Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The real facts about Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second biggest. Saturn has been identified from the time when prehistoric times. Galileo was the first to analysis it with a telescope in 1610; he noted its odd look but was confused by it. Early observations of Saturn were complex by the fact that the Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings all few years as Saturn moves in its orbit. A low resolution image of Saturn therefore changes considerably. It was not in anticipation of 1659 that Christian Huygens properly inferred the geometry of the rings. Saturn's rings remained exclusive in the known solar system until 1977 when extremely faint rings were discovered around Uranus.

Saturn is clearly flattened (oblate) when viewed through a small telescope; its equatorial and polar diameters differ by almost 10% (120,536 km vs. 108,728 km). This is the end result of its rapid rotary motion and fluid state. The other gas planets are also oblate, but not so a lot so. Saturn's rings are very thin: though they're 250,000 km or more in thickness they're less than one kilometer thick. In spite of their impressive appearance, there's actually very little material in the rings -- if the rings were compressed into a single body it would be no more than 100 km across.

Saturn's outermost ring, the F-ring, is a difficult structure made up of number of smaller rings along which "knots" are visible. Scientists guess that the knots may be clumps of ring material, or mini moons. The odd braided appearance visible in the Voyager 1 images (right) is not visible in the Voyager 2 images perhaps for the reason that Voyager 2 imaged regions where the part rings are generally parallel. They are well-known in the Cassini images which as well show some as yet unexplained wispy spiral structures. The source of the rings of Saturn (and the other Jovian planets) is unidentified. Though they may have had rings since their formation, the ring systems are not firm and must be regenerated by continuing processes, perhaps the breakup of bigger satellites. The present set of rings may be only a few hundred million years old.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Kolkata

Calcutta is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Hooghly. The city has a population of almost 11 million, with an extended metropolitan population of over 14 million, making it the third-largest urban agglomeration and the third-largest city in India.

The city was very populated and served as the capital of India during the British Raj until 1911. Once the centre of modern education, science, culture and politics in India, Kolkata witnessed economic stagnation in the years following India's independence in 1947. However, since the year 2000, an economic rejuvenation has arrested the morbid decline, leading to a spurt in the city's growth. Like other large cities, Kolkata continues to struggle with urbanisation problems like poverty, pollution and traffic congestion.

A vibrant city with a distinct socio-political culture, Kolkata is noted for its revolutionary history, ranging from the Indian struggle for independence to the leftist and trade union movements.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

God and his attributes:

God most normally refers to the holy being worshipped by followers of monotheistic and monolatrist religions, whom they accept as true to be the creator and ruler of the world.

Theologians have ascribed various attributes to a variety of conceptions of God. The most ordinary among these consist of omniscience, perfect goodness, omnipotence, omnipresence, divine simplicity, and everlasting and necessary existence. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, a personal being, the source of the entire moral obligations, and the "greatest conceivable existent". These attributes were all supported to varying degrees by the early Christian, Jewish and Muslim theologian philosophers, including Augustine of Hippo, Al-Ghazali, and Maimonides. Many famous medieval philosophers developed arguments for the existence of God, attempting to fight with the obvious contradictions implied by many of these attributes.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

China wall

The Great Wall is the world's longest human-made arrangement, stretching over about 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhai Pass in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. It is also the biggest human-made structure ever built in terms of surface area and mass. A number of walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC, the most famous being the one built between 220 BC and 200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. That wall was much farther north than the current wall, built through the Ming Dynasty, and little of it remains.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Asia

Asia is the world's biggest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area (or 29.4% of its land area) and, with almost 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's present human population.

Chiefly in the eastern and northern hemispheres, Asia is conventionally defined as part of the landmass of Africa-Eurasia – with the western portion of the latter occupied by Europe – lying east of the Suez Canal, east of the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black Seas. It is surrounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the Indian Ocean, and to the north by the Arctic Ocean.
Given its size and diversity, Asia – a toponym dating back to classical antiquity – is more a cultural concept incorporating a number of regions and peoples than a homogeneous, physical entity.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Apple Computer

Apple Computer, Inc. NASDAQ: AAPL is a Silicon Valley company based in Cupertino, California, whose core trade is computer technologies. Apple helped start the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II microcomputer and has since further shaped it with the Macintosh. Apple is known for its innovative, well-designed hardware, such as the iPod and iMac, as well as software offerings exemplified through iTunes as part of the iLife suite and Mac OS X, its flagship operating system.

They were hand-built in Jobs' parents' garage, and it was first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. Fifty units were sold to The Byte Shop at $500 each. In 1977 Apple released the Apple II; it was accessible to the public at the first West Coast Computer Faire on April 16 and 17, 1977. By the 1980s, Apple faced rising competition in the personal computing business due to IBM's open hardware standard created with the IBM PC, which bundled Microsoft's MS-DOS. As a result Apple released the Apple III, a large failure for the company, and in 1983 released their second attempt at a business-oriented computer, the Apple Lisa.

