Razibul's Dream World

What's best for my computer: Hibernate, sleep, or shut down?

2011-04-06T10:42:00.000+06:00

We’ve all heard stories about what's best for a computer’s battery.

Here are the expert tips[Fred Peters, president of Huntington Beach IT Services] on how to keep your new laptop running smoothly.

Sleep mode vs. shutting down

Peters notes that your work process will determine whether it’s more efficient to use “Sleep” mode or simply shut down the computer. “It is never fun to have to consistently wait any amount of time if the shut downs are too frequent,” he says. "‘Sleep’ requires more power, but it boots up faster, while ‘Hibernate’ uses less power, but takes longer to come online.” That same logic applies to shutting off your computer completely.

“Your computer will become obsolete before you wear out your computer by turning it on and off a lot,” he adds. “It also doesn't take more energy to start a computer than to keep it running.”

Sleep mode requires a constant, though reduced use of power (0-6 watts). Peters also notes that colorful screen-savers do nothing to conserve energy. Accessing your computer remotely with the Wake on LAN feature also can drain the power.

To get the most for your money, Peters advises adjusting power settings so that it automatically goes into Sleep/Standby mode after about 15 minutes of inactivity, and then shut it down at the end of your day.

Bionic battery life

To get the most out of your computer battery, Peters says to you have to give it a workout. Don’t keep your machine plugged in to an outlet. Instead, discharge the battery daily.

Size does matter

By purchasing a laptop, Peters says that you are ahead in the energy-saving game. Laptops use about 15-60 watts, while desktops use 65-250 watts — plus another 15-80 watts for a monitor.

He also adds that you can further conserve energy by using an LCD monitor and ditching the high-end video card unless it’s absolutely necessary. Also, turn off printers and other peripherals when they are not in use.

To kill “vampire power,” TreeHugger.com suggests purchasing a power strip. With all peripherals connected to one source, it’s easy to simply flip the switch on power hogs any time.

Establish a backup process

In addition to Peters’ great advice about conserving energy, I discovered the hard way that it also pays to save backup versions of your work. Invest in an external hard drive to hold your digital music library, special photos, and other key documents. Frequent backups ensure that your data doesn’t die with your laptop.

While you are in the process of backing things up, create an emergency file (on good old-fashioned paper) that contains your computer’s serial number along with other key data such as your credit card numbers and phone numbers to reach each company, along with contact info to your insurance company. Access to that information is vital, particularly in the event of an accident, fire, computer theft, or other catastrophe.

Peters warns that those key pieces of information are not safe on your computer. If you are like me and absolutely need a digital holding space for those nuggets of information, he suggests sites like LastPass as your online vault.

Spring on Titan Brings Sunshine and Patchy Clouds

2010-09-29T11:09:00.000+06:00

False-color image of cloud cover dissolving over Titan's north pole and clouds appearing in the southern mid latitudes.

September 21, 2010

The northern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Titan is set for mainly fine spring weather, with polar skies clearing since the equinox in August last year. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been monitoring clouds on Titan regularly since the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Now, a group led by Sébastien Rodriguez, a Cassini VIMS team collaborator based at Université Paris Diderot, France, has analyzed more than 2,000 VIMS images to create the first long-term study of Titan's weather using observational data that also includes the equinox. Equinox, when the sun shone directly over the equator, occurred in August 2009.

Rodriguez is presenting the results and new images at the European Planetary Science Congress in Rome on Sept. 22.

Though Titan's surface is far colder and lacks liquid water, this moon is a kind of "sister world" to Earth because it has a surface covered with organic material and an atmosphere whose chemical composition harkens back to an early Earth. Titan has a hydrological cycle similar to Earth's, though Titan's cycle depends on methane and ethane rather than water.

A season on Titan lasts about seven Earth years. Rodriguez and colleagues observed significant atmospheric changes between July 2004 (early summer in Titan's southern hemisphere) and April 2010 (the very start of northern spring). The images showed that cloud activity has recently decreased near both of Titan's poles. These regions had been heavily overcast during the late southern summer until 2008, a few months before the equinox.

Over the past six years, the scientists found that clouds clustered in three distinct latitude regions of Titan: large clouds at the north pole, patchy clouds at the south pole and a narrow belt around 40 degrees south. "However, we are now seeing evidence of a seasonal circulation turnover on Titan – the clouds at the south pole completely disappeared just before the equinox and the clouds in the north are thinning out," Rodriguez said. "This agrees with predictions from models and we are expecting to see cloud activity reverse from one hemisphere to another in the coming decade as southern winter approaches."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Mars Rover Opportunity Approaching Possible Meteorite

2010-09-29T11:05:00.000+06:00

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its panoramic camera to capture this view of a dark rock that may be an iron meteorite. Part of the rim of Endurance Crater is on the horizon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

September 21, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- Images that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took at the end of an 81-meter (266-foot) drive on Sept. 16 reveal a dark rock about 31 meters (102 feet) away. The rover's science team has decided to go get a closer look at the toaster-sized rock and determine whether it is an iron meteorite.

"The dark color, rounded texture and the way it is perched on the surface all make it look like an iron meteorite," said science-team member Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Opportunity has found four iron meteorites during the rover's exploration of the Meridiani Planum region of Mars since early 2004. Examination of these rocks has provided information about the Martian atmosphere, as well as the meteorites themselves.

The newfound rock has been given the informal name "Oileán Ruaidh" (pronounced ay-lan ruah), which is the Gaelic name for an island off the coast of northwestern Ireland. The rock is about 45 centimeters (18 inches) wide from the angle at which it was first seen.

Opportunity has driven 23.3 kilometers (14.5 miles) on Mars. The drive to this rock will take the total combined distance driven by Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, to more than 31 kilometers (19.26 miles).

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 for what was planned as a three-month mission.

NASA Selects Investigations for First Mission to Encounter the Sun

2010-09-29T10:43:00.001+06:00

The Solar Probe Plus spacecraft with solar panels folded into the shadows of its protective shield, gathers data on its approach to the Sun.

September 02, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has begun development of a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before. The unprecedented project, named Solar Probe Plus, is slated to launch no later than 2018.

The small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately 6.4 million kilometers (four million miles) from our star's surface. It will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered. NASA has selected five science investigations that will unlock the sun's biggest mysteries, including one led by a scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics -- why is the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar
system? " said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington. "We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers."

As the spacecraft approaches the sun, its revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures exceeding about 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit) and blasts of intense radiation. The spacecraft will have an up-close and personal view of the sun, enabling scientists to better understand, characterize and forecast the radiation environment for future space explorers.

NASA invited researchers in 2009 to submit science proposals. Thirteen were reviewed by a panel of NASA and outside scientists. The total dollar amount for the five selected investigations is approximately $180 million for preliminary analysis, design, development and tests.

The selected proposals are:

-- Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation: principal investigator, Justin C. Kasper, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.

This investigation will specifically count the most abundant particles in the solar wind -- electrons, protons and helium ions -- and measure their properties. The investigation also is designed to catch some of the particles in a special cup for direct analysis.

-- Wide-field Imager: principal investigator, Russell Howard, Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. This telescope will make 3-D images of the sun's corona, or atmosphere. The experiment actually will see the solar wind and provide 3-D images of clouds and shocks as they approach and pass the spacecraft. This investigation complements instruments on the spacecraft, providing direct measurements by imaging the plasma the other instruments sample.

-- Fields Experiment: principal investigator, Stuart Bale, University of California Space Sciences Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. This investigation will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions, and shock waves that course through the
sun's atmospheric plasma. The experiment also serves as a giant dust detector, registering voltage signatures when specks of space dust hit the spacecraft's antenna.

-- Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun: principal investigator, David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. This investigation consists of two instruments that will take an inventory of elements in the sun's atmosphere using a mass
spectrometer to weigh and sort ions in the vicinity of the spacecraft.

-- Heliospheric Origins with Solar Probe Plus: principal investigator, Marco Velli of JPL. Velli is the mission's observatory scientist, responsible for serving as a senior scientist on the science working group. He will provide an independent assessment of scientific performance and act as a community advocate for the mission.

"This project allows humanity's ingenuity to go where no spacecraft has ever gone before," said Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe Plus program scientist at NASA Headquarters, in Washington. "For the very first time, we'll be able to touch, taste and smell our sun."

The Solar Probe Plus mission is part of NASA's Living with a Star Program. The program is designed to understand aspects of the sun and Earth's space environment that affect life and society. The program is managed by NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., with oversight from NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Division. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is the prime contractor for the spacecraft.

