I Am Curious

UFO Files

2012-05-24T20:50:00.003-07:00

An unidentified flying object (usually abbreviated to UFO or U.F.O.) is any unusual apparent object in the sky whose cause cannot be identified by the observer, or (in a narrower definition) by investigators; though in popular usage it more loosely means alien spacecraft, being one explanation (among several) offered for such sightings.Though UFO sightings have occurred throughout history, modern interest in them dates from World War II, since when governments have investigated UFO reports, often from a military perspective, and UFO researchers have investigated, written about and created organizations devoted to the subject.

Studies have established that the majority of UFOs are observations of some real but conventional object—most commonly aircraft, balloons, noctilucent clouds, nacreous clouds, or astronomical objects such as meteors or bright planets – that have been misidentified by the observer as anomalies, while a small percentage of reported UFOs are hoaxes. However, after excluding these incorrect reports, between 5% and 20% of the total remain unexplained, and so can be classified as unidentified in the strictest sense. Many such reports have been made by trained observers such as pilots, police and the military; some involve radar traces, so not all reports are visual. Proponents of an extraterrestrial hypothesis believe that these unidentified reports are of alien spacecraft, though various other hypotheses have been proposed.

While UFOs have been the subject of extensive investigation by various governments, and some scientists support the extraterrestrial hypothesis, few scientific papers about UFOs have been published in peer-reviewed journals. There has been some debate in the scientific community about whether any scientific investigation into UFO sightings is warranted.

UFOs have become a prominent theme in modern culture, and this cultural phenomenon has been the subject of academic research.

The Global Seed Vault

2012-04-29T03:16:00.001-07:00

Svalbard Global Seed vault was established to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern. It is an assurance to reduce of hunger & poverty due to the national disaster. Construction of the Seed Vault, which cost approximately 45 million Norwegian Kroner (9 million USD), was funded entirely by the Government of Norway. The seed bank is constructed 120 meters (390 ft) inside a sandstone mountain at Svalbard on Spitsbergen Island. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened officially on February 26, 2008. The first seeds arrived in January 2008. This vault can storage 4.5 million samples of different seeds in the dry temperature of 0° F (-18° C). This storage process can protect the seeds for the thousands of years. Svalbard Global Seed Vault ranked no.6 on Time's Best Inventions Of 2008.

Computers Powered By Poop

2012-04-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today almost everything runs on electricity. We use electricity to run trains, cook, lighting and so much more. Thus it is very important that people are able to know where they can get all the required electricity. People are able to tap energy from alternative sources of energy to help relieve the common sources of electricity.

Many companies are trying their best to try and cut down their electricity consumption. A good example would be Google. Google consumes a lot of energy. Google searches require the same energy that an 11 watt bulb requires when it's on for an hour. So one can be able to estimate how much energy is required for the Google servers and all other equipment to run. Thus Google has tried to cut their energy costs by developing advanced cooling methods and using energy saving techniques.

Others companies are also following the same trend. For example HP. It presented a paper to the 4th international conference on energy sustainability that describes how HP plans how they will use manure of cows to power their data centres. The title of the paper is design of Farm Waste-Driven supply Side Infrastructure for Data centers.

The manure that would be used will be from midsized dairy farms. Electricity will be derived form it by putting it through an anaerobic digester. The heat that is derived from this process would be used to power the turbines of the data centers cooling system. The electricity that is derived from this process will be used to power the data center. The temperature of the anaerobic digester would be regulated by the waste heat that is generated by the data center. This process ensures that there is maximum efficiency. This process also produces enough energy to be able to run the dairy farm. Thus one not only saves power use by the data centers but also the dairy farm.

According to HP, a dairy farm with about 10000 cows produces approximately 200000 tones of manure in a year. The manure produces methane gas. According to research this gas is more detrimental to the environment than carbon dioxide. The manure also pollutes the environment by polluting the rivers and streams. Thus HP using this manure to produce electricity will greatly improve the environment as it gets rid of this pollutant.

Other than reducing pollution, this process will also help boost the economy of the farms. The farms will be able to use this same electricity to run their farms and also earn huge chunks of money by selling the manure to be used elsewhere to produce the electricity. The farms can earn approximately two million dollars annually from selling the power that they produce.

