Rumania

2012-01-30T20:14:00.001+05:30

ZERO

The concept Zero played a major role in seeing the growth of higher mathematics which is a major step in the history of mankind. Zero is also a synonym of the word none. Although there are many stories that surround the invention of the number zero, studies show that the number was invented by a group of people from the Mayan civilization. At that time, the decimal system was in use just as it is today only that a space was left to indicate a zero up until the third century BC. The other version of the story is that, it was invented by the Indian mathematician and astronomer, ARYABHATTA, around 9th century C.E. There is also a claim that tracks the invention of zero back to 300 B.C in Babylon. All these inventions were independently made and were not connected. The empty space was very confusing because it was also used for the separation for numbers. That brought about the dot to stand in place of a zero. The first time the zero symbol was evidently used can be traced to the seventh century AD. The Maya made the number zero invention specifically for the calendars used during the third century AD. Evidence of number zero was not realized in the Europe civilization up until after eight hundred AD from the Arabs who were coming to trade. The Romans and Greeks used the abacus to carry out their calculations and did not therefore need the number zero. The zero name was derived from the Arabic language.

By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the Babylonian mathematics had a sophisticated sexagesimal positional numeral system. The lack of a positional value was indicated by a space between sexagesimal numerals. By 300 BC, a punctuation symbol was co-opted as a placeholder in the same Babylonian system. In a tablet unearthed at Kish, the scribe Bel-ban-aplu wrote his zeros with three hooks, rather than two slanted wedges. The Babylonian placeholder was not a true zero because it was not used alone. Nor was it used at the end of a number. Thus numbers like 2 and 120, 3 and 180, 4 and 240, looked the same because the larger numbers lacked a final sexagesimal placeholder. Only context could differentiate them.

Records show that the ancient Greeks seemed unsure about the status of zero as a number. They asked themselves "How can nothing be something? leading to philosophical and by the Medieval period, religious arguments about the nature and existence of zero and the vacuum. The paradoxes of Zeno of Elea depend in large part on the uncertain interpretation of zero.
The concept of zero as a number and not merely a symbol for separation is attributed to India where by the 9th century AD practical calculations were carried out using zero, which was treated like any other number, even in case of division. The Indian scholar Pingala used binary numbers in the form of short and long syllables, making it similar to Morse code. He and his contemporary Indian scholars used the Sanskrit word sunya to refer to zero or void. The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar developed in south-central Mexico and Central America required the use of zero as a place-holder within its vigesimal positional numeral system. Many different glyphs, including this partial quatrefoil——were used as a zero symbol for these Long Count dates, the earliest of which has a date of 36 BC. Since the eight earliest Long Count dates appear outside the Maya homeland, it is assumed that the use of zero in the Americas predated the Maya and was possibly the invention of the Olmecs. Many of the earliest Long Count dates were found within the Olmec heartland, although the Olmec civilization ended by the 4th century BC, several centuries before the earliest known Long Count dates.
Although zero became an integral part of Maya numerals, it did not influence Old World numeral systems.
Quipu, a knotted cord device, used in the Inca Empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region to record accounting and other digital data, is encoded in a base ten positional system. Zero is represented by the absence of a knot in the appropriate position.The use of a blank on a counting board to represent 0 dated back in India to 4th century BC. In China, counting rods were used for decimal calculation since the 4th century BC including the use of blank spaces. Chinese mathematicians understood negative numbers and zero, some mathematicians used for the latter, until Gautama Siddha introduced the symbol 0. The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, which was mainly composed in the 1st century AD, stated "subtract same signed numbers, add differently signed numbers, subtract a positive number from zero to make a negative number and subtract a negative number from zero to make a positive number.

2012-01-27T01:08:00.000+05:30

HOW DOES BLIND PEOPLE READ

The Braille system is a method that is widely used by people who are visually impaired to read and write and was the first digital form of writing. Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character or cell is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two columns of three dots each. A dot may be raised at any of the six positions to form sixty-four (26) possible subsets, including the arrangement in which no dots are raised. For reference purposes, a particular permutation may be described by naming the positions where dots are raised, the positions being universally numbered 1 to 3, from top to bottom, on the left and 4 to 6 from top to bottom on the right. For example dots 1-3-4 (⠍) would describe a cell with three dots raised, at the top and bottom in the left column and on top of the right column i.e. the letter m. The lines of horizontal Braille text are separated by a space, much like visible printed text so that the dots of one line can be differentiated from the Braille text above and below. Punctuation is represented by its own unique set of characters.

The Braille system was based on a method of communication originally developed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon's demand for a code that soldiers could use to communicate silently and without light at night called night writing. Barbier's system of sets of 12 embossed dots encoding 36 different sounds was too difficult for soldiers to perceive by touch and was rejected by the military. In 1821 he visited the National Institute for the Blind in Paris where he met Louis Braille. Braille identified the two major defects of the code: First, by representing only sounds, the code was unable to give the orthography of the words and Second, the human finger could not encompass the whole symbol without moving and so could not move rapidly from one symbol to another. His modification was to use a 6 dot cell — the Braille system — representing all the letters of the alphabet. At first the system was a one-to-one transliteration of French but soon various abbreviations and contractions were developed, creating a system much more like shorthand.

People who are totally blind are absolutely not able to interact with the computer without assistive technologies. In order to overcome this barrier, they mostly use screen reader software and Braille displays. In simple terms, a screen reader system speaks all the information in a human voice which comes on the screen as well as the text which is typed on the keyboard. A Braille display makes the same information appear on a Braille line which blind people can read with their fingers. However a screen reader is much more complicated in practice. It is also important that blind people are able to navigate quickly on the screen and find information as they need it. Therefore, screen reader systems are loaded with functionality which read a portion of the screen according to certain different criteria. The more simple ones would read the current character, the current word or the current line. More complex ones would read the status line of an application, the title bar, a certain window or the current item on the menu as the user navigates.

A Braille display is usually an addition to a screen reader. It is a small unit which lays by the keyboard and displays one line of information in Braille, mostly the same which the screen read announces with speech. This helps blind people understand the layout of the screen better and read texts which is more difficult to understand with speech. For example more complex tablets or texts which contain words in more than one language, such as dictionaries. The effectiveness of a screen reader greatly determines the effectiveness of blind people on the computer. Long ago screen readers only allowed to read the screen line by line, so people had to hunt for information they needed. Today, practically any piece of information can be assigned with a hotkey. Different hotkeys would announce different information in different applications. For example one hotkey would announce the misspelled word in a Microsoft Application, another would read the current table cell in Internet Explorer etc.

2012-01-25T01:34:00.000+05:30

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via Internet. With a web browser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks.

Using concepts from his earlier hypertext systems like ENQUIRE, British engineer and computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, now Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, wrote a proposal in March 1989 for what would eventually become the World Wide Web. At CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, Berners-Lee and Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau proposed in 1990 to use hypertext " to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will" and they publicly introduced the project in December.
In the June 1970 issue of Popular Science magazine Arthur C. Clarke was reported to have predicted that satellites would one day "bring the accumulated knowledge of the world to your fingertips" using a console that would combine the functionality of the Xerox, telephone, television and a small computer, allowing data transfer and video conferencing around the globe. In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal that referenced ENQUIRE, a database and software project he had built in 1980 and described a more elaborate information management system.

With help from Robert Cailliau, he published a more formal proposal on November 12 1990 to build a "Hypertext project" called "WorldWideWeb" of "hypertext documents" to be viewed by "browsers" using a client–server architecture. This proposal estimated that a read-only web would be developed within three months and that it would take six months to achieve "the creation of new links and new material by readers, authorship becomes universal" as well as "the automatic notification of a reader when new material of interest to him has become available." While the read-only goal was met, accessible authorship of web content took longer to mature, with the wiki concept, blogs, Web 2.0 and RSS.