Amateur Astronomers are First to Detect Objects Impacting Jupiter

2010-09-29T10:36:00.002+06:00

Caught in the Act: Fireballs Light up Jupiter

A fleeting bright dot on each of these images of Jupiter marks a small comet or asteroid burning up in the atmosphere. The image on the left was taken on June 3, 2010, by amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, who was visiting a friend in Broken Hill, Australia, when he obtained the image with a 37-centimeter (14.5-inch) telescope.

September 09, 2010

Amateur astronomers working with professional astronomers have spotted two fireballs lighting up Jupiter's atmosphere this summer, marking the first time Earth-based telescopes have captured relatively small objects burning up in the atmosphere of the giant planet. The two fireballs - which produced bright freckles on Jupiter that were visible through backyard telescopes - occurred on June 3, 2010, and August 20, 2010, respectively.

A new paper that includes both pros and amateurs, led by Ricardo Hueso of the Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, Spain, appears today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. In the paper, astronomers estimate the object that caused the June 3 fireball was 8 to 13 meters (30 to 40 feet) in diameter. The object is comparable in size to the asteroid 2010 RF12 that flew by Earth on Wednesday, Sept. 8, and slightly larger than the asteroid 2008 TC3, which burned up above Sudan two years ago.

An impact of this kind on Earth would not be expected to cause damage on the ground. The energy released by the June 3 fireball as it collided with Jupiter's atmosphere was five to 10 times less than the 1908 Tunguska event on Earth, which knocked over tens of millions of trees in a remote part of Russia. Analysis is continuing on the Aug. 20 fireball, but scientists said it was comparable to the June 3 object.

"Jupiter is a big gravitational vacuum cleaner," said Glenn Orton, a co-author on the paper and an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It is clear now that relatively small objects, remnants of the formation of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago, still hit Jupiter frequently. Scientists are trying to figure out just how frequently."

Orton and colleagues said this kind of discovery couldn't have been made without amateur astronomers around the world, whose observations of Jupiter provide a near round-the-clock surveillance that would be impossible to do with the long lines of scientists waiting to use the large telescopes. Amateur astronomers, for example, were the first to see the dark spot that appeared on Jupiter in July 2009 as the result of an impact. Professional astronomers are still analyzing that impact.

Anthony Wesley, an amateur astronomer from Murrumbateman, Australia, who was also the first to take a picture of that dark spot on Jupiter in July 2009, was the first to see the tiny flash on June 3. Amateur astronomers had their telescopes trained on Jupiter that day because they were in the middle of "Jupiter season," when the planet is high in the sky and at its largest size, as seen by backyard telescopes.

Wesley was visiting an amateur astronomer friend about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away in Broken Hill, and he set a digital video camera to record images from his telescope at about 60 frames per second. He was watching the live video on a computer screen at his friend's house when he saw a two-and-a-half-second-long flash of light near the limb of the planet.

"It was clear to me straight away it had to be an event on Jupiter," he said. "I'm used to seeing other momentary flashes in the camera from cosmic ray impacts, but this was different. Cosmic ray strikes last only for one frame of video, whereas this flash gradually brightened and then faded over 133 frames."

Wesley sent a message out on his e-mail list of amateur and professional astronomers, which included Orton. After receiving Wesley's e-mail, Christopher Go of Cebu, Philippines -- who like Wesley, is an amateur astronomer -- checked his own recordings and confirmed that he had seen a flash, too.

Before Wesley's work, scientists didn't know these small-size impacts could be observed, Hueso explained. "The discovery of optical flashes produced by objects of this size helps scientists understand how many of these objects are out there and the role they played in the formation of our solar system," Hueso said.

For three days afterward, Hueso and colleagues looked for signs of the impact in high-resolution images from larger telescopes: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Gemini Observatory telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, the Keck telescope in Hawaii, the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Scientists analyzed the images for thermal disruptions and chemical signatures seen in previous images of Jupiter impacts. In this case, they saw no signs of debris, which allowed them to limit the size of the impactor.

Based on all these images, and particularly those obtained by Wesley and Go, the astronomers were able to confirm the flash came from some kind of object – probably a small comet or asteroid – that burned up in Jupiter's atmosphere. The impactor likely had a mass of about 500 to 2,000 metric tons (1 million to 4 million pounds), probably about 100,000 times less massive than the object in July 2009.

Calculations also estimated this June 3 impact released about 1 to 4 quadrillion joules (300 million to 1 billion kilowatt-hours) of energy. The second fireball, on Aug. 20, was detected by the amateur Japanese astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa and later confirmed by Aoki Kazuo and Masayuki Ishimaru. It flashed for about 1.5 seconds. The Keck telescope, observing less than a day later, also found no subsequent debris remnants. Scientists are still analyzing this second flash.

Although collisions of this size had never before been detected on Jupiter, some previous models predicted around one collision of this kind a year. Another predicted up to 100 such collisions. Scientists now believe the frequency must be closer to the high end of the scale.

"It is interesting to note that whereas Earth gets smacked by a 10-meter-sized object about every 10 years on average, it looks as though Jupiter gets hit with the same-sized object a few times each month," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL, who was not involved in the paper. "The Jupiter impact rate is still being refined and studies like this one help to do just that."

Restore 'Show Desktop' Icon in your Quick Launch Taskbar

2010-08-17T09:29:00.000+06:00

If the 'Show Desktop' icon is deleted from Quick Launch, using any of these procedure below will recreate the file.

Method 1: Manually re-create the Show Desktop icon

Click Start, Run, and type Notepad.exe. Copy the following contents to Notepad.

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Save the file as "Show Desktop.scf" (with quotes, in order to prevent Notepad from appending .txt extension). Now, drag the file to the Quick Launch Toolbar.

Method 2: Using the Regsvr32 command

Click Start, Run and type the following command:

regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll

The Show Desktop icon file should be available now.

Method 3: Copy the file from another user account

Every user account will have a copy of Show Desktop.scf file. Search for the file named Show Desktop.scf in your computer by logging in as administrator. Copy it to your user profile path here:

%Appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

(Type the above path in Start, Run dialog)

Albert Einstein Quotes --4

2010-08-10T14:44:00.001+06:00

“There are two different conceptions about the nature of the universe: (1) the world as a unity dependent on humanity; (2) the world as a reality independent of the human factor.”—Albert Einstein ---From a Conversation with Rabindrath Tagore, July 14,1930. Published in Asia 31 (1931)

“No idea is conceived in our mind independent of our five senses [i.e., no idea is divinely inspired].”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in W. Hermanns, A Talk with Einstein. AEA 55-285

“What really interests me is whether God could have created the world any differently; in other words, whether the demand for logical simplicity leaves any freedom at all.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by Ernst Straus in Seelig, Helle Zeit, dunkle Zeit, 72

“At present every coachman and every waiter argues about whether or not the relativity theory is correct.”—Albert Einstein--- To Marcel Grossmann, September 12, 1920. AEA 11-500

“The solitude and peace of mind are serving me quite well, not the least of which is due to the excellent and truly enjoyable relationship with my cousin; its stability will be guaranteed by the avoidance of marriage.”—Albert Einstein-To Michele Besso, February 12, 1915, CPAE, Vol.8, Doc 56

“It is abhorrent to me when a fine intelligence is paired with an unsavory character.”—Albert Einstein--- To Jacob Laub, May 19,1909. AEA 15-480

“I am not a Jew in the sense that I would demand the preservation of the Jewish or any other nationality as an end in itself. Rather, I see Jewish nationality as a fact and I believe that every Jew must draw the consequences from this fact—Albert Einstein --- In Jüdische Rundschau, June 21, 1921. CPAE Vol. 7, Doc. 57

“To obtain an assured favorable response from people, it is better to offer them something for their stomachs instead of their brains.”—Albert Einstein --- To L. Manners, March 19,1954. AEA 60-401

“Arrows of hate have been aimed at me too, but they have never hit me, because somehow they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in Portraits & Self-Portraits, by George Schreiber 1935-1936. AEA 28-332.

“In the past it never occurred to me that every casual remark of mine would be snatched up and recorded. Otherwise I would have crept further into my shell.”—Albert Einstein --- To Carl Seelig, October 25, 1953. AEA39-053

“I do not like to state an opinion on a matter unless I know the precise facts.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in an interview, New York Times, August 12, 1945.