The Apple Macintosh was launched in 1984 with a now prominent Super Bowl advertisement based on George Orwell's novel 1984, declaring, "On January 24, Apple Computer will launch Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984'" — the implication being that the Mac's new, "user friendly" graphical user interface would revolutionize and liberate computing and information from the elite of large corporations and technocrats. Macintosh also spawned the concept of Mac evangelism which was pioneered by Apple employee, and later Apple Fellow, Guy Kawasaki.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Vegetable

Vegetable is a culinary term which usually refers to an edible part of a plant. The definition is traditional rather than scientific and is somewhat capricious and subjective. All parts of herbaceous plants eaten as food by humans, entire or in part, are normally considered vegetables. Mushrooms, though belonging to the biological realm fungi, are also commonly considered vegetables. In general, vegetables are thought of as being savory, and not sweet, even though there are many exceptions. Nuts, grains, herbs, spices and culinary fruits (see below) are usually not considered vegetables.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Traffic Claming

Traffic calming is a set of strategies used by urban planners and traffic engineers which aims to slow down traffic and get better safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, although some of these features can also be hazardous to cyclists. It is now comparatively common in Europe, especially Northern Europe; less so in North America.Traffic calming has conventionally been justified on the grounds of pedestrian safety and reduction of noise and local air pollution which are side effects of the traffic. However, it has become more and more apparent that streets have many social and recreational functions which are severely impaired by fast car traffic. For much of the twentieth century, streets were designed by engineers who were charged only with ensuring traffic flow and not with development other functions of streets. The rationale for traffic reassuring is now broadening to include designing for these functions.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Lighthouse of Alexandria

The Pharos of Alexandria was a big tower built in the 3rd century BC (between 285 and 247 BC) on the island of Pharos in Alexandria, Egypt to give out as that port's landmark, and later, its lighthouse.

With a height variously estimated at between 115 and 150 meters (383 - 450 ft) it was among the tallest man-made structures on Earth for many centuries, and was recognized as one of the Seven Wonders of the World by Antipater of Sidon. It was the third tallest building after the two Great Pyramids (of Khufu and Khafra) for its whole life. Some scientists approximate a much taller height exceeding 180 metres that would make the tower the tallest building up to the 14th century.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Fresh skin-care tips

Select fresh, organically grown fruit and vegetables for the highest benefits. Avoid making more than you require for a single application.Clean and sanitize all countertops and mixing utensils ahead of making any of the recipes. Clean all fruit and vegetables before using as ingredients. Leave all ingredients out of the fridge for up to an hour before integration. Don't let fruit acquire any warmer than room temperature.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are especially high in acids. If you apply anything to your skin and encounter a burning sensation, take out immediately and apply cool water.If you are in the care of a dermatologist and on acne medications, please consult with your physician first.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Salad

Salad is a light meal — or, as part of a larger meal, much more of an taster — consisting of mixed vegetables (usually including at least one leaf vegetable) or fruit, frequently with a dressing or sauce, occasionally nuts and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish or cheese. It is generally seen as a healthy dish, although not always low in calories, salt, sugar, or fat because of the dressing that is often added.The word "salad" comes from the French salade of the same meaning, which in twist is from the Latinsalata, "salty", from sal, "salt".

Monday, July 16, 2007

Salad

Salad is a light meal — or, as part of a larger meal, much more of an taster — consisting of mixed vegetables (usually including at least one leaf vegetable) or fruit, frequently with a dressing or sauce, occasionally nuts and sometimes with the addition of meat, fish or cheese. It is generally seen as a healthy dish, although not always low in calories, salt, sugar, or fat because of the dressing that is often added.The word "salad" comes from the French salade of the same meaning, which in twist is from the Latin salata, "salty", from sal, "salt".

Monday, July 09, 2007

Management information system

Management Information Systems (MIS) is a general name for the educational discipline casing the application of people, technologies, and procedures —together called information systems — to solve business problems. MIS are distinctive from normal information systems in that they are used to evaluate other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. Rationally, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods attached to the automation or support of human decision making, e.g. Decision Support Systems, Expert systems, and Executive information system

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Accumulator

In a computer CPU, an accumulator is a register in which intermediary arithmetic and logic results are stored. Without a register like an accumulator, it would be necessary to write the result of each calculation (addition, multiplication, shift, etc.) to main memory, possibly only to be read right back again for use in the next operation. Access to main memory is slower than access to a register like the accumulator because the technology used for the huge main memory is slower (but cheaper) than that used for a register.

The canonical example for accumulator use is adding a list of numbers. The accumulator is initially set to zero, then each number in spin is added to the value in the accumulator. Only when all numbers have been added is the result seized in the accumulator written to main memory or to another, non-accumulator, CPU register.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Shark

Sharks are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a streamlined body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits. Sharks have a covering of dermal denticles to protect their skin from injure and parasites and to improve fluid dynamics; they also have replaceable teeth.Sharks include species ranging from the hand-sized pygmy shark, Euprotomicrus bispinatus, a deep sea class of only 22 centimetres (9 in) in length, to the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, the largest fish, which grows to a length of about 12 metres (39 ft) and which, like the great whales, feeds only on plankton through filter feeding. The bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas, is the best known of several species to swim in both salt and fresh water and in deltas.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Superscalar

A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called Instruction-level parallelism within a solitary processor. It thereby allows faster CPU throughput than would otherwise be possible at the same clock rate. A superscalar architecture executes more than one instruction during a single pipeline stage by pre-fetching several instructions and at the same time dispatching them to redundant functional units on the processor.

