Current Affairs For SSC CGL Exam

15 April, 2014

Pulitzer Prize

• Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, already among the most popular and celebrated novels of the past year, has won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. One of the country’s top colonial historians, Alan Taylor, has won his second Pulitzer, forThe Internal Enemy — Slavery and War In Virginia.

• The Washington Post and the Guardian have won Pulitzer Prizes in public service for revealing the massive U.S. government surveillance effort.

• The newspapers’ disclosures about the National Security Agency's spy programs show the U.S. government has collected information about millions of Americans' phone calls and emails based on its classified interpretations of laws passed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

• The Boston Globe has been awarded a Pulitzer Prize in breaking news, and The New York Times has won two Pulitzers in photography categories — Tyler Hicks was honoured in the breaking news category for documenting the Westgate mall terrorist attack in Kenya, and Josh Haner was cited for his essay on a Boston Marathon bomb blast victim who lost his legs.

• The Center for Public Integrity won the award for investigative reporting for reports on how some lawyers and doctors rigged a system to deny benefits to coal miners suffering from black lung disease.

• The Pulitzer for explanatory reporting was given to The Washington Post for reporting on the prevalence of food stamps in America.

• Annie Baker's The Flick won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, a play set in a movie theater that was called a "thoughtful drama with well-crafted characters" which created "lives rarely seen on the stage".

• The award for general nonfiction went to Dan Fagin’s Toms River, an acclaimed chronicle of industrial destruction in small New Jersey community. Megan Marshall’s Margaret Fuller, about the 19th century transcendentalist, won for biography; and Vijay Seshadri’s witty and philosophical 3 Sections received the poetry prize.

Shotgun World Cup

• Mohammed Asab missed the double trap knock-out phase by one point in the Shotgun World Cup in Tucson, US. Ankur Mittal finished 19th with a 132 while Ronjan Sodhi placed 35th with 120 in a field of 41.
• Joshua Richmond of the US who made the cut for the knock-out, one point above Asab, following a shoot-off on 138, went on to bag the silver after losing the shoot-off for gold against compatriot Jeffrey Holgun.
• In women’s skeet, Saniya Sheikh shot 64 to be placed 25th among 31 shooters. National champion Rashmee Rathore could muster only 57 . Danka Bartekova of Slovakia won the gold as she beat Wei Weng of China, 14-13.

Plant growth chamber for space

• Astronauts will now turn into cosmic gardeners and grow lettuce in space as United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is all set to send the largest ever plant growth chamber to the International Space Station (ISS).

• It will launch the Vegetable Production System aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

• The plant growth chamber will grow lettuce inside prototype flight pillows that will help the plants withstand zero gravity, The Verge reported. Red, blue, and green light emitting diodes (LEDs) will help sustain the vegetables, and the plant chamber itself can grow to 11.5 inches wide and 14.5 inches deep.

• This will be “the largest plant growth chamber for space to date.

• The chamber may even be used for more ambitious projects, like providing food for the average person back on Earth. After extensive testing on weightless horticulture, NASA is confident the lack of gravity will not impede growth.

• However, space-borne microbes that may develop during growth are a cause of concern. Therefore, the lettuce will undergo extensive testing before astronauts chow down.

Transgenders as third gender

• The Supreme Court has recognised transgenders or eunuchs as third category of gender and directed Centre and States to grant them all facilities, including voters ID, passport and driving licence.
• The Centre and States were also directed to take steps for bringing the community into the mainstream by providing adequate health care, education and employment.
• A bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri directed the government to take steps for granting recognition to transgenders as a separate third category of gender after male and female.
• The bench also said they are the citizens of the country and have equal rights to education, healthcare and employment opportunities like other people belonging to male and female gender.
• The apex court expressed concern over transgenders being harassed and discriminated in the society and passed a slew of directions for their social welfare.

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