April 2010 was the fourth month of that year. It began on a Thursday and ended after 30 days on a Friday.

International holidays[link]

(See Holidays and observances, on sidebar at right, below)

[edit] Portal:Current events

This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from April 2010.

See also[link]

• List of months by year: 2000–2050

References[link]

Template:Portal:Current events/Events by month

Steve Spangler shows a do it yourself experiment with a Cartesian diver

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Steve Spangler is an author, professional speaker, Emmy Award winner, listed in the public Time 100 poll, science teacher, founder of two companies, toy maker and a trained magician.^[1] He is most famous for the hugely popular experiment of dropping a Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke, with the end result being a huge geyser of Diet Coke.

Television and media[link]

Since starting his television career, Steve Spangler has appeared in over 240 television shows,^[2] featuring as an "authority on inquiry-based learning". Every week he is watched by over a million viewers on KUSA-TV (9News) as their "science guy". He also appeared frequently on Weather + Plus University NBC Weather Plus. Spangler was also the science host on the nationally syndicated show News for Kids. And, in 1997, Spangler won an Emmy Award for his role in the show.^[3]

Spangler was nominated for a position in the Time 100, however he didn't attain a final placing in the magazine. In a public poll on Time's website Spangler secured the 18th position,^[4] edging out over Brad Pitt and Barack Obama (19th and 20th respectively), but losing to Howard Stern at 17th.^[5] The main reason for him being nominated was for popularizing the Mentos eruption (see below). Spangler has never been on the cover of Time magazine, nor in a Time 100 list.^[4]

Steve Spangler is also a regular recurring guest on Ellen Degeneres' talkshow, where he demonstrates experiments, often with audience participation.

Education work[link]

Spangler is the director of the National Hands-on Science Institute, based in Denver, Colorado. Spangler's role as director means he is responsible for the coordination of 850 staff training in the US. The institute also sponsors a summer camp in Aspen Creek School, Broomfield, for both teachers and children. The teachers are taught various fun type science experiments in the morning and then show the children those experiments in the afternoon. Spangler said: "This is the only teacher training model of its kind in the country." ^[6]

Spangler acts as a consultant for Littleton Public Schools, Colorado. There he helps students get motivated and more interested in the hands-on aspect of science.

Each summer, Spangler holds his famous "Science in the Rockies" for teachers, which is far more than merely a conference; here, he truly does "teach teachers to be amazing!" Spangler Science also offers its "Science at Sea" cruise, and does interactive workshops all over the states.

Steve Spangler also offers parents and teachers a free science experiment each week, sent straight to an email inbox, as a free service. Spangler's Experiment of the Week has become very popular with homeschooling parents, as well. Steve recently went on Ellen Degeneres show and was the science guy with air blowers[1]

In 2009, Spangler's conducted the "World's Largest Physics Lesson" at Coor's Field.[2]

Commercial work[link]

Spangler is the founder of Englewood-based Steve Spangler Science and Be Amazing! Toys [3], which is the wholesale division of Steve Spangler Science. He has since sold Be Amazing Toys. He is the CEO of the online and catalog based company, Steve Spangler Science and is the creative director of Be Amazing! Toys which has designed and developed more than 50 scientific toys and products for Scholastic, Discovery Channel, Toys "R" Us, Target, etc.^[1] Steve Spangler Science has fifteen employees.

Spangler is the author of three books: "Fizz Factor: 50 Amazing Experiments With Soda Pop","Secret Science: 25 Science Experiments Your Teacher Doesn't Know About", and "Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes," winner of the 2011 Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award.

In 2005 Steve Spangler sued award-winning Seattle-based company, Scientific Explorer Inc. for re-branding and reselling Spangler's products and for failing to meet contractual agreements. Steve Spangler Science and Scientific Explorer had previously had a contract together for Scientific Explorer to manufacture, package, market and sell various products developed by Spangler. But the contract finished three years later in August 2004 and was never renewed. In the contract, Scientific Explorer were to give Spangler 10% sales royalty each sales quarter, Spangler said that they failed to pay him on the last two sales quarters before the contract expired. On a plane to Denver, Colorado, Spangler opened a toy package he had bought at the airport called Growing Giant Dinos, the same toy that Spangler was selling called Test Tube Dinos. Fizz, Bobble, Erupt was resold by Scientific Explorer as Bubbling Potions, Extreme Glow re-branded Atomic Glow and Crazy Crystals was renamed Wild Crystals, according to Spangler.^[7]

Mentos eruption[link]

Diet Coke and Mentos geyser.

When Spangler was an elementary school science teacher in the 1980s he initially used Life Savers for the Mentos eruption experiment. Spangler initiated the huge Internet phenomenon when he appeared on 9News in 2002 and 2005, both times showcasing the experiment. A video of his September 2005^[8] appearance, which resulted in one of the anchors being drenched in Coke, was placed on their website and Spangler wrote a blog post about it.^[9] The video was posted online on the popular video sharing site, YouTube, which resulted in hundreds of other videos being posted. As of 2007, YouTube had over 12,000 similar videos.^[10]

Along with his Be Amazing Toys! company, Spangler sold a device allowing kids to reproduce the experiment.^[11]

Spangler says that the Mentos eruption is not his best trick he but "It's the trick that got the most notoriety."^[12]

References[link]

• Toronto Star article
• Book Excerpt: Giving Up Control and Other Scary Lessons
• Appearance on NBC Weather Plus.