A Little Device That’s Trying to Read Your Thoughts

2012-04-03T11:35:00.001-07:00

Dr. Stephen Hawking’s

SAN DIEGO — Already surrounded by machines that allow him, painstakingly, to communicate, the physicist Stephen Hawking last summer donned what looked like a rakish black headband that held a feather-light device the size of a small matchbox. Called the iBrain, this simple-looking contraption is part of an experiment that aims to allow Dr. Hawking — long paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease — to communicate by merely thinking.

The iBrain is part of a new generation of portable neural devices and algorithms intended to monitor and diagnose conditions like sleep apnea, depression and autism. Invented by a team led by Philip Low, a 32-year-old neuroscientist who is chief executive of NeuroVigil, a company based in San Diego, the iBrain is gaining attention as a possible alternative to expensive sleep labs that use rubber and plastic caps riddled with dozens of electrodes and usually require a patient to stay overnight.

“The iBrain can collect data in real time in a person’s own bed, or when they’re watching TV, or doing just about anything,” Dr. Low said.

The device uses a single channel to pick up waves of electrical brain signals, which change with different activities and thoughts, or with the pathologies that accompany brain disorders.

But the raw waves are hard to read because they must pass through the many folds of the brain and then the skull, so they are interpreted with an algorithm that Dr. Low first created for his Ph.D., earned in 2007 at the University of California, San Diego. (The original research, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was done on zebra finches.)

About the Hawking experiment, he said, “The idea is to see if Stephen can use his mind to create a consistent and repeatable pattern that a computer can translate into, say, a word or letter or a command for a computer.”

The researchers traveled to Dr. Hawking’s offices in Cambridge, England, fitted him with the iBrain headband and asked him “to imagine that he was scrunching his right hand into a ball,” Dr. Low said. “Of course, he can’t actually move his hand, but the motor cortex in his brain can still issue the command and generate electrical waves in his brain.”

The algorithm, called Spears, was able to discern Dr. Hawking’s thoughts as signals, which were represented as a series of spikes on a grid.

“We wanted to see if there was any change in the signal,” Dr. Low said. “And in fact, we did see a change in the signal.” NeuroVigil plans to repeat the study in large populations of patients with A.L.S. and other neurodegenerative diseases.

These preliminary results come as Dr. Hawking’s ability to communicate diminishes as his disease progresses. The 70-year-old physicist, whose mind has produced crucial insights in theoretical physics as well as the best-seller “A Brief History of Time,” now needs several minutes to generate a simple message. He uses a pair of infrared glasses that picks up twitches in his cheek. His team in Cambridge, England, has dubbed this the “cheek switch.”

“Dr. Low and his company have done some outstanding work in this field,” Dr. Hawking said in a statement. “I am participating in this project in the hope that I can offer insights and practical advice to NeuroVigil. I wish to assist in research, encourage investment in this area, and, most importantly, to offer some future hope to people diagnosed with A.L.S. and other neurodegenerative conditions.”

The physicist has also worked with other inventors seeking to better elucidate his thoughts. Engineers at the semiconductor and computing giant Intel recently hooked up a customized computer to communicate with his cheek-reading infrared glasses, along with a voice synthesizer, a webcam for using Skype, and special monitors. Intel is developing new face-recognition software that can monitor subtle changes in expression and may help Dr. Hawking communicate more efficiently.

Scientists not connected with Dr. Low say they are encouraged by the iBrain’s potential. “Philip Low’s device is one of the best single-channel brain monitors out there,” said Ruth O’Hara, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University Medical School. She plans to use the iBrain for autism studies. NeuroVigil has not said what the device will cost.

“I can’t speak to the veracity of his latest data,” which has not been published, Dr. O’Hara added, “but the preliminary data I have seen is compelling. It could be a significant contribution to the field as a window into brain architecture.”

Dr. Terry Heiman-Patterson, a neurologist and A.L.S. specialist at the Drexel University College of Medicine, said she was in discussions with NeuroVigil to use the device on A.L.S. patients, to see how they fared with it in comparison with instruments that use multiple channels and electrodes.