The proposal was modeled after the Dynatext SGML reader by Electronic Book Technology, a spin-off from the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship at Brown University. The Dynatext system, licensed by CERN, was technically advanced and was a key player in the extension of SGML ISO 8879:1986 to Hypermedia within HIGH Time but it was considered too expensive and had an inappropriate licensing policy for use in the general high energy physics community, namely a fee for each document and each document alteration.The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in everyday speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. In contrast, the Web is one of the services that runs on the Internet. It is a collection of text documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs, usually accessed by web browsers from web servers. In short, the Web can be thought of as an application "running" on the Internet.

2011-10-15T01:37:00.000+05:30

RAINBOW

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines on to droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.
In a so-called "primary rainbow" ,the arc of a rainbow shows red on the outeR part of the arc, and violet on the inner section. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted then reflected once in droplets of water. In a double rainbow, a second arc may be seen above and outside the primary arc and has the order of its colours reversed. This second rainbow is caused by light reflecting twice inside water droplets. The region between a double rainbow is dark and is known as "Alexander's band" or "Alexander's dark band". The reason for this dark band is that, while light below the primary rainbow comes from droplet reflection and light above the upper rainbow also comes from droplet reflection, there is no mechanism for the region between a double rainbow to show any light reflected from water drops. It is impossible for an observer to manoeuvre to see any rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one (which is 42 degrees from the direction opposite the Sun). Even if an observer sees another observer who seems "under" or "at the end" of a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow further off-yet, at the same angle as seen by the first observer. Thus, a "rainbow" is not a physical object and cannot be physically approached.

A rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colours. The distinct bands are an artefact of human colour vision and no banding of any type is seen in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow. For colours seen by a normal human eye, the most commonly cited and remembered sequence, in English, is Newton's sevenfold violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow , orange and red (popularly memorized as VIBGYOR). However, colour-blind persons will see fewer colors. Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include not only rain but also mist, spray and airborne dew.

Rainbows can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and sunlight shining from behind at a low altitude angle. The most spectacular rainbow displays happen when half the sky is still dark with raining clouds and the observer is at a spot with clear sky in the direction of the sun. The result is a luminous rainbow that contrasts with the darkened background. The rainbow effect is also commonly seen near waterfalls or fountains. In addition, the effect can be artificially created by dispersing water droplets into the air during a sunny day. Rarely, a moonbow, lunar rainbow or nighttime rainbow, can be seen on strongly moonlit nights. As human visual perception for colour is poor in low light, moonbows are often perceived to be white. It is difficult to photograph the complete semicircle of a rainbow in one frame, as this would require an angle of view of 84°. For a 35 mm camera, a lens with a focal length of 19 mm or less wide-angle lens would be required. Now that powerful software for stitching several images into a panorama is available, images of the entire arc and even secondary arcs can be created fairly easily from a series of overlapping frames. From an aeroplane, one has the opportunity to see the whole circle of the rainbow, with the plane's shadow in the centre. This phenomenon can be confused with the glory but a glory is usually much smaller, covering only 5–20°. At good visibility conditions, the second arc can be seen, with inverse order of colours. At the background of the blue sky, the second arc is barely visible.

2011-10-15T00:25:00.000+05:30

BIOSPHERE

The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system. From the broadest biophysiological point of view, the biosphere is the global ecological system integrating all living beings and their relationships, including their interaction with the elements of the lithosphere, hydros and atmosphere. The biosphere is postulated to have evolved, beginning through a process of biogenesis or biopoesis, at least some 3.5 billion years ago. In a broader sense, biospheres are any closed, self-regulating systems containing ecosystems including artificial ones such as Biosphere 2 and BIOS-3 and potentially, ones on other planets or moons.
Some life scientists and earth scientists use biosphere in a more limited sense. For example, geochemists define the biosphere as being the total sum of living organisms. In this sense, the biosphere is but one of four separate components of the geochemical model, the other three being lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere. The narrow meaning used by geochemists is one of the consequences of specialization in modern science. Some might prefer the word ecosphere, coined in the 1960s, as all encompassing of both biological and physical components of the planet.

The Second International Conference on Closed Life Systems defined biospherics as the science and technology of analogs and models of Earth's biosphere i.e. artificial Earth-like biospheres. Others may include the creation of artificial non-Earth biospheres—for example, human-centered biospheres or a native Martian biosphere—in the field of biospherics. In the early 1970s, Lynn Margulis, a microbiologist from the United States, added to the hypothesis, specifically noting the ties between the biosphere and other Earth systems. For example, when carbon dioxide levels increase in the atmosphere, plants grow more quickly. As their growth continues, they remove more and more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Many scientists are now involved in new fields of study that examine interactions between biotic and abiotic factors in the biosphere, such as geo-biology and geo-microbiology. Ecosystems occur when communities and their physical environment work together as a system. The difference between this and a biosphere is simple, the biosphere is everything in general terms.

Every part of the planet, from the polar ice caps to the Equator, supports life of some kind. Recent advances in microbiology have demonstrated that microbes live deep beneath the Earth's terrestrial surface and that the total mass of microbial life in so-called "uninhabitable zones" may, in biomass, exceed all animal and plant life on the surface. The actual thickness of the biosphere on earth is difficult to measure. Birds typically fly at altitudes of 650 to 1,800 meters and fish that live deep underwater can be found down to -8,372 meters in the Puerto Rico Trench. There are more extreme examples for life on the planet: Ruppell's Vulture has been found at altitudes of 11,300 meters. Bar-headed Geese migrate at altitudes of atleast 8,300 meters. Yaks live at elevations between 3,200 to 5,400 meters above sea level. Mountain goats live up to 3,050 meters. Herbivorous animals at these elevations depend on lichens, grasses and herbs.

Microscopic organisms live at such extremes that, taking them into consideration puts the thickness of the biosphere much greater. Culturable microbes have been found in the Earth's upper atmosphere as high as 41 km. It is unlikely, however, that microbes are active at such altitudes, where temperatures and air pressure are extremely low and ultraviolet radiation very high. More likely these microbes were brought into the upper atmosphere by winds or possibly volcanic eruptions. Barophilic marine microbes have been found at more than 10 km depth in the Marianas Trench. Microbes are not limited to the air, water or the Earth's surface. Culturable thermophilic microbes have been extracted from cores drilled more than 5 km into the Earth's crust in Sweden, from rocks between 65-75 °C. Temperature increases with increasing depth into the
Earth's crust. The speed at which the temperature increases depends on many factors, including type of crust, rock type, geographic location, etc. The upper known limit of temperature at which microbial life can exist is 122 °C and it is likely that the limit of life in the "deep biosphere" is defined by temperature rather than absolute depth.

Our biosphere is divided into a number of biomes, inhabited by broadly similar flora and Fauna. On land, biomes are separated primarily by latitude. Terrestrial biomes lying within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are relatively barren of plant and animal life, while most of the more populous biomes lie near the equator. Terrestrial organisms in temperate and Arctic biomes have relatively small amounts of total biomass, smaller energy budgets and display prominent adaptations to cold, including world-spanning migrations, social adaptations, homeothermy, estivation and multiple layers of insulation.

2011-10-14T10:23:00.000+05:30

GEOMETRY

Geometry (Greek: Geo- "earth" -Metria "measurement") is a branch of mathematics concerned with questions of shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. Geometry is one of the oldest mathematical sciences. Initially a body of practical knowledge concerning lengths, areas and volumes, in the 3rd century BC geometry was put into an axiomatic form by Euclid, whose treatment—Euclidean geometry—set a standard for many centuries to follow. Archimedes developed ingenious techniques for calculating areas and volumes, in many ways anticipating modern integral calculus. The field of astronomy, especially mapping the positions of the stars and planets on the celestial sphere and describing the relationship between movements of celestial bodies, served as an important source of geometric problems during the next one and a half millennia. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is called a geometer. The introduction of coordinates by Rene Descartes and the concurrent development of algebra marked a new stage for geometry, since geometric figures, such as plane curves, could now be represented analytically, i.e., with functions and equations. This played a key role in the emergence of infinitesimal calculus in the Th century. Furthermore, the theory of perspective showed that there is more to geometry than just the metric properties of figures: perspective is the origin of projective geometry. The subject of geometry was further enriched by the study of intrinsic structure of geometric objects that originated with Euler and Gauss and led to the creation of topology and differential geometry.

