay them. We really need to in-

stall a filter between our mindsand our mouths.

You’ve probably observed this inothers many times. Maybe even inyourself. Whether it’s at school, withfriends or in some type of social sit-uation, many people speak theirminds before thinking. There aremany who “fly off the handle” anddon’t stop to think about the reper-cussions of their words.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “Re-member not only to say the right thingin the right place, but far more diffi-

cult still, to leave unsaidthe wrong thing at thetempting moment.”

Choose the wordsthat you speak verycarefully because theyhave the potential of

accomplishing nearly anything ordestroying nearly anything. Just onenegative comment can ruin a per-son’s day. A few might even ruinthe person’s life. On the flip side,one positive and encouraging com-ment can be just enough to increaseteam engagement, create healthiercultures and make more of a differ-ence in an individual’s life than youwill ever know. Always rememberthis: the way you speak — the attitude and tone — reflects the per-son you are.

After the US drone strike killed Iran’s military commander, the IT minister ofthe Islamic republic called US Prez Donald Trump a “terrorist in a suit”. Are

retorts used by politicians in good taste? How can we steer clear fromspeaking foul? Read more here...

LITTLEROCKET

MAN DOTARD

RETORTSRETORTSSTINGING STINGING

While tweeting nuclear warmongering threats to North Korean president

Kim Jong-un in September 2017, US President Donald Trump called

his counterpart a “little rocket man”.

Jong-un returned the favour by callinghim a “dotard” — a term used to describean old person, especially a feeble one. Theheated exchange led to a summit betweenthe two nations but the situation has notthawed between the two leaders.

DONALD TRUMP AND KIM JONG-UN

THE WORLD TO DONALD TRUMP

SOCCER-RELATED Quick passes, dribbling, headers, and punts, make soccer a dangerous game for young sports

enthusiasts. Neuroscientists are calling for a ban on junior contact sports saying that such sportsdamage the brain. They explain the impact of concussions on a child’s brain by comparing it to a skyscraper —

when you’re building one, the foundation phase is very important. The same applies to the brain of a child. Yourbrain is not fully developed until you’re about 18-25 years old. Is banning the sport a solution? Find out more...

The most common injuries in soc-cer are overuse injuries thatinvolve the legs and include patel-lar tendinitis (Jumper’s knee),medial tibial stress syndrome (shinsplints), Osgood-Schlatter disease,and patellofemoral pain syndrome(Runner's knee). Sprains, strains,

bumps, and bruises to the anklesand knees are also common.Ironically, most soccer-relatedinjuries occur in games ratherthan in practice as a result ofplayer-to-player contact.Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)injuries are also a big concern.

Many organisations are now advocat-ing that players wait to start headingthe ball until 10-12 years of age,when kids have developed strongercore and neck muscles and learnedproper technique including tensingneck muscles. At this time, there is

not enough medical evidence toshow that wearing headgear ormouthguards will prevent concussionin soccer players. Using headgearmay also give players a false senseof security, which could increase thelikelihood of risk-taking behaviour.

DO WE REALLY NEED CONTACT SPORTS?

IN KIDS ARE RISING...

FREQ

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ASK

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TIO

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HEADERS IN SOCCER...

P layer-to-player contactcaused maximum numberof concussions in 2019.

The Global Sports InjuriesResearch Institute in Californiacame up with a study that said

45% of youth players playing soc-cer and other contact sports likeboxing suffered serious head

injuries. 25% of the injuriescaused in soccer were because ofheaders. “Headers which require

players to redirect the ball withtheir head, were the most danger-ous individual move, responsiblefor nearly a third of concussionsfor boys and more than a quarterfor girls,”says the study.

The offenders for me are rugby,American football, MMA, boxing,wrestling and ice hockey. It’s beenestablished that playing contact

sports is not good for chil-dren. After just one sea-

son of playing, play-ers can suffer from

permanent braindamage. Knowingwhat we know today,children should not

be exposed to the risk.- AASHISH TRIPATHY, coach, Noida

What is wrong with us? Do we real-ly uphold and place the excitementof sports above the life of our chil-

dren? The way we are progressing, itis possible that in the verynear future, we will all lookback in horror at our culture ofcontact sports among kids.Over the last few years, manyrules have been added to thegame to protect players. Eithermake these rules very strin-gent or just forget about the sport.- RITU SINHA, teacher, DPS

When should kids start heading the ball?

What are the most common injuries in youth soccer players?CAN BANNING HEADERS HELP?