“Dr. Low is researching signals that look for intent, which is becoming very exciting because it looks like they may be able to do it — for Stephen Hawking and for others with A.L.S.,” Dr. Heiman-Patterson said.

“Patients want to be able to communicate beyond the yes or no with an eye blink. They want to send an e-mail, and turn off the light and, even more, to have a meaningful conversation.”

Monitors like the iBrain are also being used to assess whether experimental neurological drugs are working in clinical trials.

In 2009, NeuroVigil completed a deal with the drug giant Hoffmann-La Roche to test the iBrain. Neither company has released details of their early tests. NeuroVigil’s strategy, Dr. Low said, is to run clinical trials with Roche and other partners in industry and academia, and to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Other companies also make single-channel brain monitors, but unlike NeuroVigil they sell the devices and software directly to consumers online.Zeo, for example, based in Massachusetts, concentrates on measuring sleep patterns through a smartphone app or a clock-radio device — available for $99 and $143, respectively. Emotiv Systems, in San Francisco, offers its Epoc headset for $299 plus a range of apps and add-ons that include neurofeedback, 3-D brain-mapping tools and games like Angry Birds, all using a combination of thoughts and facial muscle movements recorded by several electrodes that are in contact with a customer’s head.

“We have no plans to take an academic route,” said Zeo’s chief executive, Dave Dickinson, who added that his company’s customers had logged one million hours of sleep time. He would not say how many devices had been sold. Emotiv was founded in 2003 and has reportedly shipped 10,000 devices.

Dr. Low plans to team up again with Dr. Hawking this summer in Cambridge to present their initial data at a neuroscience meeting in early July. NeuroVigil will continue to work with Dr. Hawking and his team to refine their technology to decipher signals generated by Dr. Hawking’s thoughts. “At the moment I think my cheek switch is faster” than the brain-computer interface, Dr. Hawking said in an e-mail sent by an assistant, “ but should the position change I will try Philip Low’s system.”

Much work remains, however, including the integration of Dr. Hawking’s brain waves with the computers and devices that allow him to communicate.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful,” Dr. Low said, “to have a mind like Stephen Hawking’s be able to communicate even a little bit better?”

Tooth Implanted Into His Eye

2012-03-30T19:36:00.002-07:00

Martin Jones, an Englishman had lost his power of vision and remained blind for almost a decade. He has now regained his power of vision. This has been accomplished by implanting a piece of tooth in his eye. The tooth that was implanted was a canine tooth which is also known as the "eyetooth". A living canine was pulled out of Martin Jones' own mouth. They then placed a man-made eye lens into its base and placed it under the lid of his eye and let the tissue grow over the canine. Also a lit flap of his skin was taken from his mouth and implanted over the tooth in his eye which later had access to its own supply of blood. The doctors then cut a hole in the cornea that permitted light to enter the eye. This very procedure gave six hundred people the power of vision.

Living Underground a Reality?

2012-03-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

We explored what living underground offers and we found that it is not as bad as it sounds. Living underground resolves various problems that humans face today such as energy efficiency, comfortable temperature, hideout from extreme temperatures, life without noise, natural shelter from wars, tornados and hurricanes. Two problems that we stumbled across were flooding and of course lack of sunlight. Flooding can be solved with water pumps, but it seems that is impossible to penetrate sun rays through the ground.

There is a town in South Australia called Coober Pedy, where people found that living underground can be great alternative for their needs. There are times when temperatures in Coober Pedy reach an amazing high of 43 degrees Celsius (109 F). These temperatures are very uncomfortable for a normal human being and can lead to various skin diseases. The people here try and avoid the sun by living underground during this period.

This area is commonly referred to as the opal capital of the world. One finds homes, churches and even hotels in the disused shaft mines.

The area, as expected, has become a tourist attraction. People travel long distances to come and see this amazing place. The town relies heavily on the income that they get from tourism just as much as they rely on the income that they get from opal mining.