In Euclid's time there was no clear distinction between physical space and geometrical space. Since the 19th-century discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, the concept of space has undergone a radical transformation and the question arose which geometrical space best fits physical space. With the rise of formal mathematics in the 20th century, also space lost its intuitive contents, so today we have to distinguish between physical space, geometrical spaces and abstract spaces. Contemporary geometry considers manifolds, spaces that are considerably more abstract than the familiar Euclidean space, which they only approximately resemble at small scales. These spaces may be endowed with additional structure, allowing one to speak about length. Modern geometry has multiple strong bonds with physics, exemplified by the ties between pseudo-Riemannian geometry and general relativity. One of the youngest physical theories, string theory, is also very geometric in flavour. While the visual nature of geometry makes it initially more accessible than other parts of mathematics, such as algebra or number theory, geometric language is also used in contexts far removed from its traditional, Euclidean provenance.

Geometry originated as a practical science concerned with surveying, measurements, areas and volumes. Among the notable accomplishments one finds formulas for lengths, areas and volumes, such as Pythagorean theorem, circumference and area of a circle, area of a triangle, volume of a cylinder, sphere and a pyramid. A method of computing certain inaccessible distances or heights based on similarity of geometric figures is attributed to Thales. Development of astronomy led to emergence of trigonometry and spherical trigonometry, together with the attendant computational techniques.

2011-09-29T17:06:00.000+05:30

DEMOCRACY

Democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law. It can also encompass social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination. According to some theories of democracy, popular sovereignty is the founding principle of such a system. However, the democratic principle has also been expressed as "the freedom to call something into being which did not exist before, which was not given and which therefore, strictly speaking, could not be known." This type of freedom, which is connected to human "natality," or the capacity to begin anew, sees democracy as "not only a political system" an aspiration, really, intimately connected to and dependent upon a picture of what it is to be human—of what it is a human should be to be fully human."
While there is no universally accepted definition of 'democracy', equality and freedom have both been identified as important characteristics of democracy since ancient times. These principles are reflected in all citizens being equal before the law and having equal access to legislative processes. For example, in a representative democracy, every vote has equal weight, no unreasonable restrictions can apply to anyone seeking to become a representative and the freedom of its citizens is secured by legitimized rights and liberties which are generally protected by a constitution.

There are several varieties of democracy. Some of which provide better representation and more freedom for their citizens than others. However, if any democracy is not structured so as to prohibit the government from excluding the people from the legislative process or any branch of government from altering the separation of powers in its own favor, then a branch of the system can accumulate too much power and destroy the democracy. Representative Democracy, Consensus Democracy and Deliberative Democracy are all major examples of attempts at a form of government that is both practical and responsive to the needs and desires of citizens.
Many people use the term "democracy" as shorthand for liberal democracy, which may include elements such as political pluralism, equality before the law, the right to petition elected officials for redress of grievances, due process, civil liberties, human rights and elements of civil society outside the government. In the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute but in other countries such as the United Kingdom, the dominant principle is that of parliamentary sovereignty. In other cases, "democracy" is used to mean direct democracy. Though the term "democracy" is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles are applicable to private organizations and other groups as well.
Majority rule is often listed as a characteristic of democracy. However, it is also possible for a minority to be oppressed by a "tyranny of the majority" in the absence of governmental or constitutional protections of individual or group rights. An essential part of an "ideal" representative democracy is competitive elections that are fair both substantively and procedurally. Furthermore, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are considered to be essential, so that citizens are adequately informed and able to vote according to their own best interests as they see them. It has also been suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of individuals to participate freely and fully in the life of their society.
Democracy has its formal origins in Ancient Greece but democratic practices are evident in earlier societies including Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and India. Other cultures since Greece have significantly contributed to the evolution of democracy such as Ancient Rome, Europe and North and South America. The concept of representative democracy arose largely from ideas and institutions that developed during the European Middle Ages and the Age of Enlightenment and in the American and French Revolutions. Democracy has been called the "last form of government" and has spread considerably across the globe. The right to vote has been expanded in many jurisdictions over time from relatively narrow groups with New Zealand the first nation to grant universal suffrage for all its citizens in 1893. Democracy is often confused with the republic form of government.

Parliamentary democracy is a representative democracy where government is appointed by representatives as opposed to a 'presidential rule' wherein the President is both head of state and the head of government and is elected by the voters. Under a parliamentary democracy, government is exercised by delegation to an executive ministry and subject to ongoing review, checks and balances by the legislative parliament elected by the people. Parliamentary systems have the right to dismiss a Prime Minister at any point in time that they feel he or she is not doing their job to the expectations of the legislature. This is done through a vote of no Confidence where the legislature decides whether or not to remove the Prime Minister from office by a majority support for his or her dismissal. The Prime Minister can also call an election whenever he or she so chooses. Typically the Prime Minister will hold an election when he or she knows that they are in good favor with the public as to get re-elected.

2011-09-13T11:28:00.001+05:30

WINNERS vs LOSERS

The winner is a part of solution. The loser is a part of the problem.

The winner has a plan. The Loser always has an excuse.

The winner says "It may be difficult". The loser says "Its impossible".

The winner makes commitments. The loser makes promises.

The winner has a dream. The loser has schemes.

The winner sees gain. The loser sees the pain.

The winner says "Let me do it for you" . The loser says "That's not my job".

The winner says "I must do something" The loser says "Something must be done"

The winner is a part of the team. The loser is apart from the team.

2011-09-08T15:29:00.000+05:30

ATM'S

An automated teller machine (ATM) also known as a Cash Point is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public space without the need for a cashier, human clerk or bank teller. ATMs are known by various other names including ATM Machine, automatic banking machine, cash machine and various regional variants derived from trademarks on ATM systems held by particular banks. Invented by IBM, the first ATM was introduced in December 1972 at Lloyds Bank in the UK. On most modern ATMs, the customer is identified by inserting a plastic ATM card with a magnetic stripe or a plastic smart card with a chip, that contains a unique card number and some security information such as an expiration date. Authentication is provided by the customer entering a personal identification number.

Using an ATM, customers can access their bank accounts in order to make cash withdrawals, credit card cash advances and check their account balances as well as purchase prepaid cellphone credit. If the currency being withdrawn from the ATM is different from that which the bank account is denominated in , the money will be converted at a wholesale exchange rate. Thus, ATMs often provide the best possible exchange rate for foreign travelers and are heavily used for this purpose as well.

The idea of self-service in retail banking developed through independent and simultaneous efforts in Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the USA, Luther George Simjian has been credited with developing and building the first cash dispenser machine. There is strong evidence to suggest that Simjian worked on this device before 1959 while his 132Nd patent was first filed on 30 June 1960. The rollout of this machine, called Bankograph, was delayed a couple of years. This was due in part to Simjian's Reflectone Electronics Inc. being acquired by Universal Match Corporation. An experimental Bankograph was installed in New York City in 1961 by the City Bank of New York but removed after 6 months due to the lack of customer acceptance. The Bankograph was an automated envelope deposit machine and it did not have cash dispensing features.

A first cash dispensing device was used in Tokyo in 1966. Although little is known of this first device, it seems to have been activated with a credit card rather than accessing current account balances. It was followed in 1967 by a machine in Uppsala.
ATMs are placed not only near or inside the premises of banks but also in locations such as shopping malls, airports, grocery stores, petrol stations, restaurants or anywhere frequented by large numbers of people. There are two types of ATM installations- on- and off-premise. On premise ATMs are typically more advanced, multi-function machines that complement a bank branch's capabilities and are thus more expensive. Off-premise machines are deployed by financial institutions and Independent Sales Organizations where there is a simple need for cash, so they are generally cheaper mono-function devices. In Canada, ABMs not operated by a financial institution are known as "White Label ABMs". In North America banks often have drive-through lanes providing access to ATMs. Many ATMs have a sign above them, called a topper, indicating the name of the bank or organization owning the ATM and possibly including the list of ATM networks to which that machine is connected.