History

Seymour Cray's CDC 6600 from 1965 is often mentioned as the first superscalar plan. The Intel i960CA and the AMD 29000-series 29050 microprocessors were the first commercial single-chip superscalar microprocessors. RISC CPUs like these brought the superscalar idea to micro computers because the RISC design results in a simple core, allowing straightforward instruction send off and the inclusion of multiple functional units on a single CPU in the inhibited design rules of the time. This was the reason that RISC designs were faster than CISC designs through the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Grafting

Grafting is a method of plant propagation extensively used in horticulture, where the tissues of one plant are encouraged to fuse with those of another. It is most usually used for the propagation of trees and shrubs grown commercially.
In most cases, one plant is chosen for its roots, and this is called the stock or rootstock. The other plant is chosen for its stems, leaves, flowers, or fruits and is called the scion.
In stem grafting, a common grafting method, a shoot of a chosen, desired plant cultivar is grafted onto the stock of another type. In another common form called budding, a dormant side bud is grafted on the stem of another stock plant, and when it has fused successfully, it is encouraged to grow by cutting out the stem above the new bud.
For successful grafting to take place, the vascular cambium tissues of the stock and scion plants must be located in contact with each other. Both tissues must be kept alive till the graft has taken, typically a period of a few weeks. Successful grafting only requires that a vascular connection takes place between the two tissues. A physical weak point often still occurs at the graft, because the structural tissue of the two distinct plants, such as wood may not fuse.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Swan

Swans are large water birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the intimately related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae.

Swans typically mate for life, though "divorce" does sometimes occur, mainly following nesting failure. The number of eggs in each clutch is between 3–8.
The word is derived from Old English swan, akin to German Schwan, in turn derived from Indo-European root *swen (to sound, to sing), whence Latin derives sonus (sound). Young swans are known as cygnets, from the Latin word for swan, cygnus. An adult male is a cob, from Middle English cobbe; an adult female is a pen .

Friday, June 15, 2007

Tide

Tides are the cyclic rising and falling of Earth's ocean surface caused by the tidal forces of the Moon and the sun acting on the oceans. Tides cause changes in the depth of the marine and estuarine water bodies and produce oscillating currents known as tidal streams, making prediction of tides important for coastal navigation. The strip of seashore that is submerged at high tide and exposed at low tide, the intertidal zone, is an important ecological product of ocean tides The changing tide produced at a given location is the result of the changing positions of the Moon and Sun relative to the Earth coupled with the effects of Earth rotation and the local bathymetry.Sea level measured by coastal tide gauges may also be strongly affected by wind. More generally, tidal phenomena can occur in other systems besides the ocean, whenever a gravitational field that varies in time and space is present

Monday, June 11, 2007

Shark

Sharks are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a streamlined body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits. Sharks have a covering of dermal denticles to protect their skin from injure and parasites and to improve fluid dynamics; they also have replaceable teeth.Sharks include species ranging from the hand-sized pygmy shark, Euprotomicrus bispinatus, a deep sea class of only 22 centimetres (9 in) in length, to the whale shark, Rhincodon typus, the largest fish, which grows to a length of about 12 metres (39 ft) and which, like the great whales, feeds only on plankton through filter feeding. The bull shark, Carcharhinus leucas, is the best known of several species to swim in both salt and fresh water and in deltas.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Rose

A rose is a flowering shrub of the genus Rosa, and the flower of this shrub. There are more than a hundred classes of wild roses, all from the northern hemisphere and typically from temperate regions. The species form a group of normally prickly shrubs or climbers, and sometimes trailing plants, reaching 2–5 m tall, hardly ever reaching as high as 20 m by climbing over other plants.
Rose hips are sometimes eaten, mostly for their vitamin C content. They are typically pressed and filtered to make rose-hip syrup, as the fine hairs surrounding the seeds are unpleasant to eat. They can also be used to create herbal tea, jam, jelly and marmalade.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Industrial metal

Industrial metal is a musical genre which draws elements from industrial music and heavy metal music. Industrial metal music is typically centered around metal guitar riffs and industrial synthesizer/sequencer lines, heavily distorted, very low pitched guitars, as well as harsh vocals, but in some instances can have clean vocals. This term is used quite loosely, telling everything from industrial bands sampling metal riffs to heavy metal groups augmented with sequencers. Industrial metal encompasses industrial subgenres such as aggro-industrial and coldwave and often overlaps some elements of nu-metal and post-punk.

It is difficult to distinguish many industrial metal artists and industrial rock because both genres leave much room for ingenuity and creativity. By convention, all industrial metal artists may be more vaguely described as industrial rock as well, but not all industrial rock artists are properly described as industrial metal. The general rule of thumb is the speed and "crunchiness" of the guitars. If the guitars are fast and heavily distorted, it is likely industrial metal.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Genetics

Genetics is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.Knowledge that desired characteristics were present at birth has been implicitly used since prehistoric times for improving crop plants and animals through selective breeding. However, the modern science of genetics, which seeks to understand the mechanisms of inheritance, only began with the work of Gregor Mendel in the mid-1800s.