“. . . I became more and more convinced that even nature could be understood as a relatively simple mathematical structure.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in The Tower, April 13, 1935

“Of all the communities available to us, there is not one I would want to devote myself to except for the society of the true seekers, which has very few living members at any one time.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max and Hedwig Born, April 29, 1924. AEA 8-176

“There have already been published by the bucketsful such brazen lies and utter fictions about me that I would long since have gone to my grave if I had allowed myself to pay attention to them.”—Albert Einstein ---To Max Brod, February 22, 1949. AEA 34-066.1

“Berlin is the place to which I am most closely bound by human and scientific ties.”—Albert Einstein --- To K. Haenisch, September 8, 1920. AEA 36-022

“Man is, at one and the same time, a solitary being and a social being. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- From “Why Socialism?” (1949). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 153

“

Germany

had the misfortune of becoming poisoned, first because of plenty, and then because of want.”—Albert Einstein --- Aphorism 1923. AEA 36-591

“Only in mathematics and physics was I, through self-study, far beyond the school curriculum, and also with regard to philosophy as it was taught in the school curriculum.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Hoffmann, Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel, 20

“The ordinary adult never gives a thought to space-time problems....I, on the contrary, developed so slowly that I did not begin to wonder about space and time until I was an adult. I then delved more deeply into the problem than any other adult or child would have done.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by James Franck in Seelig, Albert Einstein, (1954), 84

“I have to apologize to you that I am still among the living. There will be a remedy for this, however.”—Albert Einstein --- To Tyfanny Williams, August 25, 1946. AEA 42-612

“The Press, which is mostly controlled by vested interests, has an excessive influence on public opinion.”—Albert Einstein --- From “Some Notes on My American Impressions”. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 6

“Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect.”--Albert Einstein ---To a Japanese scholar (1923). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 262

“It is really a puzzle what drives one to take one’s work so devilishly seriously. . . .”—Albert Einstein ---To Joseph Scharl, December 27, 1949. AEA 34-207

“O, Youth: Do you know that yours is not the first generation to yearn for a life full of beauty and freedom?”—Albert Einstein ---To I Stern, 1932. Reprinted in Dukas and Hoffmann ed. , Albert Einstein: The Human Side, (1979) 30. AEA 51-870

Albert Einstein Quotes --3

2010-08-10T14:40:00.001+06:00

“Let me tell you what I look like: pale face, long hair, and a tiny start of a paunch. In addition, an awkward gait, and a cigar in the mouth . . . and a pen in pocket or hand. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- To Elisabeth Ney, September 30, 1920. AEA 42-545

“My mother has died. . . . We are all completely exhausted. One feels in one’s bones the significance of blood ties.”—Albert Einstein --- To Heinrich Zangger, March 1920, AEA 39-732

“When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of a curved branch, it doesn’t notice that the track it has covered is indeed curved. I was lucky enough to notice what the beetle didn’t notice.”—Albert Einstein --- From a letter to his son Eduard, 1922

“I am an artist’s model”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by H. Samuel , October 1930. AEA 21-006

“A hundred times a day I remind myself that my inner and outer lives are based on the labors of other people, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.”—Albert Einstein --- From “The World As I See It” (1930), reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 8 .

“I have not eaten enough of the Tree of Knowledge, though in my profession I am obliged to feed on it regularly.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Born, November 9,1919. AEA 8-142

“Although I tried to be universal in thought, I am European by instinct and inclination.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in Daily Express ( London), September 11,1933.

“That little word ‘WE’ I mistrust and here’s why:No man of another can say “He is I”.Behind all agreement lies something amissAll seeming accord cloaks a lurking abyss.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann, AE: The Human Side, 100

“Personally, I experience the greatest degree of pleasure in having contact with works of art. They furnish me with happy feelings of an intensity that I cannot derive from other sources.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by Moszkowski in Conversations with Einstein, 184

“Israel is the only place on earth where Jews have the possibility to shape public life according to their own traditional ideals.”—Albert Einstein ---From address, September 19,1954. AEA 28-1054

“There is only one road to human greatness: through the school of hard knocks.”—Albert Einstein --- From Why I remain a Negro, October 1947. AEA 59-009

“Now to the term ‘relativity theory.’ I admit that it is unfortunate, and has given occasion to philosophical misunderstandings.”—Albert Einstein --- To E. Zschimmer, September 30,1921.

“An hour sitting with a pretty girl on a park bench passes like a minute, but a minute sitting on a hot stove seems like an hour.”Quoted by Helen Dukas in Sayen, Einstein in

America

, 130.

“All of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”—Albert Einstein --- From

“Physics and Reality” (1936). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 290

“Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation.”—Albert Einstein --- From “My Credo” 1932. AEA 28-218

“I cannot write in English, because of the treacherous spelling. When I am reading, I only hear it and am unable to remember what the written word looks like.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Born, September 7,1944. AEA 8-207

“Fear or stupidity has always been the basis of most human actions.”—Albert Einstein --- To E. Mulder, April 1954. AEA 60-609

“I have remained a simple fellow who asks nothing of the world; only my youth is gone—the enchanting youth that forever walks on air.”—Albert Einstein-To Anna Meyer-Schmid,May12, 1909.

“Freedom of teaching and of opinion in book or press is the foundation for the sound and natural development of any people.”—Albert Einstein --- From “At a gathering for freedom of opinion” (1936). Reprinted in Einstein: Essays in Humanism, 50

“We must . . . dedicate our lives to drying up the source of war: ammunition factories.”—Albert Einstein --- Published in Pictoral Review, February 1933. Quoted in R.W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times

“Politics is a pendulum whose swings between anarchy and tyranny are fueled by perennially rejuvenated illusions.”—Albert Einstein --- Aphorism, AEA 28-388

“The idea of a personal God is quite alien to me and seems even naïve.”—Albert Einstein --- To Beatrice Frohlich, December 17, 1952. AEA59-797

“Strange is our situation here on earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose.”—Albert Einstein --- From “My Credo”, 1932. AEA 28-218

“I would absolutely refuse any direct or indirect war service and would try to persuade my friends to do the same, regardless of the reasons for the cause of a war.”—Albert Einstein --- From Die Friedensbewegung, ed., Kurt Lenz and Walter Fabian (1922)

“I do not play games. . . . There is not time for it. When I get through with work, I don’t want anything that requires the working of the mind.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in New York Times, March 28, 1936, 34:2

“He who has never been deceived by a lie does not know the meaning of bliss.”—Albert Einstein --- To Elsa Löwenthal, April 30,1912, CPAE, Vol.5, Doc. 389

“Even the scholars in various lands have been acting as if their brains had been amputated.”—Albert Einstein --- To Romain Rolland, March 22, 1915. AEA 33-002

“I myself should also be dead already, but I am still here.”—Albert Einstein --- To E. Schaerer-Meyer, July 27,1951. AEA 60-525

“Every reminiscence is colored by the way things are today, and therefore by a delusive point of view.”—Albert Einstein ---From “Autobiographical Notes” in Schilpp, Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist (1949), 3

“It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”—Albert Einstein --- From an interview June 23, 1946. Reprinted in Einstein on Peace, 385

“Mere unbelief in a personal God is no philosophy at all.”—Albert Einstein --- To V.T. Aaltonen, May 7, 1952. AEA 59-059

“The more one chases the quanta, the better they hide themselves.”—Albert Einstein --- To Paul Ehrenfest, July 12, 1924. AEA 10-089

“Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.”—Albert Einstein --- From “ Education for Independent Thought” (1952). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 67. AEA 60-723

“It is not so important where one settles down. The best thing is to follow your instincts without too much reflection.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Born, March 3,1920. AEA 8-146

“The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical fats by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in Life Magazine, January 9,1950.

“You must be aware that most men (and also not only a few women) are by nature not monogamous. This nature makes itself even more forceful when tradition and circumstance stand in an individual’s way.”—Albert Einstein --- To Dr. Eugenie Anderman, June 2, 1953. AEA 59-097

“The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in P. Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, 185

“I am very happy with my new home in friendly

America

and in the liberal atmosphere of Princeton.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in “Survey Graphic”, 24 (August 1935) 384,413

“I know what it’s like to see one’s mother go through the agony of death and be unable to help; there is no consolation. We all have to bear such heavy burdens, for they are unalterably linked to life.”—Albert Einstein --- To Hedwig Born, June 18, 1920. AEA 8-257

“When I was young, all I wanted and expected from life was to sit quietly in some corner doing my work without the public paying attention to me. And now see what has become of me.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Hoffmann, Albert Einstein: Creator and Rebel, 4

“The goal of pacifism is possible only though a supranational organization. To stand unconditionally for this cause is . . . the criterion of true pacifism.”—Albert Einstein --- To A. Morrisett, March 21,1952. AEA 60-595

“The trite objects of human efforts—possessions, superficial success, luxury—have always seemed contemptible to me.”—Albert Einstein --- From, “The World As I See It” (1930), reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 9.