Most ATMs are connected to interbank networks, enabling people to withdraw and deposit money from machines not belonging to the bank where they have their account or in the country where their accounts are held. Some examples of interbank networks include PULSE, PLUS, Interswitch, STAR and LINK.
ATM's rely on authorization of a financial transaction by the card issuer or other authorizing institution via the communications network. This is often performed through an ISO 8583 messaging system.

Many banks charge ATM usage fees. In some cases, these fees are charged solely to users who are not customers of the bank where the ATM is installed.

2011-09-07T12:17:00.000+05:30

COAL (HOW IS IT FORMED)

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon along with variable quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, with smaller quantities of sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen.

FORMATION OF COAL:-

Coal begins as layers of plant matter accumulating at the bottom of a body of water. For the process to continue, the plant matter must be protected from biodegradation and oxidization, usually by mud or acidic water. This traps their carbon in immense peat bogs that are eventually covered over and deeply buried by sediments. Under this compression the plant material is metamorphosed into coal. Over time, the chemical and physical properties of the plant remains are changed by geological action to create a solid material.
The wide shallow seas of the Carboniferous period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, although coal is known from most geological periods. The exception is the Coal gap in the Lower Triassic, where coal is rare. Coal is even known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants. This coal is presumed to have originated from algal residues. Coal, a fossil fuel, is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, as well as one of the largest worldwide anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide releases. Gross carbon dioxide emissions from coal usage are slightly more than those from petroleum and about double the amount from natural gas. Coal is extracted from the ground by mining, either underground by shaft mining through the seams or in open pits.

TYPES OF COAL:-

1. Peat, considered to be a precursor of coal, has industrial importance as a fuel in some regions, for example, Ireland and Finland. In its dehydrated form, peat is a highly effective absorbent for fuel and oil spills on land and water.
2. Lignite, also referred to as brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal and used almost exclusively as fuel for electric power generation. Jet is a compact form of lignite that is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Upper Palaeolithic.

3. Sub-bituminous coal, whose properties range from those of lignite to those of bituminous coal are used primarily as fuel for steam-electric power generation. Additionally, it is an important source of light aromatic hydrocarbons for the chemical synthesis industry.
4. Bituminous coal, dense sedimentary rock, black but sometimes dark brown, often with well-defined bands of bright and dull material, used primarily as fuel in steam-electric power generation, with substantial quantities also used for heat and power applications in manufacturing and to make coke.
5. Steam coal is a grade between bituminous coal and anthracite, once widely used as a fuel for steam locomotives. In this specialized use it is sometimes known as sea-coal in the U.S. Small steam coal was used as a fuel for domestic water heating.
6. Anthracite(the highest rank):- A harder, glossy, black coal used primarily for residential and commercial space heating. It may be divided further into metamorphically altered bituminous coal and petrified oil as from the deposits in Pennsylvania.

7. Graphite, technically the highest rank but difficult to ignite and is not so commonly used as fuel. It is mostly used in pencils and when powdered as a lubricant.

2011-09-06T12:16:00.000+05:30

HUMAN SKELETON

The human skeleton consists of both fused and individual bones supported and supplemented by ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage. It serves as a scaffold which supports organs, anchors muscles and protects organs such as the brain, lungs and heart. The biggest bone in the body is the femur in the thigh and the smallest is the stapes bone in the middle ear. In an adult, the skeleton comprises around 30-40% of the total body weight and half of this weight is water.
Fused bones include those of the pelvis and the cranium. Not all bones are interconnected directly: there are three bones in each middle ear called the ossicles that articulate only with each other. The hyoid bone, which is located in the neck and serves as the point of attachment for the tongue, does not articulate with any other bones in the body, being supported by muscles and ligaments. Early in gestation, a fetus has a cartilaginous skeleton from which the long bones and most other bones gradually form throughout the remaining gestation period and for years after birth in a process called endochondral ossification. The flat bones of the skull and the clavicles are formed from connective tissue in a process known as intramembranous ossification and ossification of the mandible occurs in the fibrous membrane covering the outer surfaces of Meckel's cartilages. At birth, a newborn baby has over 300 bones, whereas on average an adult human has 206 bones. The difference comes from a number of small bones that fuse together during growth, such as the sacrum and coccyx of the vertebral column.

The axial skeleton is formed by the Vertebral column, the Rib cage and the skull. The axial skeleton transmits the weight from the head, the trunk and the upper extremities down to the lower extremities at the hip joints and is therefore responsible for the upright position of the human body. Most of the body weight is located in back of the spinal column which therefore have the erectors spinae muscles and a large amount of ligaments attached to it resulting in the curved shape of the spine. The 366 skeletal muscles acting on the axial skeleton position the spine, allowing for big movements in the thoracic cage for breathing and the head. Conclusive research cited by the American Society for Bone Mineral Research demonstrates that weight-bearing exercise stimulates bone growth. Only the parts of the skeleton that are directly affected by the exercise will benefit. Non weight-bearing activity including swimming and cycling has no effect on bone growth.

There are many differences between the male and female human skeletons. Most prominent is the difference in the pelvis owing to characteristics required for the processes of childbirth. The shape of a female pelvis is flatter more rounded and proportionally larger to allow the head of a fetus to pass. Also the coccyx of a female's pelvis is oriented more inferiorly whereas the man's coccyx is usually oriented more anteriorly. This difference allows more room for a developing fetus. Men tend to have slightly thicker and longer limbs and digit bones, while women tend to have narrower rib cages, smaller teeth, less angular mandibles, less pronounced cranial features such as the brow ridges and external occipital protuberance and the carrying angle of the forearm is more pronounced in females. Females also tend to have more rounded shoulder blades.

2011-09-06T00:37:00.000+05:30

KILLER WAVES - TSUNAMI

A tsunami at one time referred to as a tidal wave, is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, usually an ocean, though it can occur in large lakes. Tsunamis are a frequent occurrence in Japan, approximately 195 events have been recorded. Owing to the immense volumes of water and the high energy involved, tsunamis can devastate coastal regions. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions glacier calvings and other mass movements, meteorite ocean impacts or similar impact events, and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.

Some meteorological conditions, such as deep depressions that cause tropical cyclones can generate a storm surge called a meteotsunami, which can raise tides several metres above normal levels. The displacement comes from low atmospheric pressure within the centre of the depression. As these storm surges reach shore, they may resemble tsunamis, inundating vast areas of land. Tsunami can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the Earth's crustal deformation. When these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position. More specifically, a tsunami can be generated when thrust faults associated with convergent or destructive plate boundaries move abruptly, resulting in water displacement, owing to the vertical component of movement involved. Movement on normal faults will also cause displacement of the seabed, but the size of the largest of such events is normally too small to give rise to a significant tsunami.Tsunamis have a small amplitude offshore and a very long wavelength ,which is why they generally pass unnoticed at sea, forming only a slight swell usually about 12 inches above the normal sea surface. They grow in height when they reach shallower water, in a wave shoaling process described below. A tsunami can occur in any tidal state and even at low tide can still inundate coastal areas. On April 1, 1946, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred near the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. It generated a tsunami which inundated Hilo on the island of Hawai with a 14 metres high surge. The area where the earthquake occurred is where the Pacific Ocean floor is subducting under Alaska. Examples of tsunami originating at locations away from convergent boundaries include Storegga about 8,000 years ago, Grand Banks 1929, Papua New Guinea 1998. The Grand Banks and Papua New Guinea tsunamis came from earthquakes which destabilized sediments, causing them to flow into the ocean and generate a tsunami. They dissipated before traveling transoceanic distances.

The cause of the Storegga sediment failure is unknown. Possibilities include an overloading of the sediments, an earthquake or a release of gas hydrates like methane. The 1960 Valdivia earthquake 9.5, 1964 Alaska earthquake 9.2, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake 9.2 and 2011 Tohoku earthquake 9.0 are recent examples of powerful megathrust earthquakes that generated tsunamis that can cross entire oceans. Smaller 4.2 earthquakes in Japan can trigger tsunamis that can only devastate nearby coasts but can do so in only a few minutes.