Mendel observed that inheritance is basically a discrete process with specific traits that are inherited in an independant manner. These basic units of inheritance is now known as "genes". In the cells of organisms, genes exist actually in the structure of the molecule DNA and the information genes contain is used to create and control the components of cells. Although genetics plays a large role in determining the appearance and behavior of organisms, it is the interaction of genetics with the environment an organism experiences that determines the ultimate outcome. For example, while genes play a role in determining a person's height, the nutrition and health that person experiences in childhood also have a large effect.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Mental health

Mental health is a idea that refers to a human individual's emotional and psychological well-being. Merriam-Webster defines mental health as "A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no one "official" definition of mental health. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined. In general, most experts agree that "mental health" and "mental illness" are not opposites. In other words, the absence of a recognized mental disorder is not of necessity an indicator of mental health.
One way to think about mental health is by looking at how efficiently and successfully a person functions. Feeling capable and competent; being able to handle normal levels of stress, preserve satisfying relationships, and lead an independent life; and being able to "bounce back," or recover from difficult situations, are all signs of mental health.
Encompassing your emotional, social, and—most importantly—your mental well-being; All these aspects—emotional, physical, and social—must function jointly to achieve overall health.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Refrigerator

A typical refrigerator with its door open refrigerator is a cooling machine comprising a thermally insulated compartment and a mechanism to transfer heat from it to the outside environment, cooling the contents to a temperature below ambient. Refrigerators are widely used to store foods which deteriorate at ambient temperatures; spoilage due to bacterial growth and other processes is much slower at low temperatures. Devices described as "refrigerators" maintain a temperature a few degrees above the freezing point of water; similar devices which maintain temperatures below the freezing point of water are called "freezers". The refrigerator is a relatively modern creation amongst kitchen appliances. It replaced the common icebox which had been a household item for almost a century and a half prior, and is sometimes still called by the original name "icebox".

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Superscalar

A superscalar CPU architecture implements a form of parallelism called Instruction-level parallelism within a solitary processor. It thereby allows faster CPU throughput than would otherwise be possible at the same clock rate. A superscalar architecture executes more than one instruction during a single pipeline stage by pre-fetching several instructions and at the same time dispatching them to redundant functional units on the processor.

History
Seymour Cray's CDC 6600 from 1965 is often mentioned as the first superscalar plan. The Intel i960CA and the AMD 29000-series 29050 microprocessors were the first commercial single-chip superscalar microprocessors. RISC CPUs like these brought the superscalar idea to micro computers because the RISC design results in a simple core, allowing straightforward instruction send off and the inclusion of multiple functional units on a single CPU in the inhibited design rules of the time. This was the reason that RISC designs were faster than CISC designs through the 1980s and into the 1990s.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Key

A key is a device which is used to open a lock. It typically consists of a specially-shaped piece of flat metal, with cut notches (forming teeth), and/or milled grooves which fit the shape of the lock and can open the properly combinated lock by (usually) being turned in the lock housing. This portion of the key is referred to as the blade. The wider grip, referred to as the bow, is establish at the top of the key to facilitate turning. regularly, there are only a small number of keys which can work a certain lock. In some residential locks, all of the keys for a lock are given to the purchaser of the lock. Duplicates of the key can usually be made by anyone with the correct key blank and key machine. Some manufacturers assign an identification number to each lock and key combination. Knowing the identification number of such a lock allows a duplicate key to be made at certain places. Many residential keys are recognized by the key cuts stamped on the key bow.
Most people in modern society use keys on a daily basis, to secure their home, their vehicle, or to access their workplace, among other uses. Those that use a number of keys will typically place them on a ring or key chain, often with other items such as key fobs.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Ancient Tamil gods and goddesses

The religion of the ancient Tamils directly followed Hinduism.although persisting with its roots of nature worship. The most popular deity was Murugan, who has from a very early date been recognized with Karthikeya, the son of Siva. Muruga might have been a different deity at first stemming from a local deity. According to the noted expert on Tamil culture Kamil V. Zvelebil, "Subrahmanya-Murugan is one of the most complicated and baffling deities for analysis". The worship of Amman or Mariamman, consideration to have been derived from Kotravai, an ancient mother goddess, also was very common. Kannagi, the heroine of the Cilappatikaram, was worshipped as Pathini by many Tamils, particularly in Sri Lanka. There were also many temples and devotees of Thirumaal, Siva, Ganapathi, and the other common Hindu deities.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Traffic calming

Traffic reassuring is a set of strategies used by urban planners and traffic engineers which aims to slow down traffic and improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, although some of these features can also be dangerous to cyclists. It is now relatively common in Europe, especially Northern Europe; less so in North America.
Traffic calming has traditionally been justified on the grounds of pedestrian security and reduction of noise and local air pollution which are side effects of the traffic. However, it has become increasingly apparent that streets have many social and recreational functions which are severely impaired by fast car traffic. For example, residents of streets with light traffic had, on average, three more friends and twice as many acquaintances as the people on streets with heavy traffic which were otherwise similar in dimensions, income, etc. For much of the twentieth century, streets were designed by engineers who were charged only with ensuring traffic flow and not with fostering the other functions of streets. The rationale for traffic calming is now broadening to include designing for these functions.
Displaced traffic is not fully pushed onto other routes, as some travelers may begin to walk or use other modes such as public transit and bicycles to get where they are going. Still, in most cases the affected motorists have few alternatives aside from either navigating the newly erected obstacles or finding a more palatable route. This happens because high traffic tends to be generated by motorists passing through the area and not by the local residents.