External links[link]

• Steve Spangler Science
• Steve Spangler's blog
• Video experiments on 9News

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Rajiv Radheshyam Dixit was an Indian social activist. He started social movements in order to spread awareness on topics of Indian national interest through the Swadeshi Movement, Azadi Bachao Andolan, and various other works.^[1] He served as the National Secretary of Bharat Swabhiman Andolan he is the founder of bharat swabhimaan andolan ]^[2] He was a strong believer and preacher of Bharatiyata.^[3] He had also worked for spreading awareness about Indian history, issues in the Indian constitution and Indian economic policies.^[4]

Life[link]

Dixit was born on 30 November 1967 in Naah village, Atrauli tehsil of Aligarh district, Uttar Pradesh . Under the tutelage of his father RadheShyam Dixit, he was educated till the 12th grade in the village schooling system in Firozabad district. In 1994, he moved to Allahabad (Prayaag) for higher studies. He pursued his M.Tech degree in Satellite Telecommunications from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and pursued his doctorate in telecommunications in France. Subsequently, he worked at CSIR as a scientist. But his passion for his motherland made him give up a paid-position for the sake of Indian culture and Swadeshi movement, serving the cause of "Rashtra Dharma". His audio cassettes on Indian Nationalism and greatness of India's past did well in 1999. He had been recording them over months traveling across India spreading his message of great optimism about India and its enormous contributions to the human civilization. He was a Brahmachari and never married. He was influenced by the ideologies of Indian revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh and Udham Singh. Later in life, he began to appreciate the early works of Mahatma Gandhi. His life was dedicated to not just ideas with high ideals, but also causes like stopping alcohol and "gutka" production, cow-butchering and social injustices. On the 9th of January 2009, he became one of the founders of "Bharat Swabhiman" movement. He died on 30 November 2010, while in Bhilai in Chattisgarh. The circumstances around his death are uncertain and the cause of his death is unknown. In his memory, the constructed Bharat Swabhiman building in Haridwar has been named "Rajiv Bhawan". He refused to take any modern medicine on his death bed, insisting instead on Ayurvedic medicine.

Work[link]

Dixit suggested that the Indian supreme court should declare money held by Indians in Swiss banks as national property so that foreign banks would have to legally hand over this money to India.^[5]

He fought various MNCs like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Colgate as he considered that these companies are draining wealth in their country making India poorer.^[6]

Initiated and supported movements[link]

• Dixit supported the movement of opening a chain of Swadeshi General Stores, where only Indian-made goods are sold.

He believed in swadeshi. He initiated movements like the Swadeshi Movement and Azadi Bachao Andolan and became their spokeperson.^[7] He addressed a rally of over 50,000 people under the leadership of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch in New Delhi.^[8] He also took leadership of the programme held at Calcutta which was supported and promoted by various organizations and prominent personalities and was celebrated all over India on the eve of the 150th Anniversary of the 1857 war of Indian Independence.^[8]

• He demanded decentralization of taxation system, saying that the current system is the core reason for the corruption in bureaucracy. He said that 80% of taxes is being used to pay the politicians and bureaucrats and just 20% for development purposes for the people. He compared the current budget system of the Indian government to the earlier British budget system in India, presenting statistics to show that they are the same. Recently he was working with Swami Ramdev in Bharat Swabhiman Trust as national secretary.^[9]

• He also doubted the terrorist attack on the United States Twin Towers, claiming that it was stage managed by U.S. Government itself, and supported the claims of the Lone Lantern Society of the U.S.^[10]

• He also said that "liberalization, privatization and globalization, the three evil faces staring at us today, have pushed us towards a suicidal state."^[1]

• He argued that modern thinkers have neglected agricultural sectors and farmers have been left to feed themselves and commit suicide.^[1] Expressing his views on the Indian judiciary and legal system, he said that India is still following the laws and acts enacted during the British era and had not taken the burden of changing them as per the requirement of Indian people.^[2]

• He accused the current Indian Government (Congress person Mr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India) of being an agent for USA. He claimed a huge stock of radio-active elements is buried in Indian sea below Setu Samudram, also known as Sri Ram Setu. These radio-active elements could be used to produce electricity and Nuclear weapons for coming 150 years. He also accused that Indian government is trying to break that bridge, which is more than 700,000 years old. ^[1]

Sudden death[link]

Dixit was in Bhilai to deliver lecture as a part of his Bharat Swabhiman Yatra, where he died on 30th November 2010. His death was unexpected. The cause of death is still unknown, though it was initially believed that he died of a cardiac arrest.

References[link]

External links[link]

• [1] Media silent on the death of Rajiv Dixit
• [2] Rajiv Dixit and his Articles (New Website)
• Rajiv Dixit and his Articles
• mp3-of-rajiv-dixit-lectures
• Complete Mp3 Lectures on History of Ancient & Modern India
• [3]
• Swabhiman Yatra Videos