2011-09-05T21:21:00.000+05:30

TEACHER'S DAY

Teachers Day is celebrated as a tribute to the valuable contribution made by teachers to the society by imparting knowledge and enlightening and shaping the career of students. Celebration of Teachers Day is fairly popular in many countries across the world and is even acknowledged by UNESCO. For students, Teachers Day is an occasion to pay reverence and gratitude to teachers for their selfless effort in shaping their career and enriching the education system in the process. When is Teachers’ Day celebrated? The date for celebrating this special event varies from country to country across the world. In India, Teachers Day is celebrated on the 5th of September every year, whereas, China celebrates this event on 10th September every year. The celebration in each country is generally correlated to either significant personalities or achievements of milestone in the field of education. India celebrates Teachers Day on September 5 since 1962 as it is the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, a prominent thinker, philosopher and an educator.

Most of the schools and institutions make elaborate preparations for the celebrations. The ceremony usually kicks off with a warm Teachers Day speech paying respect and thanking teachers for their contribution. This is often followed by a range of colourful cultural programs, feast and other activities which make the event special and memorable. A few traditional ways of celebrating the event include presenting colourful flowers, beautiful Teachers Day cards or gifts to the teacher as tokens of love and admiration. But students often try innovative ways and ideas to celebrate Teachers Day. Some rely on creative and attractive Teachers Day greeting cards adorned with captivating and touchy quotes and messages to convey the indebtedness unfailingly and also to capture the wonderful moments of the event. Others select lovely and popular Teachers Day quotes to convey their inner feeling of love for their teacher. Sending animated or e-greeting card is also a rage in the contemporary times. Available absolutely free of cost, these Teachers Day Greetings e-cards have become a preferred way to send warm wishes and shower emotions on teachers. Another modern and popular mode of wishing teachers today is the Teachers Day SMS. The advantage of sending SMS is that the message reaches its destination promptly and rarely goes unnoticed. For the celebration of Teachers Day, the text messages are available in varied languages allowing users to send SMS according to his/her preferred language.
All of us have been students at some stage of our life and have benefited from our teachers. Celebration of Teachers Day 2011 is a wonderful opportunity especially for all of us to show our gratitude and appreciation to our teachers.

Oh teacher, Oh teacher!

My test isn't signed
Because somehow

My parents went blind
Now, don't say it's my fault,
They left their hands in the bank vault.

Oh teacher, Oh teacher
Do you know why
I was born without wings
And so cannot fly
Thus I am late
Didn't have breakfast,
So if you don't mind,
Pass me a plate.

Oh teacher, Oh teacher!
I've failed again
Please don't scold me,
Now you'll see why,
I was thinking about
Having an eagle's brain.

2011-09-01T00:24:00.000+05:30

DAM

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are often used in conjunction with dams to generate electricity. A dam can also be used to collect water or for storage of water which can be evenly distributed between locations.The word dam can be traced back to Middle English and before that, from Middle Dutch, as seen in the names of many old cities. Early dam building took place in Mesopotamia and the Middle East. Dams were used to control the water level, for Mesopotamia's weather affected the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and could be quite unpredictable.

The earliest known dam is the Jawa Dam in Jordan, 100 kilometres northeast of the capital Amman. This gravity dam featured a 4.5 m high and 1 m wide stone wall, supported by a 50 m wide earth rampart. The structure is dated to 3000 BC. The Ancient Egyptian Sadd-el-Kafara Dam at Wadi Al-Garawi, located about 25 km south of Cairo, was 102 m long at its base and 87 m wide. The structure was built around 2800 or 2600 B.C. as a diversion dam for flood control, but was destroyed by heavy rain during construction or shortly afterwards. By the mid-late third century BC, an intricate water-management system within Dholavira in modern day India, was built. The system included 16 reservoirs, dams and various channels for collecting water and storing it.Roman dam construction was characterized by "the Romans' ability to plan and organize engineering construction on a grand scale". Roman planners introduced the then novel concept of large reservoir dams which could secure a permanent water supply for urban settlements also over the dry season. Their pioneering use of water-proof hydraulic mortar and particularly Roman concrete allowed for much larger dam structures than previously built, such as the Lake Homs Dam, possibly the largest water barrier to that date and the Harbaqa Dam both in Roman Syria. The highest Roman dam was the Subiaco Dam near Rome. Its record height of 50 m remained unsurpassed until its accidental destruction in 1305.

Roman engineers made routine use of ancient standard designs like embankment dams and masonry gravity dams. Apart from that, they displayed a high degree of inventiveness, introducing most of the other basic dam designs which had been unknown until then. These include arch-gravity dams, arch dams, buttress dams and multiple arch buttress dams, all of which were known and employed by the 2nd century AD. Roman workforces also were the first to build dam bridges, such as the Bridge of Valerian in Iran.
Eflatun Pınar is a Hittite dam and spring temple near Konya, Turkey. It's thought to be from the time of the Hittite empire between the 15th and 13 century BC.The Kallanai is constructed of unhewn stone, over 300 m long, 4.5 m high and 20 m wide, across the main stream of the Kaveri river in Tamil Nadu, South India. The basic structure dates to the 1st century AD. and is considered one of the oldest water-diversion or water-regulator structures in the world, which is still in use. The purpose of the dam was to divert the waters of the Kaveri across the fertile Delta region for irrigation via canals.It is considered to be the oldest dam still in use.
Du Jiang Yan is the oldest surviving irrigation system in China that included a dam that directed waterflow. It was finished in 251 B.C. A large earthen dam, made by the Prime Minister of Chu, Sunshu Ao, flooded a valley in modern-day northern Anhui province that created an enormous irrigation reservoir 100 km, a reservoir that is still present today.

In Iran, bridge dams such as the Band-e Kaisar were used to provide hydropower through water wheels, which often powered water-raising mechanisms. One of the first was the Roman-built dam bridge in Dezful, which could raise water 50 cubits in height for the water supply to all houses in the town. Also diversion dams were known. Milling dams were introduced which the Muslim engineers called the Pul-i-Bulaiti. The first was built at Shustar on the River Karun, Iran, and many of these were later built in other parts of the Islamic world. Water was conducted from the back of the dam through a large pipe to drive a water wheel and watermill. In the 10th century, Al-Muqaddasi described several dams in Persia. He reported that one in Ahwaz was more than 910 m long and that and it had many water-wheels raising the water into aqueducts through which it flowed into reservoirs of the city. Another one, the Band-i-Amir dam, provided irrigation for 300 villages.In the Netherlands, a low-lying country, dams were often applied to block rivers in order to regulate the water level and to prevent the sea from entering the marsh lands. Such dams often marked the beginning of a town or city because it was easy to cross the river at such a place, and often gave rise to the respective place names in Dutch.

For instance the Dutch capital Amsterdam started with a dam through the river Amstel in the late 12th century, and Rotterdam started with a dam through the river Rotte, a minor tributary of the Nieuwe Maas. The central square of Amsterdam, covering the original place of the 800 year old dam, still carries the name Dam Square or simply the Dam.French engineer Benoit Fourneyron developed the first successful water turbine in 1832. The era of large dams was initiated after Hoover Dam was completed on the Colorado River near Las Vegas in 1936. By 1997, there were an estimated 8,00000 dams worldwide, some 40,000 of them over 15 m high.

2011-08-27T19:44:00.000+05:30

REFRIGERATOR

A refrigerator referred to as a fridge is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump which transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room. Cooling is a popular food storage technique in developed countries and works by decreasing the reproduction rate of bacteria. The device is thus used to reduce the rate of spoilage of foodstuffs.
A refrigerator maintains a temperature a few degrees above the freezing point of water. Optimum temperature range for perishable food storage is 3 to 5 °C. A similar device which maintains a temperature below the freezing point of water is called a freezer.The refrigerator is a relatively modern invention among kitchen appliances. It replaced the icebox, which had been a common household appliance for almost a century and a half prior. For this reason, a refrigerator is sometimes referred to as an icebox.
refrigerators keep things cold because of the nature of heat. The Second Law of Thermodynamics essentially states that if a cold object is placed next to a hot object, the cold object will become warmer and the hot object will become cooler. A refrigerator does not cool items by lowering their original temperatures; instead, an evaporating gas called a refrigerant draws heat away, leaving the surrounding area much colder. Refrigerators and air conditioners both work on the principle of cooling through evaporation.