“I was originally supposed to become an engineer, but the thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life even more refined, with a loathsome capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me.”—Albert Einstein --- To Heinrich Zangger, 1918. CPAE Vol 8, Doc. 597

Albert Einstein Quotes --2

2010-08-10T13:04:00.001+06:00

“I am not only a pacifist, but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. . . . Is it not better for a man to die for a cause in which he believes, such as peace, than to suffer for a cause in which he does not believe, such as war?”—Albert Einstein --- From an interview 1931. Reprinted in Einstein on Peace, 125

“The heart says yes, but the mind says no.”—Albert Einstein --- From the Travel Diary, February 13,1923. AEA 29-129

“One becomes a deeply religious nonbeliever…”. It is clear from the original that it is definitely not “I”.To Hans Muehsam, March 30,1954. AEA 38-434.

“A scientist is a mimosa when he himself has made a mistake, and a roaring lion when he discovers a mistake of others.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Ehlers, Liebes Hertz! 45

“He who cherishes the values of culture cannot fail to be a pacifist.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Die Friedensbewegung, ed. Kurt Lenz and Walter Fabian (1922) 17.

“There is nothing divine about [the scientist’s] morality; it is a purely human affair.” – —Albert Einstein --- From Mein Weltbild (1934. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 40

“Relativity is a purely scientific matter and has nothing to do with religion.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Frank, Einstein: His Life and Times, 190.

“A forced faithfulness is a bitter fruit for all concerned.”—Albert Einstein --- To Dr. Eugenie Anderman, June 2, 1953. AEA 59-097

“Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in P.A. Bucky, Der Private Albert Einstein, 276

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics; I can assure you that mine are still greater.”—Albert Einstein --- To Barbara Wilson, January 7, 1943. AEA 42-606.

“The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”—Albert Einstein --- To D. Liberson, October 28, 1950. AEA 60-297

“The search for truth and knowledge is one of the finest attributes of man—though often it is most loudly voiced by those who strive for it the least.”—Albert Einstein --- From The Goal of Human Existence, April 11, 1943. AEA 28-587

“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by Lincoln Barnett, Smithsonian, February 1979, 74

“If only I could give you some of my happiness so you would never be sad and depressed again.”—Albert Einstein ---To Mileva Marić, May 9, 1901. CPAE, Vol.1, Doc.106.

“My life is a simple thing that would interest no one. It is a known fact that I was born, and that is all that is necessary.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in The Tower, April 13, 1935.

“[I] must seek in the stars that which was denied [to me] on earth.”—Albert Einstein --- To Betty Neumann, 1924.

“I admit that thoughts influence the body.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by W. Hermanns in A Talk with Einstein, October 1943. AEA 55-285.

“Mysticism is in fact the only criticism people cannot level against my theory.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by R. W.Clark in Einstein :The Life and Times, 268

“It is difficult to say what truth is, but sometimes it is so easy to recognize a falsehood.”—Albert Einstein --- To Jeremiah McGuire, October 24,1953. AEA 60-483

“I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Kariel, August 3,1953. AEA 60-058.

“A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires will sooner or later always lead to bitter disappointment.”—Albert Einstein --- To T. Lee, January 16,1954. AEA 60-235.

“To punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.”—Albert Einstein --- Aphorism, September 18,1930. AEA 36-598

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by Ernst Straus in French, Einstein: A Centenary Volume, 32

“Truly novel ideas emerge only in one’s youth. Later on one becomes more experienced, famous—and foolish.”—Albert Einstein ---To Heinrich Zangger, December 6, 1917. AEA 39-689

“With fame I become more and more stupid, which of course is a very common phenomenon.”—Albert Einstein --- To Heinrich Zangger, December 24, 1919. AEA 39-726

(“Violence may at times have quickly cleared away an obstruction, but it has never proved itself to be creative.” ) Should read: “Violence sometimes may have cleared away obstructions quickly, but it never has proved itself creative”--- —Albert Einstein---From “Was Europe a Success?” (1934). Reprinted in Einstein: Essays in Humanism, 49

“What is essential in the life of a man of my kind is what he thinks and how he thinks, and not what he does or suffers.” Should read: “ … the essential in the being of a man of my type lies precisely in what he thinks and how he thinks, not in what he does or suffers.”—Albert Einstein ---From “Autobiographical Notes” in P. Schilpp ed., Albert Einstein : Philosopher – Scientist,(1949) 33.

“. . . My scientific goals and my personal vanity will not prevent me from accepting even the most subordinate position.” Should read: “My scientific goals and my personal vanity will not prevent me from accepting even the most subordinate role”.—Albert Einstein --- To Mileva Marić, July 7,1901. CPAE, Vol.1. Doc. 114.

“The creative principle [of science] resides in mathematics.”—Albert Einstein --- From “On the Method of Theoretical Physics” (1933). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 274.

“The more a country makes military weapons, the more insecure it becomes: if you have weapons, you become a target for attack.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in interview with A. Aram, January 3, 1953. AEA 59-109

“Whoever is careless with truth in small matters can not be trusted in important affairs.”—Albert Einstein. --- From draft of address on the occasion of the 7th anniversary of

Israel

’s independence, April 1955 AEA 60-003

“Without ‘ethical culture,’ there is no salvation for humanity.”—Albert Einstein---From “The Need for Ethical Culture”, January 5,1951. AEA 28-904

“The economists will have to revise their theories of value.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in J. Sayen, Einstein in America, 150

“I am also convinced that one gains the purest joy from spiritual things only when they are not tied in with earning one’s livelihood.”—Albert Einstein --- To L. Manners, March 19,1954.

“Morality is the highest importance—but for us, not for God.”—Albert Einstein --- To M.M. Schayer, August 1927. AEA 48-380

“Work is the only thing that gives substance to life.”—Albert Einstein --- To son Hans Albert, January 4,1937.

“I have, for the first time, seen a happy and healthy society whose members are fully absorbed in it.”—Albert Einstein --- To Michele Besso, May 24, 1924. AEA 7-349

“Marriage is but slavery made to appear civilized.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by K. Wachsmann in M. Grüning, Ein Haus für Albert Einstein, 159

“I should very much like to remain in the darkness of not having been analyzed.”—Albert Einstein --- To H. Freund, January 1927. AEA 46-304

“The ability to portray people in still life and in motion requires the highest measure of intuition and talent.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by K. Wachsmann in Grüning, Ein Haus für Albert Einstein, 240

“I have never obtained any ethical values from my scientific work.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in P. Michelmore, Einstein: Profile of the Man, 251

“God gave me the stubbornness of a mule and a fairly keen scent.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in G.J. Whitrow, Einstein: the man and his achievement, 91

“Love brings much happiness, much more so than pining for someone brings pain.”—Albert Einstein --- To Marie Winteler, April 21,1896, CPAE Vol.1, Doc. 18

“What I see in Nature is a grand design that we can understand only imperfectly, one with which a responsible person must look at with humility. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- Should read: “What I see in Nature is a grand design that we can comprehend only imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility…” Quoted in Dukas and Hoffmann, “AE: The Human Side”, 39

“The content of scientific theory itself offers no moral foundation for the personal conduct of life.”—Albert Einstein – From “Science and God: A Dialogue”. In Forum and Century 83 (1930), 373

“All my life I have dealt with objective matters; hence I lack both the natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people and to carry out official functions.”—Albert Einstein --- To Abba Eban, November 18,1952. AEA 28-943

“I wouldn’t want to live if I did not have my work. . . . In any case, it’s good that I’m already old and personally don’t have to count on a prolonged future.”—Albert Einstein ---To Michele Besso, October 10,1938. AEA 7-376

“I have come to know the mutability of all human relationships and have learned to insulate myself against both heat and cold so that a temperature balance is fairly well assured.”—Albert Einstein --- To Heinrich Zangger, March 10, 1917. AEA 39-680

Albert Einstein Quotes --1

2010-08-10T12:55:00.001+06:00

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Quoted in interview by G.S. Viereck , October 26,1929. Reprinted in “Glimpses of the Great”(1930).

“Why is it that nobody understands me, yet everybody likes me?”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in an interview with New York Times, March 12,1944.

“I want to know God’s thoughts. The rest are details.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by E. Salaman in “ A Talk with Einstein”, Listener 54 (1955)

“Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”—Albert Einstein --- To Fred Wall, 1933.