It should be noted the some of these measures have a tendency to irritate and annoy drivers rather than calm them and others can actually increase traffic throughput. Some drivers who slow down at calming points, however, accelerate and speed after passing them in order to "catch up for lost time". For this reason, more advanced methods integrated into the design of the street, which make slower speeds seem more natural to drivers and less of an artificial imposition, are now preferred - the goal is to slow down the driver through psychological, at least partly subconscious means instead of simply forcing him to do so.

One major side effect of traffic reassuring is the impedance to emergency services. A police car can easily navigate most traffic reassuring measures. The same cannot be said for fire trucks and ambulances, however. They often have to slow down to safely cross speed bumps or chicanes. In some locales, the law prohibits traffic calming measures along the routes used by the urgent situation services.
There are 3 "E"'s that traffic engineers refer to when discussing traffic reassuring: engineering, education, and enforcement. Because neighborhood traffic management studies have shown that often it is the residents themselves that are largely contributing to the perceived speeding problem within the neighborhood, it is strained that the most effective traffic calming plans will entail all three components, and that engineering measures alone will not produce satisfactory results.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Lightning

Lightning is an influential natural electrostatic release produced during a thunderstorm. Lightning's abrupt electric release is accompanied by the emission of visible light and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The electric current passing through the release channels quickly heats and expands the air into plasma, producing acoustic shock waves in the atmosphere.

Early lightning investigate
During early investigations into electricity via Leyden jars and other instruments, a number of people planned that small scale sparks shared some similarity with lightning.

Benjamin Franklin, who also imaginary the lightning rod, endeavored to test this theory by using a spire which was being erected in Philadelphia. Whilst he was waiting for the spire completion some others conducted at Marly in France, what became to be known as the Philadelphia experiments that Franklin had optional in his book?

Franklin typically gets the credit for being the first to perform this research. The Franklin myth goes like this:

Whilst coming up for completion of the spire, he got the idea of using a flying object, such as a kite in its place. During the next shower, in June 1752, he raised a kite, accompanied by his son as an assistant. On his end of the string he emotionally involved a key and tied it to a post with a silk thread. As time passed Franklin noticed the loose fibers on the string stretching out; he then brought his hand close enough to the key and a flash jumped the gap. The rain which had fallen during the storm had covered with water the line and made it conductive.

However, in his memoirs, Franklin obviously states that he only performed this research after those made in France.

As news of the research and its specifics spread, it was met with attempts at duplication. Experiments involving lightning are always risky and commonly fatal. The most well known death during the rash of Franklin-imitators was Professor George Richman, of Saint Petersburg, Russia. He had shaped a setup similar to Franklin's, and was attending a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, when he heard thunder. He ran home with his engraver to capture the event for posterity. While the research was underway, a large ball lightning showed up, collided with Richman's head, and killed him, leaving a red spot. His shoes were blown open, parts of his clothes singed, the engraver knocked out, the doorframe of the room was split, and the door itself ragged off its hinges.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Northern Mockingbird

The Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, is the mockingbird commonly originate in North America.Adults are grey on the head and upperparts with pale yellow eyes and a slim black bill with a slight downward curve; the underparts are light. They have a long dark tail by means of white edges and long dark legs. They have white wing bars and show white wing patches in flight.Their breeding habitat is areas with a mix of open areas and dense shrubs from southern Canada to Mexico, but is most common in the southern United States. They build a twig nest in a dense shrub or tree. This bird forcefully defends its nest against other birds and animals, including humans. When a predator is persistent mockingbirds from adjacent territories, summoned by a distinct call, may join the attack. Other birds may gather to watch as the mockingbirds harass the intruder.
They are usually permanent residents; northern birds may move south during harsh weather. However, this species has occurred in Europe as an extreme rarity.These birds forage on the ground or in vegetation; they also fly down from a perch to capture food. They mainly eat insects and berries. While foraging they will regularly spread their wings in a peculiar two-step motion to display the white patches underneath. The purpose of this behavior is disputed. Some ornithologists claim this is merely a territorial display, while others say that flashing the white patches startles hiding insects and forces them into the open. Both theories seem to have some merit.
This bird imitates the calls of other birds, animal sounds and yet machine noises. It is often found in urban areas. They often call through the night and may continue year-round apart from for the summer moulting season. Mockingbirds usually sing the loudest in the twilight of the early morning when the sun is on the horizon. While singing on a high perch they will often bolt more than a few feet into the air in a looping motion, with wings outstretched to display their white underside, then land back on the perch without breaking a note. That serves as a territorial display.Mockingbirds have a strong preference for certain trees, such as maple, sweet gum (green 5-pointed leaves and prickly porous balls), and sycamore. They normally avoid pine trees. In urban areas, mockingbirds rarely come down to the ground, unlike most birds. Also, they have a particular preference for high places, such as the topmost branches of trees and the tops of telephone poles.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Motorcycle racing