The area also boasts of being the only place that has got an underground bar. So for those that love drinking beer you will have an amazing experience drinking it from below. Interestingly there is a underground Serbian Orthodox church in Coober Pedy. Serbian miners built it for their own religions needs.

The Pyramids Were White

2012-03-30T19:16:00.002-07:00

The stereotypical vision of the Egyptian Pyramids are large mountain like brown piles of stone uprooting from the desert having a rough contour. Though when first constructed around 2500 BC. The pyramids were paper white and as smooth as glass, toping the pyramid was a golden capstone that gleamed in the desert sun. It was an amazing spectacle. The pyramids somewhat stayed in this state until the Arab invasion of Egypt around AD 500. The Arab invaders stripped the pyramid of it's smooth limestone and built a huge section of Cairo. Many of the Mosques and Palaces of Cairo consist of the Ancient stones of the pyramids. Quite sad actually.

Solved a Century Old Problem

2012-03-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Poincare conjecture is one of the mathematical theorems that has been demonstrated recently passably to the point that it can be taken as a full theorem. You can find various definitions for Poincare Conjecture on different websites. For example, according to Wikipedia "In mathematics, the Poincare conjecture (French, ) is a theorem about the characterization of the three-dimensional sphere among three-dimensional manifolds."
Poincare conjecture has been one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems and above all, this is the first ever and only Millennium Prize Problem that has been solved. The Poincare Conjecture states that if a compact 3-D manifold has no boundary and is simply connected, then it is said to be homeomorphic to a 3-D sphere. This conjecture is believed to have been formulated in 1904 by Henri Poincare, a French mathematician, as an elemental for achieving a perceptive of three dimensional shapes, 3-D sphere being the simplest one.

This conjecture was recently provided with a breakthrough proof by numerous new elements introduced by Perelman. He gained complete perceptive of singularity formation in Ricci flow, in addition to the manner of collapsing of the parts of a shape onto lower-dimensional spaces. He solved the problem by introducing entropy as a new quantity. This entropy measures the disorder in the space's global geometry instead of measuring the disarray at the atomic level. Besides, he also pioneered a related local quantity, the L-functional, which was used that proved that the time between the configuration of singularities could not become smaller and smaller.
Perelman has enriched mathematics by deploy his new ideas and methods with utmost technicalities and describing the obtained results with elegant succinctness.

The interesting fact is that Grigory Perelman declined the prize of one million dollars which comes with the Fields medal which is equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics. Perelman is currently unemployed living with his mom in a small apartment near St. Petersburg. Interfax, a Russian news agency, quoted him as saying. "To put it short," he said, "the main reason is my disagreement with the organized mathematical community. I don't like their decisions; I consider them unjust."

Help us make this fact better by commenting below.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

2012-03-27T08:11:00.003-07:00

Large Hadron Collider

The large Hadron Collider is a massive particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles. Two beams of subatomic particles protons or lead ions will travel in opposite directions colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Some people are afraid that it will create strange matter which turns everything it touches into strange matter meaning everything, miniature big bangs.

The LHC’s 27km loop in a sense encircles the globe, because the LHC project is supported by an enormous international community of scientists and engineers. Working in multinational teams, at CERN and around the world, they are building and testing LHC equipment and software, participating in experiments and analysing data. The UK has a major role in leading the project and has scientists and engineers working on all the main experiments.

LHC 'Big Questions'

1) I have heard that the LHC will recreate the Big Bang, does that mean it might create another Universe and if so what will happen to our Universe?

People sometimes refer to recreating the Big Bang, but this is misleading. What they actually mean is:

recreating the conditions and energies that existed shortly after the start of the Big Bang, not the moment at which the Big Bang started
recreating conditions on a microscale, not on the same scale as the original Big Bang and
recreating energies that are continually being produced naturally (by high energy cosmic rays hitting the earth’s atmosphere) but at will and inside sophisticated detectors that track what is happening

No Big Bang – so no possibility of creating a new Universe.

2) How much did the LHC cost and who pays?