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” —Albert Einstein --- To Carl Seelig – March 11,1952.

“Only the one who does not question is safe from making a mistake.” —Albert Einstein --- From a letter to Gustav Bucky, 1945.

“Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”
—Albert Einstein- From an address at the commencement exercise of Swarthmore College, 1938

The most beautiful experience we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. . . ” From “The World As I See It” (1930), reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 11.

“Regarding sex education: no secrets!”—Albert Einstein --- To the World League for Sexual Reform, September 6,1929. AEA 48-304

“Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”—Albert Einstein --- To J. Dispentiere – March 24, 1954. AEA 59-495

“The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks.”—Albert Einstein --- To Heinrich Zangger – May 20,1912. AEA 39-655

“If I were to start taking care of my grooming, I would no longer be my own self. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- To Elsa Löwenthal, ca. December 2, 1913. CPAE, Vol 5, Doc.489.

“I think we have to safeguard ourselves against people who are a menace to others, quite apart from what may have motivated their deeds.”—Albert Einstein --- To Otto Juliusburger – April 11,1946. AEA 38-228

“Everything is determined…by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust—we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in interview by G.S. Viereck , October 26,1929. Reprinted in “Glimpses of the Great”,1930.

“I lived in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” —Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Portraits & Self-Portraits by George Schreiber 1935-1936. AEA 28-332

“It is not a lack of real affection that scares me away again and again from marriage. Is it a fear of the comfortable life, of nice furniture, of dishonor that I burden myself with, or even the fear of becoming a contented bourgeois.” —Albert Einstein -- To Elsa Löwenthal, after August 3, 1914. CPAE, Vol. 8, Doc.32.

“Strenuous intellectual work and the study of God’s Nature are the angels that will lead me through all the troubles of this life with consolation, strength, and uncompromising rigor.”—Albert Einstein --- To Pauline Winteler – July 3,1897. AEA 29-453

“The aim [of education] must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, see in the service to the community their highest life problem.”—Albert Einstein --- From Address, October 15, 1936 – Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 60.

“Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them—these are the best guides for man.”—Albert Einstein --- To V. Bulgakow, November 4, 1931. AEA 45-702.

“People like you and I, though mortal of course, like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live. What I mean is that we never cease to stand like curious children before the great Mystery into which we were born.”—Albert Einstein --- To Otto Juliusburger, September 29,1942.AEA 38-238

“I believe that a simple and unassuming life is good for everybody, physically and mentally.” —Albert Einstein --- From “The World As I See It” (1930), reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 8.

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self.”---Albert Einstein ---From Mein Weltbild (1934). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 12

“Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty; it stems rather from love and devotion towards men and towards objective things.”—Albert Einstein --- To F.S. Wada, July 30, 1947. AEA 58-934.

“I believe the most important mission of the state is to protect the individual and make it possible for him to develop into a creative personality. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- From address to the Disarmament Conference of 1932 (1931). Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 95.

“Just as with the man in the fairy tale who turned whatever he touched into gold, with me everything is turned into newspaper clamor.”—Albert Einstein --- To Max Born, September 9, 1920. AEA 8-151.

“I am truly a ‘lone traveler’ and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart. In the face of all this, I have never lost a sense of distance and the need for solitude.”—Albert Einstein --- From “The World As I See It” (1930), reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 99.

“Music does not influence research work, but both are nourished by the same sort of longing, and they complement each other in the release they offer.”—Albert Einstein --- To Paul Plaut, October 23, 1928. AEA 28-065

“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell too much on the future.”—Albert Einstein ---. From “My Future Plans”, September 18,1896. CPAE Vol.1, Doc. 22.

“Where there is love, there is no imposition.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in Sayen, Einstein in

America

, 294.

“The monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.”—Albert Einstein --- From Civilization and Science, October 3, 1933. Quoted in The Times (London), October 4, 1933.

“Most teachers waste their time by asking questions that are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning is to discover what the pupil does know or is capable of knowing.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by Moszkowski in Conversations with Einstein (1920) 65.

“My relationship to the Jewish people has become my strongest human bond, ever since I became fully aware of our precarious situation among the nations of the world.”—Albert Einstein --- Statement to Abba Eban, November 18,1952. AEA 28-943.

“I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express in words afterwards.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted in M. Wertheimer, “Productive Thinking” (1959).

“I am content in my later years. I have kept my good humor and take neither myself nor the next person seriously.” —Albert Einstein --- To P. Moos, March 30,1950. AEA 60-587.

“As an elderly man, I have remained estranged from the society here.”—Albert Einstein --- To Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians, February 16,1935. AEA 32-385.

“If there is no price to be paid, it is also not of value.”—Albert Einstein --- Aphorism, June 27,1920. AEA 36-582.

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”—Albert Einstein ---Quoted in the New York Times, June 20,1932 AEA 29-041

“I never worry about the future. It comes soon enough.”—Albert Einstein --- Aphorism, 1945-1946. AEA 36-570

“Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become a man of value.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by William Miller in Life Magazine, May 2, 1955

“The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”—Albert Einstein --- Quoted by William Miller in Life Magazine, May 2,1955

“To one bent on age, death will come as a release. I feel this quite strongly now that I have grown old myself and have come to regard death like an old debt, at long last to be discharged. . . .”—Albert Einstein --- To Gertrude Warschauer, February 5, 1955. AEA 39-532

“The most important endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity for life.”—Albert Einstein --- To Reverend C. Greenway, November 20,1950. AEA 28-894.

“Man owes his strength in the struggle for existence to the fact that he is a social animal.” —Albert Einstein --- From Address, October 15, 1936. Reprinted in Ideas and Opinions, 62

Two moons on 27 August - Greatest Event on Earth

2010-08-05T10:24:00.000+06:00

You may be interested. Show two moons to children. Mark the date on your calendar. Let us hope the sky is not cloudy. This time translates to 11 pm CST (12 pm EST) in USA.Please pass it on. Let’s not miss this spectacle!!**Two moon on 27 August*

*27th August the Whole World is waiting for.............* Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am IST. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

NASA Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map

2010-07-27T13:00:00.000+06:00

Valles Marineris, the "Grand Canyon of Mars," sprawls wide enough to reach from Los Angeles to nearly New York City, if it were located on Earth. The red outline box shows the location of a second, full-resolution image. Credit: NASA/JPL/Arizona State University

July 23, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- A camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever. Researchers and the public can access the map via several websites and explore and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet.
The map was constructed using nearly 21,000 images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, a multi-band infrared camera on Odyssey. Researchers at Arizona State University's Mars Space Flight Facility in Tempe, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have been compiling the map since THEMIS observations began eight years ago.
The pictures have been smoothed, matched, blended and cartographically controlled to make a giant mosaic. Users can pan around images and zoom into them. At full zoom, the smallest surface details are 100 meters (330 feet) wide. While portions of Mars have been mapped at higher resolution, this map provides the most accurate view so far of the entire planet.
The new map is available at: http://www.mars.asu.edu/maps/?layer=thm_dayir_100m_v11 .
Advanced users with large bandwidth, powerful computers and software capable of handling images in the gigabyte range can download the full-resolution map in sections at: http://www.mars.asu.edu/data/thm_dir_100m .
"We've tied the images to the cartographic control grid provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, which also modeled the THEMIS camera's optics," said Philip Christensen, principal investigator for THEMIS and director of the Mars Space Flight Facility. "This approach lets us remove all instrument distortion, so features on the ground are correctly located to within a few pixels and provide the best global map of Mars to date."
Working with THEMIS images from the new map, the public can contribute to Mars exploration by aligning the images to within a pixel's accuracy at NASA's "Be a Martian" website, which was developed in cooperation with Microsoft Corp. Users can visit the site at: http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/maproom#/MapMars .
"The Mars Odyssey THEMIS team has assembled a spectacular product that will be the base map for Mars researchers for many years to come," said Jeffrey Plaut, Odyssey project scientist at JPL. "The map lays the framework for global studies of properties such as the mineral composition and physical nature of the surface materials."
Other sites build upon the base map. At Mars Image Explorer, which includes images from every Mars orbital mission since the mid-1970s, users can search for images using a map of Mars at: http://themis.asu.edu/maps .
"The broad purpose underlying all these sites is to make Mars exploration easy and engaging for everyone," Christensen said. "We are trying to create a user-friendly interface between the public and NASA's Planetary Data System, which does a terrific job of collecting, validating and archiving data."
Mars Odyssey was launched in April 2001 and reached the Red Planet in October 2001. Science operations began in February 2002. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. NASA's Planetary Data System, sponsored by the Science Mission Directorate, archives and distributes scientific data from the agency's planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements.

