A couple lost their 25 year old son, Arun Gopal Ratnam, in a fire at home on June 4th. The son who had graduated with MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison two weeks earlier had come home for a while. He had lunch with his dad at home and decided to go back to to clean up his hostel room.His father told him to wait, to meet his mother, before he went back for a few days. Arun decided to take a nap while waiting for his mom to come back home from work.

Some time later their neighbors called 911 when they saw black smoke coming out of the house.Unfortunately, 25 years old Arun died in the three year old house. It took several days of investigation to find out the cause of the fire. It was determined that the fire was caused by the lap top resting on the bed.

When the lap top was on the bed cooling fan did not get the air to cool the computer and that is what caused the fire. He did not even wake up to get out of the bed because he died of breathing in carbon monoxide.

The reason I am writing this to all of you is that I have seen many of us using our lap top while in bed. Let us all decide and make it a practice not to do that. The risk is real. Let us make it a rule not to use the lap top on bed or put the computer on bed with blankets and pillows around.

Please educate as many people as you can.

While finding clean water to support the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is an ongoing problem, in 2006 Ibelatha Mhelela, the principal at a primary school in Tanzania, implemented a simple solution.

Turns out, even if people live nowhere near a clean source of water, as long as they have plastic bottles they can CREATE clean water. It’s known as the SODIS program. Basically, you peel the label off any plastic water bottle and fill it with standing water, as long as the water isn’t completely brown. Then place the bottle on top of a metal surface (for better heat conductivity) and leave it alone. Within six hours, the UVA radiation will kill parasites, bacteria and other harmful elements in the water, making it safe to drink.