A refrigerator consists of two storage compartments - one for frozen items and the other for items requiring refrigeration but not freezing. These compartments are surrounded by a series of heat-exchanging pipes. Near the bottom of the refrigerator unit is a heavy metal device called a compressor. The compressor is powered by an electric motor. More heat-exchanging pipes are coiled behind the refrigerator. Running through the entire system is pure ammonia, which evaporates at -32 Celsius. This system is closed, which means nothing is lost or added while it is operating. Because liquid ammonia is a powerful chemical, a leaking refrigerator should be repaired or replaced immediately. The refrigeration process begins with the compressor. Ammonia gas is compressed until it becomes very hot from the increased pressure. This heated gas flows through the coils behind the refrigerator, which allow excess heat to be released into the surrounding air. This is why users sometimes feel warm air circulating around the fridge. Eventually the ammonia cools down to the point where it becomes a liquid. This liquid form of ammonia is then forced through a device called an expansion valve. Essentially, the expansion valve has such a small opening that the liquid ammonia is turned into a very cold, fast-moving mist, evaporating as it travels through the coils in the freezer. Since this evaporation occurs at -32 degrees Celsius, the ammonia draws heat from the surrounding area. This is the Second Law of Thermodynamics in effect. Cold material, such as the evaporating ammonia gas, tend to take heat from warmer materials, such as the water in the ice cube tray.

As the evaporating ammonia gas absorbs more heat, its temperature rises. The cool ammonia still draws heat from the warmer objects in the fridge, but not as much as the freezer section. The ammonia gas is drawn back into the compressor, where the entire cycle of pressurization, cooling and evaporation begins.

2011-08-27T19:03:00.000+05:30

BALLOONS

The first big balloon was made by two French brothers in 17Th century, Joseph Michael and Stephen in 1783. It was made with pieces of paper and light cloth. Hot fire was placed under it and it soared upward when it was released.

That same year A.C. Charles made a gas balloon. There was a valve that would open and allow hydrogen to fill the balloon. to go higher the balloonist would release sandbags from the cockpit. The valve would deflate to head back downward.Soon the popularity of the balloon spread. People were talking about this new invention.In 1785 two men crossed the English Channel in one try in a balloon. It surprised millions of people. In 1797 a French balloonist Andre Garnerin amazed the crowd by leaping from a balloon and falling safely to the ground.In the Civil War, World War 1, and World War 2 balloons were used to observe enemy territory.Today all over the World you can ride balloons for fun.

A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders. Some balloons are used for decorative purposes, while others are used for practical purposes such as meteorology, medical treatment, military defense, or transportation. A balloon's properties, including its low density and low cost, have led to a wide range of applications. The inventor of the rubber balloon was Michael Faraday in 1824, via experiments with various gases.Party balloons are mostly made of a natural latex tapped from rubber trees, and can be filled with air, helium, water, or any other suitable liquid or gas. The rubber's elasticity makes the volume adjustable.

Filling the balloon with air can be done with the mouth, a manual or electric inflator (such as a hand pump), or with a source of compressed gas.When rubber or plastic balloons are filled with helium so that they float, they typically retain their buoyancy for only a day or so. The enclosed helium atoms escape through small pores in the latex which are larger than the helium atoms. Balloons filled with air usually hold their size and shape much longer, sometimes for up to a week.
Even a perfect rubber balloon eventually loses gas to the outside. The process by which a substance or solute migrates from a region of high concentration, through a barrier or membrane, to a region of lower concentration is called diffusion. The inside of balloons can be treated with a special gel which coats the inside of the balloon to reduce the helium leakage, thus increasing float time to a week or longer.

Beginning in the late 1970s, some more expensive foil balloons made of thin, unstretchable, less permeable metalized plastic films started being produced. These balloons have attractive shiny reflective surfaces and are often printed with color pictures and patterns for gifts and parties. The most important attribute of metalized nylon for balloons is its light weight, increasing buoyancy and its ability to keep the helium gas from escaping for several weeks. Foil balloons have been criticized for interfering with power lines.
Professional balloon party decorators use electronic equipment to set the exact amount of helium to fill the balloon. For non-floating balloons air inflators are used. Professional quality balloons are used, which differ from most retail packet balloons by being larger in size and made from 100% biodegradable latex.

2011-08-27T17:49:00.000+05:30

MOVIE PROJECTOR

A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.
According to the theory of persistence of vision, the perceptual processes of the brain and the retina of the human eye retain an image for a brief moment of time. This theory is said to account for the illusion of motion which results when a series of film images is displayed in quick succession, rather than the perception of the individual frames in the series.Persistence of vision should be compared with the related phenomena of beta movement and phi movement. A critical part of understanding these visual perception phenomena is that the eye is not a camera, i.e.: there is no "frame rate" in the eye. Instead, the eye/brain system has a combination of motion detectors, detail detectors and pattern detectors, the outputs of all of which are combined to create the visual experience.The frequency at which flicker becomes invisible is called the flicker fusion threshold, and is dependent on the level of illumination. Generally, the frame rate of 16 frames per second is regarded as the lowest frequency at which continuous motion is perceived by humans.

It is possible to view the black space between frames and the passing of the shutter by the following technique:
Close your eyelids, then periodically rapidly blink open and closed. If done fast enough you will be able to randomly "trap" the image between frames, or during shutter motion. This will not work with television due to the persistence of the phosphors nor with LCD or DLP light projectors due to the continuity of image, although certain color artifacts may appear with some digital projection technologies.
Silent films usually were not projected at constant speeds but rather were varied throughout the show at the discretion of the projectionist, often with some notes provided by the distributor. Speeds ranged from about 18 frame/s on up - sometimes even faster than modern sound film speed. Contrary to received opinion, 16 frame/s - though sometimes used as a camera shooting speed - was dangerously inadvisable for projection, due to the high risk of the nitrate-base prints catching fire in the projector.
Since the birth of sound film, virtually all film projectors in commercial movie theaters project at a constant speed of 24 frame/s. This speed was chosen for both financial and technical reasons. When Warner Bros. and Western Electric were trying to find the proper projection speed for the new sound pictures, Western Electric went to the Warner Theater in LA and noted the AVERAGE speed at which films were projected there. They set that as the sound speed at which a satisfactory reproduction and amplification of sound could be conducted. There are some specialist formats which project at higher rates, often 48 frame/s.

Incandescent lighting and even limelight were the first light sources used in film projection. In the early 1900s up until the late 1960s, carbon arc lamps were the source of light in the almost all theaters in the world.
The Xenon arc lamp was introduced in Germany in 1957 and in the US in 1963. After film platters became commonplace in the 1970s, Xenon lamps became the most common light source, as they could stay lit for extended periods of time, whereas a carbon rod used for a carbon arc could last for an hOur at the most.
Most lamp houses in a professional theatrical setting produce sufficient heat to burn the film should the film remain stationary for more than a fraction of a second. Because of this, care must be taken in inspecting a film so that it should not break in the gate and be damaged, particularly inflammable cellulose nitrate film stock.

2011-08-27T17:07:00.000+05:30

ATOMIC CLOCK

An atomic clock is a clock that uses an electronic transition frequency in the microwave, optical or ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum of atoms as a frequency standard for its timekeeping element. Atomic clocks are the most accurate time and frequency standards known, and are used as primary standards for international time distribution services, to control the wave frequency of television broadcasts, and in global navigation satellite systems such as GPS.
The principle of operation of an atomic clock is not based on nuclear physics, but rather on atomic physics and using the microwave signal that electrons in atoms emit when they change energy levels. Early atomic clocks were based on masers at room temperature. Currently, the most accurate atomic clocks first cool the atoms to near absolute zero temperature by slowing them with lasers and probing them in atomic fountains in a microwave-filled cavity.