Banning heading would reduce some concussions, perhaps as many as30% of them. However, the study showed that we could help many

more kids if contact sports was banned for certain ages at school level

BAN CONTACT SPORTS AT JUNIOR SCHOOL LEVEL

To understand why this hap-pens, we have to go to the mi-croscopic level. Everything inour world is made up of tinyparticles called ‘atoms’.Theseatoms are, in turn, made up ofeven smaller particles knownas electrons, protons and neu-trons. The protons and neu-trons remain inside the atombut the electrons like to use anyexcuse to jump in and out ofthe atom.When you rub twoobjects together, the elec-trons from one object jumpto the other. This exchangeof electrons is what istermed as electrical charge.Electrical charges attract orrepel each other depending ontheir kind. If two objects have

same electrical charges,these charges repel each oth-er. Opposite charges, on the

other hand, attract. In thecase of the Styrofoam plates,there is a repelling charge be-tween them.

The second plate slides offthe first on its own! Ifyou try to hold the sec-

ond plate above the first, thesecond plate will push towardsyour hand in its effort to moveaway from the first plate. Mag-ic? Levitation? Not really.

Why does this happenthen? It’s static electricity! ‘Sta-tic’ means stationary. when yourub two objects against eachother (like the plate and thetowel), they develop stationary

electricalcharges.

PUTIN ON BRITAIN & OTHERS

At the G20 Summit in 2013, RussianPresident Vladimir Putin’s officialspokesperson Dmitry Peskov calledBritain “diplomatically irrelevant”. Hisexact words were: “[Britain is] just asmall island . . . no one pays anyattention to them.”

According to media reports, Putin him-self disparaged leaders of formerSoviet states during a routine meeting,by telling them that they should workharder and stop “just chewing snotfrom one year to the next”.

If nervous-ness makesyou say thingsthat you regret,take deep breaths tocalm down. Speakonly after you aresure of what youwant to say

Have you witnessed a silent quarrel between two plates?It’s rather fun.

WHAT YOU NEED:➤Two styrofoam

plates, atowel

WHAT TO DO: Rub the base of one

of the plates with

the towel and keep it on the table, baseside up.

Now, place the second Styrofoamplate on top of thefirst, face up.

THE quarrelling PLATES

TRY THIS AT HOME TO UNDER-STAND STATIC ELECTRICITY

BORIS JOHNSON ON HILLARY CLINTON, LIBYA

“She’s got dyedblonde hair and poutylips, and a steely bluestare, like a sadisticnurse in a mentalhospital”

UK Prime MinisterBoris Johnson is infa-mous for saying inap-propriate things dur-ing diplomatic inter-actions. In a newspa-per column in 2007,he wrote of HillaryClinton:

THE MAD DOG OF THEMIDDLE EAST

RONALD REAGAN ONMUAMMAR GADDAFI

According to historians, US leadersof the past preferred subtle and well-crafted insults, most of themreserved for their political opponentswithin the country. In the 1980s,however, Ronald Reagan, thecountry’s 40th presi-dent, stood out forcalling Libyan dicta-tor MuammarGaddafi “the maddog of the MiddleEast”.

If we are worried about physical activity,there are more than enoughnon-contact sports for kidsto get involved in. The offi-cial Olympic non-contactsports like track and fieldevents — such as long-jump,high-jump etc. While thereare risks of injuries in non-contact sports, it’s accidental injury.- SUSHMA MISHRA, parent

The 45th US President Donald Trump is the object of derision across severalcountries. Even when he was running for the presidency in 2016, he was the

target of diplomatic jeers.

Marcus Fysh, a Conservative British MP, called him “The orange prince ofAmerican self-publicity." Anne Hidalgo, the current mayor of Paris, chose to

keep it rather simple when she said, “Mr Trump is so stupid, my God!” KristianJensen, a former Danish minister of finance, said that “he [Trump] changes

opinions like the rest of us change underclothes”.

When he was a mayor of London, UK PM Boris Johnson had said, “The onlyreason I wouldn’t visit some parts of New York is the real risk of meeting

Donald Trump." As the world knows, Johnson has since changed his stance onhis US counterpart.

➤ Make teams in the class andlist situations where you replaceda stinging retort with a goodnatured advice. Compare notes tosee which team does better

➤ Can you think of five times

when what someone said had anegative impact on you? How didyou react?

➤ Think of examples from historywhere a stinging retort has lead toproblems

ACTIVITIES

In attaining our ideals,our means should be as pure as the end!

Dr Rajendra PrasadKNOWLEDGEPEDIA