There are a range of sports involving racing motorcycles. FIM is the international sanctioning body for many such events.As motorcycles vary very much in design, there are several different types of motorcycle racing contest, including:Road racing in its purest form is racing on public roads, such as the Isle of Man TT course, the Macau Grand Prix and some courses in Ireland. Due to the inherent dangers that these street venues often carry such as narrow lanes, curbs, and adjacent walls, most road racing is now carried out on purpose-built tracks.Circuit racing where specially designed racing bikes or modified "production" bikes race each other on particularly designed road circuits. MotoGP and Superbike are the top level racing and production classes.Classic Racing is where participants race heavily customized bikes from an earlier era - usually pre mid '70s bikes.
Motocross and its cousin supercross are held on dirt courses, characteristically featuring large jumps in which motorcycles are launched over considerable distances. Supermoto is a crossover motorcycle racing between road racing and motocross. The motorcycles are primarily motocross types with road racing tires. The racetrack is also mixed between road and dirt courses, mostly handcrafted.
Motorcycle speedway and ice speedway are held on oval circuits where riders slide their machines around turns.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Radio

Radio is the wireless transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of light.
Radio waves.Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, formed whenever a charged object accelerates by a frequency that lies in the radio frequency (RF) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is the variety from a few tens of hertz to a few hundred gigahertz.Electromagnetic radio spectrum
Other types of electromagnetic radiation, with frequencies above the RF range are infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. Since the energy of an individual photon of radio frequency is too low to remove an electron from an atom, radio waves are classified as non-ionizing radiation.Radio transmission diagram and electromagnetic waves.Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space equally well, and does not need a medium of transport induces an alternating current and voltage in the conductor. This can be transformed into audio or other signals that carry information. Although the word 'radio' is used to explain this phenomenon, the transmissions which we know as television, radio, radar, and cell phone are all classed as radio frequency emissions.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Transistor

The transistor is a solid state semiconductor device which can be used for amplification, switching, voltage stabilization, signal modulation and many other functions. It acts as a changeable valve which, based on its input current (BJT) or input voltage (FET), allows a precise amount of current to flow through it from the circuit's voltage supply.In essence, a transistor has three terminals. A current or voltage applied through/across two terminals controls a larger current through the other terminal and the common terminal. In analog circuits, transistors are used in amplifiers. Analog circuits include audio amplifiers, stabilised power supplies and radio frequency amplifiers. In digital circuits, transistors function basically as electrical switches. Digital circuits include logic gates, RAM (random access memory) and microprocessors.Transistor was also the common name in the sixties for a transistor radio, a portable radio that used transistors (rather than vacuum tubes) as its active electronic components. This is still one of the dictionary definitions of transistor.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Sugarcane

Sugarcane or Sugar cane (Saccharum) is a type of between 6–37 species of tall grasses (family Poaceae, tribe Andropogoneae), native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Old World. They have stout, jointed fibrous stalks 2–6 m tall and sap rich in sugar. All the species interbreed, and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids.
Saccharum officinarum grown in Hawaii. There are 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of sugar cane plantations worldwide, with over 100 countries growing the crop. The top twenty producing countries harvested 1200 million metric tons of sugar cane in 2002 (more than 6 times the amount of sugar beet produced). The largest producers are Brazil, India, and China.
Raw sugar has a yellow to brown color. If a white product is preferred, sulfur dioxide may be bubbled through the cane juice prior to evaporation. This bleaches many color-forming impurities into colorless ones. Sugar bleached white by this sulfitation process is called mill white, plantation white or crystal sugar. This form of sugar is the most usually consumed form of sugar in sugarcane-producing countries.
Sugarcane

Sugarcane or Sugar cane (Saccharum) is a type of between 6–37 species of tall grasses (family Poaceae, tribe Andropogoneae), native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Old World. They have stout, jointed fibrous stalks 2–6 m tall and sap rich in sugar. All the species interbreed, and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids.
Saccharum officinarum grown in Hawaii. There are 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of sugar cane plantations worldwide, with over 100 countries growing the crop. The top twenty producing countries harvested 1200 million metric tons of sugar cane in 2002 (more than 6 times the amount of sugar beet produced). The largest producers are Brazil, India, and China.
Raw sugar has a yellow to brown color. If a white product is preferred, sulfur dioxide may be bubbled through the cane juice prior to evaporation. This bleaches many color-forming impurities into colorless ones. Sugar bleached white by this sulfitation process is called mill white, plantation white or crystal sugar. This form of sugar is the most usually consumed form of sugar in sugarcane-producing countries.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Lens

A lens is a device for either concentrating or diverging light, normally formed from a piece of shaped glass. Analogous devices used with other types of electromagnetic radiation are also called lenses: for instance, a microwave lens can be made from paraffin wax.
The earliest records of lenses date to Ancient Greece, with Aristophanes' play The Clouds (424 BC) mentioning a burning-glass (a convex lens used to focus the sun's rays to produce fire). The writings of Pliny the Elder also show that burning-glasses were recognized to the Roman Empire, and mentions what is possibly the first use of a corrective lens: Nero was known to watch the gladiatorial games throughout a concave-shaped emerald (presumably to correct for myopia). Seneca the Younger (3 BC--65) described the magnifying effect of a glass globe filled with water.Widespread use of lenses did not happen until the invention of spectacles, probably in Italy in the 1280s.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Ship