The direct total LHC project cost is £2.6bn, made up of:

the collider (£2.1bn)
the detectors (£575m)

The total cost is shared mainly by CERN's 20 Member States, with significant contributions from the six observer nations.The UK pays ~£95m per year as our annual subscription to CERN.The LHC project involves 111 nations in designing, building and testing equipment and software, participating in experiments and analysing data. The degree of involvement varies between countries, with some able to contribute more financial and human resource than others.

3) CERN stands for 'Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire' (or European Council for Nuclear Research); does that mean that CERN is studying nuclear power and nuclear weapons?

At the time that CERN was established (1952 – 1954) physics research was exploring the inside of the atom, hence the word ‘nuclear’ in its title. CERN has never been involved in research on nuclear power or nuclear weapons, but has done much to increase our understanding of the fundamental structure of the atom.

The title CERN is actually an historical remnant. It comes from the name of the council that was founded to establish a European organisation for world-class physics research. The Council was dissolved once the new organisation (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) was formed, but the name CERN remained.

4) Why is the LHC underground? Is it because it is doing secret experiments that scientists want to hide away?

The LHC has been built in a tunnel originally constructed for a previous collider (LEP – the Large Electron Positron collider). This was the most economic solution to building both LEP and the LHC. It was cheaper to build an underground tunnel than acquire the equivalent land above ground. Putting the machine underground also greatly reduces the environmental impact of the LHC and associated activities.

The rock surrounding the LHC is a natural shield that reduces the amount of natural radiation that reaches the LHC and this reduces interference with the detectors. Vice versa, radiation produced when the LHC is running is safely shielded by 50 – 100 metres of rock.

5) Can the work at CERN be used to build more deadly weapons?

Unlikely for two main reasons. Firstly, CERN and the scientists and engineers working there have no interest in weapons research. They are trying to understand how the world works, not how to destroy it.

Secondly, the high energy particle beams produced at the LHC require a huge machine (27km long, weighing more than 38,000 tonnes – half the weight of an aircraft carrier), consuming 120MW of power and needing 91 tonnes of supercold liquid helium). The beams themselves have a lot of energy (the equivalent of a Eurostar train travelling at top speed) but they can only be maintained in a vacuum, if released into the atmosphere they would immediately interact with atoms in the air and dissipate their energy in a very short distance.

6) Are the high energies produced by the LHC dangerous and what happens if something goes wrong?

The LHC does produce very high energies, but these energy levels are restricted to tiny volumes inside the detectors. Many high energy particles, from collisions, are produced every second, but the detectors are designed to track and stop all particles (except neutrinos) as capturing all the energy from collisions is essential to identifying what particles have been produced. Very little of the energy from collisions is able to escape from the detectors.

The main danger from these energy levels is to the LHC machine itself. The beam of particles has the energy of a Eurostar train travelling at full speed and should something happen to destabilise the particle beam there is a real danger that all of that energy will be deflected into the wall of the beam pipe and the magnets of the LHC, causing a great deal of damage. The LHC has several automatic safety systems in place that monitor all the critical parts of the LHC. Should anything unexpected happen (power or magnet failure for example) the beam is automatically ‘dumped’ by being squirted into a blind tunnel where its energy is safely dissipated.

This all happens in milliseconds – the beam, which is travelling at 11,000 circuits of the LHC per second, will complete less than 3 circuits before the dump is complete.

How to book Aakash 2 (Ubislate 7+) Tablet

2012-03-27T03:56:00.000-07:00

Aakash 2 Tablet

Akash 1st Gen tablet Akash has been sold out in December, 2011. Now Datawind Company is launching its 2nd Gen tablet Akash 2 or Ubislate 7 in the market. Ubislate 7 is a upgraded version of Akash tablet with better features. The online booking of Ubislate 7 has been started. You have another chance to buy Akash laptop online. If you want to book Akash 2 tablet then this article is really helpful to you. Here is the way by which you can book the personal Akash 2 tablet.

Government of India introduced Aakash concept especially for poor and lower class persons. This tablet is made especially for student needs. The Education Minister, Kapil Sibbal, said the following statement on the launching of Aakash – “The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide.”