The accuracy of an atomic clock depends on the temperature of the sample atoms—colder atoms move much more slowly, allowing longer probe times, as well as having reduced collision rates—and on the frequency and intrinsic width of the electronic transition. Higher frequencies and narrow lines increase the precision.
National standards agencies maintain an accuracy of 10−9 seconds per daY and a precision set by the radio transmitter pumping the maser. These clocks collectively define a continuous and stable time scale, International Atomic Time (TAI). For civil time, another time scale is disseminated, Coordinated Universal Time(UTC). UTC is derived from TAI, but approximately synchronized, by using leap seconds, to UT1, which is based on actual rotations of the earth with respect to the solar time.

The idea of using atomic transitions to measure time was first suggested by Lord Kelvin in 1879. Magnetic resonance, developed in the 1930s by Isidor Rabi, became the practical method for doing this.In 1945, Rabi first publicly suggested that atomic beam magnetic resonance might be used as the basis of a clock. The first atomic clock was an ammonia maser device built in 1949 at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards. It was less accurate than existing quartz clocks, but served to demonstrate the concept.The first accurate atomic clock, a caesium standard based on a certain transition of the caesium-133 atom, was built by Louis Essen in 1955 at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK.Calibration of the caesium standard atomic clock was carried out by the use of the astronomical time scale ephemeris time (ET). This led to the internationally agreed definition of the latest SI second being based on atomic time.The SI second thus inherits the effect of decisions by the original designers of the ephemeris time scale, determining the length of the ET second.Since the beginning of development in the 1950s, atomic clocks have been based on the microwave transitions in hydrogen-1, caesium-133, and rubidium-87. The first commercial atomic clock was the Atomichron, manufactured by the National Company. More than 50 were sold between 1956 and 1960. This bulky and expensive instrument was subsequently replaced by much smaller rack-mountable devices, such as the Hewlett-Packard model 5060 caesium frequency standard, released in 1964.

In the late 1990s , two factors contributed to major advances in clocks:
1. Laser cooling and trapping of atoms.
2. Convenient counting of optical frequencies using optical combs.

In August 2004, NIST scientists demonstrated a chip-scaled atomic clock. According to the researchers, the clock was believed to be one-hundredth the size of any other. It was also claimed that it requires just 75 mW, making it suitable for battery-driven applications.

2011-08-13T18:30:00.000+05:30

THE ANTARCTICA

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, encapsulating the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. At 14 million km2 , it is the fifth-largest continent in area after Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. Antarctica is nearly twice the size of Australia. About 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages at least 1.6 kilometers in thickness.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents. Antarctica is considered a desert, with annual precipitation of only 8 inches along the coast and far less inland. The temperature in Antarctica has reached −89 °C . There are no permanent human residents, but anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 people reside throughout the year at the research stations scattered across the continent. Only cold-adapted organisms survive there, including many types of algae, animals , bacteria, fungi, plants, and protista. Vegetation where it occurs is tundra.

The first confirmed sighting of the continent is commonly accepted to have occurred in 1820 by the Russian expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev. The continent, however, remained largely neglected for the rest of the 19th century because of its hostile environment, lack of resources, and isolation. The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 by 12 countries; to date, 47 countries have signed the treaty. The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, prohibits nuclear blasts and power, supports scientific research, and protects the continent's ecozone. Ongoing experiments are conducted by more than 4,000 scientists of many nationalities and with various research interests.

HISTORY OF ANTARCTICA:-

Belief in the existence of a Terra Australis – a vast continent in the far south of the globe to "balance" the northern lands of Europe, Asia and North Africa – has existed since the times of Ptolemy (1st century AD), who suggested the idea to preserve the symmetry of all known landmasses in the world. Even in the late 17th century, after explorers had found that South America and Australia were not part of the fabled "Antarctica", geographers believed that the continent was much larger than its actual size.

European maps continued to show this hypothetical land until Captain James Cook's ships, HMS Resolution and Adventure, crossed the Antarctic Circle on 17 January 1773, in December 1773 and again in January 1774. Cook in fact came within about 121 km of the Antarctic coast before retreating in the face of field ice in January 1773. The first confirmed sighting of Antarctica can be narrowed down to the crews of ships captained by three individuals. According to various organizations (the National Science Foundation, NASA,the University of California, San Diego),ships captained by three men sighted Antarctica in 1820. Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen , Edward Bransfield and Nathaniel Palmer. Von Bellingshausen saw Antarctica on 27 January 1820, three days before Bransfield sighted land, and ten months before Palmer did so in November 1820. On that day the two-ship expedition led by Von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev reached a point within 32 kilometers of the Antarctic mainland and saw ice fields there. The first documented landing on mainland Antarctica was by the American sealer John Davis in West Antarctica on 7 February 1821, although some historians dispute this claim.

2011-08-12T14:42:00.000+05:30

THE

INDIAN

PARLIAMENT

The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India consists of the two houses and the President of India. The president has the power to call, prorogue and dissolve parliament.

The parliament is bicameral, with an upper house called as Council of States or Rajya Sabha, and a lower house called as House of People or Lok Sabha. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Sansad Bhawan in New Delhi. The Members of either house are commonly referred to as Member of Parliament or MP. The MPs of Lok Sabha are elected by direct election and the MPs of Rajya Sabha are elected by the members of the State Legislative Assemblies and Union territories of Delhi and Pondicherry only in accordance with proportional voting. The Parliament is composed of 802 MPs, who serve the largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world.
Of the 552 members of the House of People, 530 members represent the territorial Constituencies in the States, 20 represent the Union territories , chosen in such manner as Parliament may by law provide. These members serve a 5 year term until the next General Election are held. House seats are apportioned among the states by population in such a manner that the ratio between that number and the population of the State is, so far as practicable, the same for all States.

The 250 Members of the Council of States serve a staggered six-year term. 12 of these members are nominated by the President and shall consist of persons having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such matters as the following, namely literature, science, art and social service. The 238 members are representatives of the States shall be elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the State in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote. Every two years, approximately one-third of the Council is elected at a time.
The Lok Sabha is composed of representatives of people chosen by direct election on the basis of Universal Adult Suffrage. The Constitution provides that the maximum strength of the House be 552 members - 530 members to represent the States, 20 members to represent the Union Territories, and 2 members to be nominated by the President from the Anglo-Indian Community. At present, the strength of the House is 545 members. The Rajya Sabha is to consist of not more than 250 members - 238 members representing the States and Union Territories, and 12 members nominated by the President. Rajya Sabha is a permanent body and is not subject to dissolution. However, one third of the members retire every second year, and are replaced by newly elected members. Each member is elected for a term of six years.

2011-08-11T12:49:00.000+05:30

TITANIC

The world's interest in the fascinating history of Titanic has endured for almost 100 years. April 15, 2011 will mark the 99th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic ship and although it has been nearly a century since the infamous luxury liner sank in the Atlantic Ocean, there continues to be a thirst for information regarding Titanic facts, myths and legends.

The White Star Line billed the Titanic as 'unsinkable' months before the ship ever embarked on her maiden voyage. Her construction was reputed to have been the best of the best.No other ship in the history of ocean travel has demanded as much interest as the Titanic. Volumes of books and reels of film have been produced regarding the most infamous shipwreck in history.

When the Titanic embarked on her maiden voyage the world was filled with hope and awe. In just a few short days those emotions turned to horror and grief. While the Titanic ship initially earned fame as the largest luxury liner on the open seas, she would obtain enduring distinction for the tragedy that took the ship to her watery grave. Return to the Titanic and discover the surprising facts that led to the ship's destruction from the moment she set sail.

The 1997 release of 'Titanic' renewed the world's interest in a bygone era and the fate of the Titanic's maiden voyage. The Titanic movie that captured the world's interest and won a ton of Academy Awards.

For years the world pondered what the 'ship of dreams' might have really looked like and wondered if any part of the ship still remained to be seen somewhere below the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean. In 1985 the first pictures of the wreck were taken. The artifacts recovered from the Titanic wreck are a sad reminder of what happened that April morning of 1912. Menus, clothes, jewelry, bottles of wine, letters from passengers on the Titanic, etc. were salvaged from the depths of the ocean and put on display in museums and exhibits or auctioned.