A ship is a large, sea-going watercraft, sometimes with multiple decks. A ship generally has enough size to carry its own boats, such as lifeboats, dinghies, or runabouts. A rule of thumb saying goes: "a boat can fit on a ship, but a ship can't fit on a boat". Often local law and regulation will define the exact size which a boat requires to become a ship. During the age of sail, ship signified a ship-rigged vessel, that is, one with three or more masts, generally three, all square-rigged. Such a vessel would usually have one fore and aft sail on her aftermost mast which was usually the mizzen. Almost invariably she would also have a bowsprit but this was not part of the definition. The same economic pressures which increased sizes to the point of carrying four or five masts, also introduced the fore and aft rig to larger vessels, so few ship-rigged vessels were built with more than three masts. The five-masted Preussen was the outstanding example but the big German ships and barques were built partly for prestige reasons.
Nautical means connected to sailors, particularly customs and practices at sea. Naval is the adjective pertaining to ships though in common usage, it has come to be more mainly associated with the noun 'navy'.

Friday, March 16, 2007

White flight

White flight is a colloquial term for the demographic tendency of upper and middle class white people moving away from (predominantly non-white) inner cities, finding new homes in nearby suburbs or even moving to new locales completely, e.g. from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. In some of the United States' largest cities, the trend reversed itself in the 1990s
White flight in the United States
White flight has been taking place in many American cities and regions, particularly in the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Western sections of the United States since the 1950s.
The effects of white flight have been important for the cities that have been hit by this phenomenon, in particular Detroit, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri, which lost more than half of their peak populations mainly due to white flight. In New York City many whites have moved from parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn to Staten Island, suburban Long Island, and suburban New Jersey. Other U.S. cities that have been obviously affected by white flight include Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Cleveland, Ohio, the West and South Sides of Chicago, Illinois, the Greater Los Angeles Area, Baltimore, Maryland, Newark, New Jersey, and numerous smaller cities.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Quinzhee

A quinzhee, or quinzee, is a kind of snow shelter made by making a pile of snow, waiting for it to settle together, then hollowing out the inside. In difference, an igloo is made by carefully stacking cut blocks of snow.
It is not easy to make a quinzhee, although it will be warmer and stronger if certain techniques are carefully followed. For strength, the quinzhee needs to be a dome and the lower walls must not support too much weight. The walls should be very thick at the base and get slightly thinner towards to the top of the dome.
For warmth, the entrance of the quinzhee should be a tunnel with an upward sloping floor such that the floor is somewhat higher than the top of the entrance.
Caution: Care must be taken when camping conditions are marginal, such as at temperatures near freezing, or when it is raining. Under these conditions the ceiling of the quinzhee may collapse gradually because the snow is soft. Moreover, the entrance tunnel may become too narrow to permit escape. Hence, under these conditions it is unsafe to spend too much time inside the structure because you may become trapped.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Graphic design

Graphic design is a type of communicating visually using text and/or images to present information, or promote a message. The art of graphic design embraces a range of cognitive skills and crafts with typography, image development and page layout. Graphic design is applied in communication design and fine art. Like other forms of communication, graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created, and the products (designs) such as creative solutions, imagery and multimedia compositions. Graphic design is usually applied to static media, such as books, magazines and brochures. Additionally, since the arrival of computers, graphic design is utilized in electronic media - often referred to as interactive design, or multimedia design.
There are varying degrees of graphic design. Graphic designer participation may range from verbally communicated ideas, to visual rough drafts, to final production. In commercial art, client edits, technical preparation and mass production are generally required, but regularly not considered to be within the scope of graphic design unless the client is also a graphic designer.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Tourism in New York City

40 million foreign and American tourists visit New York City each year.Major destinations comprise of the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Broadway productions, scores of museums from the El Museo del Barrio to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (closed until 2008 for repairs), Washington Square Park, the Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, the Tribeca Film Festival, and free performances in Central Park at Summer stage. Many of the city's ethnic enclaves, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach are major shopping destinations for first and second generation Americans up and down the East Coast.
New York City has 28,000 acres (113 km²) of parkland and 14 miles (22 km) of public beaches. Manhattan's Central Park, intended by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city park in the United States.Prospect Park in Brooklyn, also planned by Olmsted and Vaux, has a 90 acre (36 Hectare) meadow. Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, the city's third largest, was the setting for the 1939 World's Fair and 1964 World's Fair.
New York's food culture, influenced by the city's immigrants and large number of dining patrons, is diverse. Jewish and Italian immigrants made the city famous for bagels and New York style pizza. Some 4,000 mobile food vendors approved by the city, many immigrant-owned, have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafels and kebabs standbys of contemporary New York street food.The city is also home to many of the finest haute cuisine restaurants in the United States.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Space term-In geography