How to Book Aakash 2 tablet

If you want to buy a Ubislate 7 tablet then you can pre book your Ubislate 7 by following steps:

Go to the http://www.akashtablet.com/
Then click on the Pre Book Button for booking of Akash 2 tablet.
After that you have to fill the form with correct name, residential address and email address.
Then submit your pre-book form.

Directly Book Akash Tablet by clicking these links:

You can direct fill the Pre-book form by clicking this link http://www.ubislate.com/prebook.html
You can also book Akash 2 tablet through sms. Pre-book Akash 2 by sending a SMS – AAKASHPC to 9870207070.

Ubislate 7 – Delivery & Payment Details

You will get your Akash tablet by these processes, after submitting the form.

First submit the form and then you will get a particular Booking ID.
By your Booking ID you will get Akash 2 tablet.
Save your Booking ID because this ID code is very important at the time of delivery.
You will have to pay Rs.2999/- at the time of delivery.

Alcatraz Prison

2012-03-27T03:42:00.001-07:00

Surrounded by strong currents and fortified by steel and concrete, Alcatraz federal prison was meant to be the highest-security prison in America, a place no one could escape from. The island on which it rests shuns even plant life. Alcatraz is essentially a rock surrounded by water -- hence its forbidding nickname, "The Rock." The only creatures that don't mind being around are the great white sharks that troll the chilly water. Beyond the prison's security measures, the island itself provided a strong deterrent to escape.

The name Alcatraz at one time represented the worst side of American life, home of the hardest criminals guilty of the worst crimes. It gained such mystique that some gangsters actually wanted to go there to enhance their reputation among other criminals.

The mystique grew further when Hollywood got hold of it. Movies depicted Alcatraz as haunted, dramatized life inside the prison and glorified the criminals that were sent there, giving Alcatraz a larger-than-life image. Escapees, kingpins and the most famous inmate of all, the Birdman of Alcatraz, continued to inflate the prison's reputation in the public eye.

Reality at the prison was sometimes stranger than fiction -- there were several daring escapes, complete with a few missing bodies and an account of chipping away at walls with spoons. In general, however, the story was often more mundane, because conditions at Alcatraz probably weren't much worse than at other prisons at the time.

Alcatraz has a history much greater than the almost 30 years it spent as a federal penitentiary. As a fort, a lighthouse, the site of a Native American occupation and a national park, Alcatraz has changed through the centuries, often reflecting changes in American society. In this article, we'll learn about the infamous federal prison, some of the notable people who were sent there and famous incidents in the prison's history. We'll also find out how Alcatraz became a prison and why it's an important location in the movement for greater Native American rights.

A Light In the Fog

Is Number 13 Unlucky!!

2012-03-27T03:25:00.000-07:00

The fear of number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia and it was derived from treiskaideka, the Greek word for thirteen and phobia. There were thirteen people at Christ's Last Supper before his captivity, it is recorder that Christ was crucified on Friday. Routine mission to the moon goes drastically wrong on Apollo 13. Some hotels skip number thirteen when numbering rooms. In Formula 1, there is no car with the number 13.

Ancient Indian Astronomers

2012-03-27T03:17:00.000-07:00

Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, says: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha." A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 m.

So it says that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! In 1387 A. D. They know the correct figure for the speed of light. Yogis were using the mala to keep track of the number of mantras. It has 109 beads, 108+1 Guru Bead. Why so? A] The mala represents the ecliptic. It is divided into 27 equal sections called Nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called paadas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven. 2] They stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala and continue reciting backwards. The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe. Yet there are another astronomical references to it : 1] The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. Distance between earth & sun is 149,597,890 km and diameter of sun is 1,392,000 km i.e. 107.45 times. 2] And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter. Distance between earth & moon is 375,403km and moon diameter is 3,476 km i.e. 108 times. 3] The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. Sun diameter is 1,392,000 km and Earth diameter at equator is 12756 km i.e. Sun is 109 times that of earth. That is why Gurumani is considered as of 109th.

Why is Universe so Dark??

2012-03-27T03:12:00.000-07:00

Olbers' paradox, a part of astrophysics and physical cosmology, is basically a squabble about the sky being dark at night. This paradox is also phrased as the 'dark night sky paradox'. The paradox states that an inert, considerably old universe with an equal number of stars scattered in the proportionately large space should be bright rather than being dark at night.

