Indian Prodigy: A "Human Computer"

Indian mathematics genius and astrologer Shakuntala Devi, who passed away after brief illness on April 21, 2013 at the age of 83, was dubbed "human computer" for her swift numerical calculation abilities.

A household name in India, Devi cast a spell adding a 16-digit number with another one and multiplying the result with an equal array of numbers almost instantaneously, finding the cube root of the resultant and pops up with an answer in just about the time taken for a wink.

Devi, who had no formal education and who simply picked up reading and writing, had the ingenous ability to tell the day of the week of any given date in the last century in a jiffy.

In 1977 in Dallas she competed with a computer to see who could give the cube root of 188132517 faster. She won.

Rated as one in 58 million for her stupendous mathematical feats by one of the fastest super-computers ever invented-the Univac-1108, Devi believed in using grey cells to silicon chips. At an American university she was asked to give the 23rd root of 

916748676920039158098660927585380162483106680144308622407126516427934657040867096593279205767480806790022783016354924852380335745316935111903596577547340075681688305620821016129132845564805780158806771
She answered in 50 seconds. Her answer of 546372891 took a UNIVAC 1108 computer a full minute (10 seconds more) to confirm that she was right after it was fed with 13000 instructions.

In 1977, Shakuntala Devi discovered the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally. 

On June 18, 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. This event is mentioned in the 1995 Guinness Book of Records.

She wrote a number of books on mathematics and astrology including "Fun with Numbers", "Astrology for You", "Puzzles to Puzzle You" and "Mathablit".

She had also set up an educational foundation public trust to promote studies in maths, astrology, philosophy and astronomy.

Shakuntala Devi was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Mumbai last month.

The Birds of Paradise

     The birds-of-paradise are members of the family Paradisaeidae of the order Passeriformes. The majority of species in this family are found on the island of New Guinea and its satellites, with a few species occurring in the Moluccas and eastern Australia.

     The family has 39 species in 14 genera. The members of this family are perhaps best known for the plumage of the males of the sexually dimorphic species (the majority), in particular the highly elongated and elaborate feathers extending from the beak, wings, tail or head. For the most part they are confined to dense rainforest habitat. The diet of all species is dominated by fruit and to a lesser extent arthropods.

     The family is of cultural importance to the inhabitants of New Guinea. The trade in skins and feathers of the birds-of-paradise has been going on for two thousand years. The birds have also been of considerable interest to Western collectors, ornithologists and writers.

    A number of species are threatened by hunting and habitat loss.