NASA Telescope Finds Elusive Buckyballs in Space for First Time

2010-07-27T12:58:00.000+06:00

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has at last found buckyballs in space, as illustrated by this artist's conception. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

July 22, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. - Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered carbon molecules, known as "buckyballs," in space for the first time. Buckyballs are soccer-ball-shaped molecules that were first observed in a laboratory 25 years ago.

They are named for their resemblance to architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes, which have interlocking circles on the surface of a partial sphere. Buckyballs were thought to float around in space, but had escaped detection until now.

"We found what are now the largest molecules known to exist in space," said astronomer Jan Cami of the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. "We are particularly excited because they have unique properties that make them important players for all sorts of physical and chemical processes going on in space." Cami has authored a paper about the discovery that will appear online Thursday in the journal Science.

Buckyballs are made of 60 carbon atoms arranged in three-dimensional, spherical structures. Their alternating patterns of hexagons and pentagons match a typical black-and-white soccer ball. The research team also found the more elongated relative of buckyballs, known as C₇₀, for the first time in space. These molecules consist of 70 carbon atoms and are shaped more like an oval rugby ball. Both types of molecules belong to a class known officially as buckminsterfullerenes, or fullerenes.

The Cami team unexpectedly found the carbon balls in a planetary nebula named Tc 1. Planetary nebulas are the remains of stars, like the sun, that shed their outer layers of gas and dust as they age. A compact, hot star, or white dwarf, at the center of the nebula illuminates and heats these clouds of material that has been shed.

The buckyballs were found in these clouds, perhaps reflecting a short stage in the star's life, when it sloughs off a puff of material rich in carbon. The astronomers used Spitzer's spectroscopy instrument to analyze infrared light from the planetary nebula and see the spectral signatures of the buckyballs. These molecules are approximately room temperature -- the ideal temperature to give off distinct patterns of infrared light that Spitzer can detect. According to Cami, Spitzer looked at the right place at the right time. A century from now, the buckyballs might be too cool to be detected.

The data from Spitzer were compared with data from laboratory measurements of the same molecules and showed a perfect match.

"We did not plan for this discovery," Cami said. "But when we saw these whopping spectral signatures, we knew immediately that we were looking at one of the most sought-after molecules."

In 1970, Japanese professor Eiji Osawa predicted the existence of buckyballs, but they were not observed until lab experiments in 1985. Researchers simulated conditions in the atmospheres of aging, carbon-rich giant stars, in which chains of carbon had been detected. Surprisingly, these experiments resulted in the formation of large quantities of buckminsterfullerenes. The molecules have since been found on Earth in candle soot, layers of rock and meteorites.

The study of fullerenes and their relatives has grown into a busy field of research because of the molecules' unique strength and exceptional chemical and physical properties. Among the potential applications are armor, drug delivery and superconducting technologies.

Sir Harry Kroto, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Bob Curl and Rick Smalley for the discovery of buckyballs, said, "This most exciting breakthrough provides convincing evidence that the buckyball has, as I long suspected, existed since time immemorial in the dark recesses of our galaxy."

Previous searches for buckyballs in space, in particular around carbon-rich stars, proved unsuccessful. A promising case for their presence in the tenuous clouds between the stars was presented 15 years ago, using observations at optical wavelengths. That finding is awaiting confirmation from laboratory data. More recently, another Spitzer team reported evidence for buckyballs in a different type of object, but the spectral signatures they observed were partly contaminated by other chemical substances.

Cassini Sees Moon Building Giant Snowballs in Saturn Ring

2010-07-21T09:56:00.002+06:00

This mosaic of images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows three fan-like structures in Saturn's tenuous F ring. Such "fans" suggest the existence of additional objects in the F ring. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

July 20, 2010

While orbiting Saturn for the last six years, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has kept a close eye on the collisions and disturbances in the gas giant's rings. They provide the only nearby natural laboratory for scientists to see the processes that must have occurred in our early solar system, as planets and moons coalesced out of disks of debris.

New images from Cassini show icy particles in Saturn's F ring clumping into giant snowballs as the moon Prometheus makes multiple swings by the ring. The gravitational pull of the moon sloshes ring material around, creating wake channels that trigger the formation of objects as large as 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter.

"Scientists have never seen objects actually form before," said Carl Murray, a Cassini imaging team member based at Queen Mary, University of London. "We now have direct evidence of that process and the rowdy dance between the moons and bits of space debris."

Murray discussed the findings today (July 20, 2010) at the Committee on Space Research meeting in Bremen, Germany, and they are published online by the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters on July 14, 2010. A new animation based on imaging data shows how one of the moons interacts with the F ring and creates dense, sticky areas of ring material.

Saturn's thin, kinky F ring was discovered by NASA's Pioneer 11 spacecraft in 1979. Prometheus and Pandora, the small "shepherding" moons on either side of the F ring, were discovered a year later by NASA's Voyager 1. In the years since, the F ring has rarely looked the same twice, and scientists have been watching the impish behavior of the two shepherding moons for clues.

Prometheus, the larger and closer to Saturn of the two moons, appears to be the primary source of the disturbances. At its longest, the potato-shaped moon is 148 kilometers (92 miles) across. It cruises around Saturn at a speed slightly greater than the speed of the much smaller F ring particles, but in an orbit that is just offset. As a result of its faster motion, Prometheus laps the F ring particles and stirs up particles in the same segment once in about every 68 days.

"Some of these objects will get ripped apart the next time Prometheus whips around," Murray said. "But some escape. Every time they survive an encounter, they can grow and become more and more stable."

Cassini scientists using the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph previously detected thickened blobs near the F ring by noting when starlight was partially blocked. These objects may be related to the clumps seen by Murray and colleagues.

The newly-found F ring objects appear dense enough to have what scientists call "self-gravity." That means they can attract more particles to themselves and snowball in size as ring particles bounce around in Prometheus's wake, Murray said. The objects could be about as dense as Prometheus, though only about one-fourteenth as dense as Earth.

What gives the F ring snowballs a particularly good chance of survival is their special location in the Saturn system. The F ring resides at a balancing point between the tidal force of Saturn trying to break objects apart and self-gravity pulling objects together. One current theory suggests that the F ring may be only a million years old, but gets replenished every few million years by moonlets drifting outward from the main rings. However, the giant snowballs that form and break up probably have lifetimes of only a few months.

The new findings could also help explain the origin of a mysterious object about 5 to 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles) in diameter that Cassini scientists spotted in 2004 and have provisionally dubbed S/2004 S 6. This object occasionally bumps into the F ring and produces jets of debris.

"The new analysis fills in some blanks in our solar system's history, giving us clues about how it transformed from floating bits of dust to dense bodies," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The F ring peels back some of the mystery and continues to surprise us."

The late Kevin Beurle was made the honorary first author on this paper because of his contributions in developing software and designing observation sequences for this research. He died in 2009.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

NASA Goes Deep in Search of Extreme Environments

2010-07-21T09:47:00.001+06:00

A team recovers the hybrid robotic vehicle Nereus aboard the research vessel Cape Hatteras during a partially NASA-funded expedition to the Mid-Cayman Rise in October 2009. A search for new hydrothermal vent sites along the 110-kilometer-long ridge, the expedition featured the first use of Nereus in "autonomous," or free-swimming, mode. Image credit: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

July 20, 2010

An expedition partially funded by NASA, part of a program to search extreme environments for geological, biological and chemical clues to the origins and evolution of life, has discovered the deepest known hydrothermal vent in the world, nearly 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) below the surface of the western Caribbean Sea. The research will help extend our understanding of the limits to which life can exist on Earth and help prepare for future efforts to search for life on other planets.

An interdisciplinary team led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass., and including research scientist Max Coleman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., sailed to the western Caribbean in October 2009 aboard the research vessel Cape Hatteras. Using sensors mounted on equipment and robotic vehicles, they searched for deep-sea hydrothermal vents along the 110-kilometer-long (68-mile-long) Mid-Cayman Rise, an ultra-slow spreading ridge located in the Cayman Trough -- the deepest point in the Caribbean Sea. Results of their research are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

While high-temperature submarine vents were first discovered more than 30 years ago, the majority of the global Mid-Ocean Ridge, an underwater mountain range that snakes its way for more than 56,000 kilometers (35,000 miles) between Earth's continents, remains unexplored for hydrothermal activity. While such activity occurs on spreading centers all around the world, scientists are particularly interested in Earth's ultra-slow spreading ridges, like the Mid-Cayman Rise, which may host systems that are particularly relevant to pre-biotic chemistry and the origins of life. The Mid-Cayman Rise is part of the tectonic boundary between the North American and Caribbean Plates. At the boundary where the plates are being pulled apart, new material wells up from Earth's interior to form new crust on the seafloor.