The question of sky being dark at night might seem ridiculous with a much obvious answer, and the topical answer might surprise you. This question has been studied by the best physicists who have reached an answer that is simple but not so obvious. In order to find an answer to the Olbers' paradox, the scientists and physicists had to struggle a lot to learn about the behavior of energy involved in the concept.

One argument given by the scientists against the dark night paradox is that the light of distant stars might be hidden by the dust clouds. But this answer is again contradicted by the statement that these dust clouds should reach the temperature of the stars by their heat. Another statement contradicting the Olber's paradox is that these distant stars might be too tiny and far that they can be seen in the vicinity. Besides, there might be numerous stars at increasing distances such that their smaller perceptible size is formed of by their bigger numbers.

Another theory is of the time and age of the universe. Universe is 13.73 billion years old which states that light of the starts had certain time to light up the universe. Most of the starts we see today, in our night sky, do not exist anymore. We can see their light because it takes ages for their light to travel around the universe. So we could say that stars in the universe had certain amount of time to contribute to the illumination of the whole universe.

IT STILL REMAINS A PARADOX

2012: Be what you want to be!

2012-03-26T07:40:00.001-07:00

Thanks to New Year resolutions. Strange what a turn of a day can do, only one day though. Every other day of the year is as mundane as the one before.

High profile wedding. High profile passing away. Economy as low as it can be. Greece. Riots. 2011 in most ways, a year that will never be forgotten for a lots of reasons, more good than bad as I see it. I saw this nice 90sec video summing up the year that was. Pretty grim viewing I should warn.

But in a strange way there were redemptions to those grim events. India Winning the ICC Cricket World CUP, Japan won the Women’s football (soccer) world cup. New Zealand won the Rugby World Cup. Qatar was awarded 2022 FIFA World Cup hosting rights.

It was a big year for me personally as well. Finally took the step to do what I always wanted to do.

I always believe that each year will exactly be what you make it out to be. The world was there before you came along, so lets not blame the world for what it turns out to be. Its up to each of us to own up to our obligation to ourselves to do what you like to do.

Stop complaining. Start doing something about it.
Stop blaming others. Start accepting changes and move on.
Stop living someone else’s life. Start a life of your own.
Stop being a pushover. Start to believe in yourself.
Stop being a coward. Start facing up to things.

Start to live you life.

Stay curious!

Curious Things That You Should Know!!

2012-03-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

This world is full of interesting and curious things and we are fortunate to be able to know this days more than any other time in history, internet and websites exactly like this one are a big reason for that, thinking about that below are some of those things that we discover every day trough a click of a mouse, hopefully with time the list will get longer:

1- In 1997 the American Airlines had an economy of $40.000 by eliminating a single olive from each served salad

2- The giraffe can clean her own ears with the tongue

3- Million of trees are accidentally planted every year by squirrels that bury nuts and don’t remember where

4- Eat an apple is more efficient to keep you awake than drink coffee

5- Ants stretch themselves in the morning when they wake up

6- People use more blue toothbrushes

7- Pigs are the only animals that like man get burned under the sun.

8- Nobody can lick his own elbow

9- Honey is the only food that do not deteriorate

10- Dolphins sleep with one eye open

11- One third of all ice-creams sold in the world are vanilla flavour

12- The nails from the hands grow approximately 4 times faster than the ones from the toes

13- The Ostrich’s eyes are bigger than its brain

Oh.!!

14- Right-handed people live approximately 9 years more than left-handed

15- Its impossible to sneeze with the eyes open

16- The most powerful muscle in the body is the tongue

17- The letter ‘J’ is the only one that is not in the Periodic Table

18- One drop oil make 25 litres of water unsuitable for consumption

19- The chimpanzees and the dolphins are the only animals capable of recognizing themselves in the mirror

20- Laugh during the day makes you sleep better during the night

21- 40% of people watching news will answer ‘Goodnight’ back to the presenter when the program ends

22- Approximately 70% of people who reads the number 8 information will try to lick their elbow.!!