2011-08-11T01:29:00.001+05:30

2G SPECTRUM

The 2G spectrum scam in India involved the issue of 1232 licenses by the ruling Congress-led UPA alliance of the 2G spectrum to 85 companies including many new telecom companies with little or no experience in the telecom sector at a price set in the year 2001. The scam involved allegations regarding the under pricing of the 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications which resulted in a heavy loss to the exchequer, and the illegal manipulation of the spectrum allocation process to favour select companies.
The issue came to light after the auction of airwaves for 3G services which amounted to 677,190 crore to the exchequer. A report submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General based on the money collected from 3G licenses estimated that the loss to the exchequer due to under pricing of the 2G spectrum was 176,379 crore.
The scam came to public notice when the Supreme Court of India took Subramaniam Swamy's complaints on record . It is a very dangerous scam by A Raja. There still many licenses sold from A Raja....

Former telecommunication minister Andimuthu Raja, who is facing trial in the country’s biggest corruption scandal, deflected blame onto the prime minister in court on Monday, saying Manmohan Singh had knowledge of a key decision, media quoted him as telling a special 2G trial court.

The pre-trial comments put the government on the defensive after efforts by Singh to move past a series of damaging corruption scandals that have paralysed government policy-making and hurt foreign investment in India, Asia's third largest economy.Raja, a member of UPA coalition partner DMK, has been charged with flouting telecoms rules and accepting bribes to favour some firms when they sought lucrative mobile phone licences at rock bottom prices, possibly causing the state losses of $39 billion in revenue.Shortly after the licences were sold on a first-come-first-serve basis a number of foreign companies, including Norway's Telenor and Etisalat, bought stakes in the Indian companies at much higher prices, hence prosecutors believe a crime was committed.

"Where is the crime? Where is the conspiracy? Telenor buying a stake in Unitech Wireless and Etisalat buying a stake in was totally legal as per the corporate law," Raja said. "The finance minister approved the sale in the presence of the PM. Let the prime minister deny it," Raja said.Ministers from the ruling Congress party were immediately deployed to say no such divestment had taken place and accused the opposition of seeking to derail the parliamentary session.

PARLIAMENT PARALYSIS THREAT?

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seized on Raja's comments demanding Singh's resignation. That demand could be an ominous portent for the government gearing up to introduce major reform bills such as on land acquisition in the next session of parliament.The Congress party, the largest in the coalition government, has sought several times to distance itself from the telecoms fiasco, a case that has damaged relations with the DMK and pricked investor confidence."They are preparing the ground because it's the ideology of the BJP not to allow parliament to function," telecoms minister Kapil Sibal said. They want a paralysis because they want to hit headlines of newspapers.
Kanimozhi, an MP from Tamil Nadu has also been charged with handling $45 million worth of bribes in connection with the 2G scandal. She has denied any wrongdoing.

2011-08-10T20:32:00.002+05:30

The Jan Lokpal Bill is a draft anti-corruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year.

Drafted by Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and present Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (Supreme Court Lawyer) and Arvind Kejriwal (RTI activist), the draft Bill envisages a system where a corrupt person found guilty would go to jail within two years of the complaint being made and his ill-gotten wealth being confiscated. It also seeks power to the Jan Lokpal to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without government permission.

Retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi and other known people like Swami Agnivesh, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Anna Hazare and Mallika Sarabhai are also part of the movement, called India Against Corruption. Its website describes the movement as "an expression of collective anger of people of India against corruption. We have all come together to force/request/persuade/pressurize the Government to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill. We feel that if this Bill were enacted it would create an effective deterrence against corruption."

Anna Hazare, anti-corruption crusader, began a fast-unto-death today, demanding that this bill, drafted by the civil society, be adopted. The website of the India Against Corruption movement calls the Lokpal Bill of the government an "eyewash" and has on it a critique of that government Bill. It also lists the difference between the Bills drafted by the government and civil society.

A look at features of lokpal bill :-

1. An institution called LOKPAL at the centre and LOKAYUKTA in each state will be set up .

2. Like Supreme Court and Election Commission, they will be completely independent of the governments. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence their investigations.

3. Cases against corrupt people will not linger on for years anymore: Investigations in any case will have to be completed in one year. Trial should be completed in next one year so that the corrupt politician, officer or judge is sent to jail within two years.

4. The loss that a corrupt person caused to the government will be recovered at the time of conviction.

5. How will it help a common citizen: If any work of any citizen is not done in prescribed time in any government office, Lokpal will impose financial penalty on guilty officers, which will be given as compensation to the complainant.

2011-08-06T11:18:00.000+05:30

INCREASING DEMAND OF MOBILE PHONES

How sweet it is to be well placed to have your folks picture as your Mobile screen saver.
Thanks to the new sector of Mobile telephone accessories. For example ear phones, Bluetooth devices, cell phone cases, chargers. These are going to be available at every type of costs to suit everybody.
Cellphone has turned into one of the most used electronic items in the world today.
But cell phones by themselves aren't so engaging to buy, so Mobile companies are attempting to attract shoppers by providing them state of the art accessories. This business has soared to meet the constantly expanding demand of the customers.

Their appearance is also reinforced by these accessories. These accessories are really useful either for communication, videos, music, gaming and etc. It is even feasible to be connected to the world from the very grounds of your home. If you already own one, you may know how straightforward your life has become because of this technology.

Cell-phone makers are providing some high-end mobile phone with ready loaded accessories as software attachment or as a part of the offer with the cellphones as hardware items to boost the sales. Not only this, the mobile telephones are being made in a way that it's technology-friendly and compatible to all sorts of telephone accessories.

It is always a brilliant idea to buy some accessory for your existing phone instead of replacing the phone itself. Today, cell phones and their add-on accessories are readily available everywhere but care must be taken when you buy these because the duplication has also increased to a large extent..

Now a days, the popularity of no contact phones is also rising very fast. More and more people are opting for it because of the innumerable benefits it provides. One of its major benefit is that it gives you the facility of pay as you talk and no extra cost is charged. This has benefited lots of people to save some very good amount of money and its usages are increasing with every passing day. In today’s world where everything is costly there is no point in using a phone for which you need to pay more bills than what you really use. There is no use in having such phones.

2011-07-15T17:19:00.001+05:30

RAINY SEASON

Rainy season or the Monsoon arrives during 15-25 June all over India, usually. The Monsoon is always so uncertain. Some times its too much rain, and sometimes no rain. When the wet season occurs during a warm season, or summer, precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon and early evening hours. The wet season is a time when air quality improves, freshwater quality improves, and vegetation grows significantly, leading to crop yields late in the season. Floods cause rivers to overflow their banks, and some animals to retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases. The incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures. Animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wetter regime. Often, the previous dry season leads to food shortages in the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature.

There are unfortunate places which suffer from drought and just couple of months after, from floods. Rainy season is much awaited in India, in northern part of the country specially, because of warm and dull summers. In India, in summers, temperature goes up to 47° C . There’s a deadly warm wind blowing whole day as well, which is called “Loo” in North and West of India. The rainy season can be said the most important season for India; since it decides how much rain different parts of the country gets. Some places have drought, some places have floods, and some places have both in same year. Monsoon is responsible for deciding the fate of farmers here because agriculture is so much depended on monsoon. So this season decides if farmers are going to have good year or bad. In north and west India, most of the rain of whole year comes in this season and rest of year can be quite dry. So water sources has to be filled in this season as well.

And daytime in summer means try to be indoors. South and east India are luckier that west and north India in case of getting rain.After 3 months of hot summer, when the rain drops touch the ground, it naturally feels like life is back. Environment goes greener and greener. For 3 months of summer, farmers have nothing to do but rainy brings them back to their job and this is start of new academic year in schools and colleges while writing these lines, I was really lost in the fantasies of the monsoon. I love the evenings of rainy season when there are different beautiful designs of clouds appear in the sky in different colours . And the little wet and sweet breeze (and something yummy to eat).

This is time of celebration and joy. With a lush green environment. And beginning of a series of Hindu festivals and occasions one after another.