The researchers found that the Mid-Cayman Rise hosts at least three discrete hydrothermal sites, each representing a different type of water-rock interaction. The diversity of the newly discovered vent types, their geologic settings and their relative geographic isolation make the Mid-Cayman Rise a unique environment in the world's ocean.

"This was probably the highest-risk expedition I have ever undertaken," said chief scientist Chris German, a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution geochemist who has pioneered the use of autonomous underwater vehicles to search for hydrothermal vent sites. "We know hydrothermal vents appear along ridges approximately every 100 kilometers [62 miles]. But this ridge crest is only 100 kilometers long, so we should only have expected to find evidence for one site at most. So finding evidence for three sites was quite unexpected - but then finding out that our data indicated that each site represents a different style of venting - one of every kind known, all in pretty much the same place - was extraordinarily cool."

The team identified the deepest known hydrothermal vent site and two additional distinct types of vents, one of which is believed to be a shallow, low-temperature vent of a kind that has been reported only once previously - at the "Lost City" site in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

"Being the deepest, these hydrothermal vents support communities of organisms that are the furthest from the ocean surface and sources of energy like sunlight," said JPL co-author Coleman. "Most life on Earth is sustained by food chains that begin with sunlight as their energy source. That's not an option for possible life deep in the ocean of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, prioritized by NASA for future exploration. However, organisms around the deep vents get energy from the chemicals in hydrothermal fluid, a scenario we think is similar to the seafloor of Europa, and this work will help us understand what we might find when we search for life there."

"We were particularly excited to find compelling evidence for high-temperature venting at almost 5,000 meters depth," said Julie Huber, a scientist in the Josephine Bay Paul Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. "We have absolutely zero microbial data from high-temperature vents at this depth." Huber and Marine Biological Laboratory postdoctoral scientist Julie Smith participated in this cruise to collect samples, and all of the microbiology work for this paper was carried out in Huber's laboratory. "With the combination of extreme pressure, temperature and chemistry, we are sure to discover novel microbes in this environment," Huber added. "We look forward to returning to the Cayman and sampling these vents in the near future. We are sure to expand the known growth parameters and limits for life on our planet by exploring these new sites."

Video Camera Will Show Mars Rover's Touchdown

2010-07-20T09:40:00.005+06:00

This Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) camera will fly on the Curiosity rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

July 19, 2010

A downward-pointing camera on the front-left side of NASA's Curiosity rover will give adventure fans worldwide an unprecedented sense of riding a spacecraft to a landing on Mars.

The Mars Descent Imager, or MARDI, will start recording high-resolution video about two minutes before landing in August 2012. Initial frames will glimpse the heat shield falling away from beneath the rover, revealing a swath of Martian terrain below illuminated in afternoon sunlight. The first scenes will cover ground several kilometers (a few miles) across. Successive images will close in and cover a smaller area each second.

The full-color video will likely spin, then shake, as the Mars Science Laboratory mission's parachute, then its rocket-powered backpack, slow the rover's descent. The left-front wheel will pop into view when Curiosity extends its mobility and landing gear.

The spacecraft's own shadow, unnoticeable at first, will grow in size and slide westward across the ground. The shadow and rover will meet at a place that, in the final moments, becomes the only patch of ground visible, about the size of a bath towel and underneath the rover.

Dust kicked up by the rocket engines during landing may swirl as the video ends and Curiosity's surface mission can begin.

All of this, recorded at about four frames per second and close to 1,600 by 1,200 pixels per frame, will be stored safely into the Mars Descent Imager's own flash memory during the landing. But the camera's principal investigator, Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, and everyone else will need to be patient. Curiosity will be about 250 million kilometers (about 150 million miles) from Earth at that point. It will send images and other data to Earth via relay by one or two Mars orbiters, so the daily data volume will be limited by the amount of time the orbiters are overhead each day.

"We will get it down in stages," said Malin. "First we'll have thumbnails of the descent images, with only a few frames at full scale."

Subsequent downlinks will deliver additional frames, selected based on what the thumbnail versions show. The early images will begin to fulfill this instrument's scientific functions. "I am really looking forward to seeing this movie. We have been preparing for it a long time," Malin said. The lower-resolution version from thumbnail images will be comparable to a YouTube video in image quality. The high-definition version will not be available until the full set of images can be transmitted to Earth, which could take weeks, or even months, sharing priority with data from other instruments."

The Mars Descent Imager will provide the Mars Science Laboratory team with information about the landing site and its surroundings. This will aid interpretation of the rover's ground-level views and planning of initial drives. Hundreds of the images taken by the camera will show features smaller than what can be discerned in images taken from orbit.

"Each of the 10 science instruments on the rover has a role in making the mission successful," said John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, chief scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory. "This one will give us a sense of the terrain around the landing site and may show us things we want to study. Information from these images will go into our initial decisions about where the rover will go."

The nested set of images from higher altitude to ground level will enable pinpointing Curiosity's location even before an orbiter can photograph the rover on the surface.

Malin said, "Within the first day or so, we'll know where we are and what's near us. MARDI doesn't do much for six-month planning -- we'll use orbital data for that -- but it will be important for six-day and 16-day planning."

In addition, combining information from the descent images with information from the spacecraft's motion sensors will enable calculating wind speeds affecting the spacecraft on its way down, an important atmospheric science measurement. The descent data will later serve in designing and testing future landing systems for Mars that could add more control for hazard avoidance.

After landing, the Mars Descent Imager will offer the capability to obtain detailed images of ground beneath the rover, for precise tracking of its movements or for geologic mapping. The science team will decide whether or not to use that capability. Each day of operations on Mars will require choices about how to budget power, data and time.

Last month, spacecraft engineers and technicians re-installed the Mars Descent Imager onto Curiosity for what is expected to be the final time, as part of assembly and testing of the rover and other parts of the Mars Science Laboratory flight system at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Besides the rover itself, the flight system includes the cruise stage for operations between Earth and Mars, and the descent stage for getting the rover from the top of the Martian atmosphere safely to the ground.

Malin Space Science Systems delivered the Mars Descent Imager in 2008, when NASA was planning a 2009 launch for the mission. This camera shares many design features, including identical electronic detectors, with two other science instruments the same company is providing for Curiosity: the Mast Camera and the Mars Hand Lens Imager. The company also provided descent imagers for NASA's Mars Polar Lander, launched in 1999, and Phoenix Mars Lander, launched in 2007. However, the former craft was lost just before landing and the latter did not use its descent imager due to concern about the spacecraft's data-handling capabilities during crucial moments just before landing.

French scientists crack secrets of Mona Lisa

2010-07-19T09:39:00.001+06:00

PARIS – The enigmatic smile remains a mystery, but French scientists say they have cracked a few secrets of the "Mona Lisa." French researchers studied seven of the Louvre Museum's Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the "Mona Lisa," to analyze the master's use of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze - a technique that gave his works their dreamy quality.

Specialists from the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France found that da Vinci painted up to 30 layers of paint on his works to meet his standards of subtlety. Added up, all the layers are less than 40 micrometers, or about half the thickness of a human hair, researcher Philippe Walter said Friday.

The technique, called "sfumato," allowed da Vinci to give outlines and contours a hazy quality and create an illusion of depth and shadow. His use of the technique is well-known, but scientific study on it has been limited because tests often required samples from the paintings.

The French researchers used a noninvasive technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to study the paint layers and their chemical composition.

They brought their specially developed high-tech tool into the museum when it was closed and studied the portraits' faces, which are emblematic of sfumato. The project was developed in collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble.

The tool is so precise that "now we can find out the mix of pigments used by the artist for each coat of paint," Walter told The Associated Press. "And that's very, very important for understanding the technique."

The analysis of the various paintings also shows da Vinci was constantly trying out new methods, Walter said. In the "Mona Lisa," da Vinci used manganese oxide in his shadings. In others, he used copper. Often he used glazes, but not always.

The results were published Wednesday in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, a chemistry journal.

Tradition holds that the "Mona Lisa" is a painting of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo, and that da Vinci started painting it in 1503. Giorgio Vasari, a 16th-century painter and biographer of da Vinci and other artists, wrote that the perfectionist da Vinci worked on it for four years.