Geographical space is called land, and has a related to ownership. While some cultures assert the rights of the individual in terms of ownership, other cultures will identify with a communal approach to land ownership, while still other cultures, rather than asserting ownership rights to land, invert the relationship and consider that they are in fact owned by the land. Spatial planning is a way of regulating the use of space at land-level, with decisions made at regional, national and international levels. Space can also impact on human and cultural behaviour, being an important factor in architecture, where it will impact on the design of buildings and structures, and on farming.
Ownership of space is not limited to land. Ownership of airspace and of waters is determined internationally. Other forms of ownership have been newly asserted to other spaces — for example to the radio bands of the electromagnetic spectrum or to cyberspace.
Public space is a word used to define areas of land is collectively owned by the community, and managed in their name by delegated establishment. Such spaces are open to all, while private property is the land owned by an individual or company, for their own use and happiness.
Abstract space is a word used in geography to refer to a hypothetical space characterized by complete homogeneity. When modeling movement or behavior, it is a conceptual tool used to limit extraneous variables such as terrain.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Glass artifacts

Since glass is strong and non-reactive, it is a very useful object. Many household objects are made of glass. Drinking glasses, bowls, and bottles are frequently made of glass, as are light bulbs, mirrors, cathode ray tubes, and windows. In laboratories doing research in chemistry, biology, physics and lots of other fields, flasks, test tubes, lenses and other laboratory equipment are often made of glass. For these applications, borosilicate glass (such as Pyrex) is regularly used for its strength and low coefficient of thermal expansion, which gives greater resistance to thermal shock and allows for greater accuracy in laboratory measurements when heating and cooling experiments. For the most difficult applications, quartz glass is used, although it is very difficult to work. Most such glass is mass-produced using a variety of industrial processes, but most large laboratories need so much custom glassware that they keep a glassblower on staff. Volcanic glasses, such as obsidian, have long been used to make stone tools, and flint knapping techniques can simply be adapted to mass-produced glass.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Music

Music is composed and performed for several purposes, ranging from aesthetic satisfaction, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment creation for the marketplace. Amateur musicians compose and make music for their own pleasure, and they do not attempt to take their income from music. Professional musicians are engaged by a range of institutions and organizations, with equipped forces, churches and synagogues, symphony orchestras, broadcasting or film making companies, and music schools. As well, professional musicians work as freelancers, seeking contracts and arrangements in a variety of settings.
Although amateur musicians vary from professional musicians in that amateur musicians have a non-musical source of income, there are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musical group take lessons with professional musicians. In community settings, highly developed amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles and orchestras. In some rare cases, amateur musicians reach a professional level of competence, and they are able to perform in professional performance settings.
A difference is often made between music performed for the advantage of a live audience and music that is performed for the use of being recorded and distributed through the music retail system or the broadcasting system. However, there are also many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is recorded and spread (or broadcast).

Friday, February 09, 2007

Infrared
Infrared (IR) emission is electromagnetic emission of a wavelength longer than that of noticeable light, but shorter than that of radio waves. The name means "below red" (from the Latin infra, "below"), red being the color of detectable light of longest wavelength. Infrared radiation spans three instructions of magnitude and has wavelengths between about 750 nm and 1 mm.
These divisions are suitable by the different human response to this radiation: near infrared is the area closest in wavelength to the radiation detectable by the human eye, mid and far infrared are gradually further from the visible regime. Other definitions follow different physical mechanisms (emission peaks, vs. bands, water absorption) and the newest follow technical reasons (The common silicon detectors are sensitive to about 1,050 nm, while Inga As sensitivity starts around 950 nm and ends between 1,700 and 2,600 nm, depending on the specific configuration). Unfortunately the international standards for these specifications are not currently obtainable.
The boundary between visible and infrared light is not precisely defined. The human eye is markedly less responsive to light above 700 nm wavelength, so longer frequencies make irrelevant contributions to scenes illuminated by common light sources. But particularly strong light (e.g., from lasers, or from bright daylight with the visible light removed by colored gels [1]) can be detected up to approximately 780 nm, and will be apparent as red light. The onset of infrared is defined (according to different standards) at different values typically between 700 nm and 780 nm.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Charleston earthquake – Pre-20th Century
The Charleston Earthquake of 1886 was the biggest quake to hit the Southeastern United States. It occurred at 9:50 p.m. on August 31, 1886. The earthquake caused severe damage in Charleston, South Carolina, damaging 2,000 buildings and causing $6 million value in damages, while in the entire city the buildings were only valued at approximately $24 million. Between 60 and 110 lives were lost.
Major damage occurred as far away as Tybee Island, Georgia (over 60 miles away) and structural injure was reported some hundred miles from Charleston (counting central Alabama, central Ohio, eastern Kentucky, southern Virginia, and western West Virginia). It was felt as far away as Boston to the North, Chicago and Milwaukee to the Northwest, as far West as New Orleans, as far South as Cuba, and also as far East as Bermuda.
Good Friday Earthquake – 20th Century
The Good Friday Earthquake (also known as the Great Alaska Earthquake) of Friday, March 27, 1964, was the most dominant earthquake in U.S. and North American history. As of 2006, it remains the third most powerful earthquake deliberate in modern times everywhere in the world. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake that resulted in 131 deaths was centered in Prince William Sound off the coastline of South Central Alaska. The powerful earthquake also caused some parts of Alaska to be liquefied, resulted much damage to property and leading to landslides.