I got a job

2010-01-11T12:24:00.002+06:00

After 5 months continuous viva-voce at last i got a job at BEXTEX Limited as a Senior Executive in Information System Department. Its a member company of Beximco Group located at Beximco Industrial Park, Kashimpur, Gazipur.

Very flexible environment of work. lets see......

What 'Honest' Means

2009-07-01T14:34:00.005+07:00

Worldwide survey was conducted by the! UN.

The only question asked was:

"Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?"

The survey was a huge failure,
In Africa they didn't know what 'food' meant,
In India they didn't know what 'honest' meant,
In Europe they didn't know what 'shortage' meant,
In China they didn't know what 'opinion' meant,
In the Middle East they didn't know what 'solution' meant,
In South America they didn't know what 'please' meant,
And in the USA they didn't know what 'the rest of the world' meant!

Top 10 Transparent Animals!

2009-06-30T16:25:00.013+07:00

Here are the most interesting transparent animals, from icefish to jellyfish to frogs to butterflies! Nature sure is very interesting!

1. Transparent Frog

Native to Venezuela, the Glass Frogs belong to the amphibian family Centrolenidae (order Anura). While the general background coloration of most glass frogs is primarily lime green, the abdominal skin of some members of this family is transparent, so that the heart, liver, and digestive tract are visible through their translucent skin. (Photo by Heidi and Hans-Jurgen Koch)

2. Transparent Head Fish

This bizarre deep-water fish called the Barreleye (Macropinna microstoma) has a transparent head and tubular eyes. It has extremely light-sensitive eyes that can rotate within his transparent, fluid-filled shield on its head, while the fish's tubular eyes, well inside the head, are capped by bright green lenses. The eyes point upward (as shown here) when the fish is looking for food overhead. They point forward when the fish is feeding. The two spots above the fish's mouth are not eyes: those are olfactory organs called nares, which are analogous to human nostrils. (Photo by MBARI)

3. Transparent Butterfly

Found in Central America, from Mexico to Panama, the Glasswing Butterfly (Greta Oto) is a brush-footed butterfly where its wings are transparent. The tissue between the veins of its wings looks like glass. (Photo by Hemmy)

4. Transparent Squid

Found on the southern hemisphere's oceans, the Glass Squid (Teuthowenia pellucida) has light organs on its eyes and possesses the ability to roll into a ball, like an aquatic hedgehog. It is prey of many deep-sea fish (eg goblin sharks) as well as whales and oceanic seabirds. (Photo by Peter Batson)

5. Transparent Zebrafish created by scientists

This see-through zebrafish was created in 2008 by scientists so they can study disease processes, including the spread of cancer. The transparent fish are allowing researchers at Children's Hospital Boston to directly view fish's internal organs and observe processes such as tumor growth in real-time in living organisms. (Photo by LS)

6. Transparent Icefish

Found in the cold waters around Antarctica and southern South America, the crocodile icefish (Channichthyidae) feed on krill, copepods, and other fish. Their blood is transparent because they have no hemoglobin and/or only defunct erythrocytes. Their metabolism relies only on the oxygen dissolved in the liquid blood, which is believed to be absorbed directly through the skin from the water. This works because water can dissolve the most oxygen when it is coldest. In five species, the gene for myoglobin in the muscles has also vanished, leaving them with white instead of pink hearts. (Photo by uwe kils)

7. Transparent Amphipod

Called Phronima, this unusual animal is one of the many strange species recently found on an expedition to a deep-sea mountain range in the North Atlantic. In an ironic strategy for survival, this tiny shrimplike creature shows everything it has, inside and out, in an attempt to disappear. Many other small deep-sea creatures are transparent as well, or nearly so, to better camouflage themselves in their murky surroundings, scientists say. (Photo by David Shale)

8. Transparent Larval Shrimp

Found in the in the waters around Hawaii, this transparent larval shrimp piggybacks on an equally see-through jellyfish. (Photo by Chris Newbert/Minden Pictures)

9. Transparent Salp

This jellyfish-like animals known as Salps feed on small plants in the water called phytoplankton (marine algae). They are transparent, barrel-shaped animals that can range from one to 10cm in length. (Photo by DM)

10. Transparent Jellyfish

Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. They are found in every ocean, from the surface to the deep sea. Many jellies are so transparent that they are almost impossible to see. The one above is from the Arctapodema genus, with a size of an inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long). (Photo by Bill Curtsinger)

World's Most Flexible Women

2009-06-30T14:46:00.007+07:00

Here are some photos of extremely flexible and limber women. One wonders if they have any bones at all!

Some ways to improve flexibility are through Yoga, Pilates, Ballet, Tai Chi, martial arts and swimming. The people in the following pictures seem to be naturally gifted though!

The World’s Most Unusual Plants

2009-06-30T14:34:00.007+07:00

These are the top 4 of the most Unusual plants & flowers, enjoy!

1. Rafflesia arnoldii: this parasitic plant develops the world's largest bloom that can grow over three feet across. The flower is a fleshy color, with spots that make it look like a teenager's acne-ridden skin. It smells bad and has a hole in the center that holds six or seven quarts of water. The plant has no leaves, stems, or roots.

2. Hydnora africana, an unusual flesh-colored, parasitic flower that attacks the nearby roots of shrubby in arid deserts of South Africa. The putrid-smelling blossom attracts herds of carrion beetles.

3. Dracunculus vulgaris: smells like rotting flesh, and has a burgundy-colored, leaf-like flower that projects a slender, black appendage.

4. Amorphophallus: means, literally, "shapeless penis." The name comes from the shape of the erect black spadix.

** Don't gift any of these to your Valentine ...

Some of the Beautiful Temples of the World!

2009-06-30T14:06:00.020+07:00

Here is a listing of some of the beautiful temples of the World! Includes the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Taktshang in Bhutan, Wat Rong Khun in Thailand, Prambanan in Indonesia, Shwedagon Pagoda in Burma, Temple of Heaven in Beijing, Chion-in in Japan, Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Tamil Nadu & the Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Taktshang

Taktshang is the most famous of monasteries in Bhutan. It hangs on a cliff at 3,120 metres (10,200 feet), some 700 meters (2,300 feet) above the bottom of Paro valley, some 10 km from the district town of Paro. Famous visitors include Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal in the 17th century and Milarepa.
The name means "Tiger's nest", the legend being that Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) flew there on the back of a tiger. The monastery includes seven temples which can all be visited. The monastery suffered several blazes and is a recent restoration. Climbing to the monastery is on foot or mule.

Wat Rong Khun

Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary unconventional buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It was designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat. Construction began in 1998 and is expected to end in 2008.

Wat Rong Khun is different from any other temple in Thailand, as its ubosot (Pali: uposatha; consecrated assembly hall) is designed in white color with some use of white glass. The white color stands for Lord Buddha’s purity; the white glass stands for Lord Buddha’s wisdom that "shines brightly all over the Earth and the Universe."

Prambanan

Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple compound in Central Java in Indonesia, located approximately 18 km east of Yogyakarta. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the 47m high central building inside a large complex of individual temples.

Shwedagon Pagoda

The Shwedagon Pagoda also known as the Golden Pagoda, is a 98-metre (approx. 321.5 feet) gilded stupa located in Yangon, Burma. The pagoda lies to the west of Kandawgyi Lake, on Singuttara Hill, thus dominating the skyline of the city. It is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda for the Burmese with relics of the past four Buddhas enshrined within, namely the staff of Kakusandha, the water filter of Konagamana, a piece of the robe of Kassapa and eight hairs of Gautama, the historical Buddha.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in southeastern urban Beijing, in Xuanwu District. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.

Chion-in

Chion'in Temple in Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan is the headquarters of the Jodo Shu (Pure Land Sect) founded by Honen (1133-1212), who proclaimed that sentient beings are reborn in Amida Buddha's Western Paradise (Pure Land) by reciting the nembutsu, Amida Buddha's name.

The vast compounds of Chion-in include the site where Honen settled to disseminate his teachings and the site where he died.

Harmandir Sahib

Sri Harmandir Sahib or Darbar Sahib, informally referred to as The Golden Temple or Temple of God, is culturally the most significant place of worship of the Sikhs and one of the oldest Sikh gurdwaras. It is located in the city of Amritsar, which was established by Guru Ram Das, the fourth guru of the Sikhs and the city that it was built in, is also due to the shrine, known as "Guru Di Nagri" meaning city of the Sikh Guru.

Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple(Srirangam)

The temple occupies an area of 156 acres (6,31,000 m²) with a perimeter of 1,116m (10,710 feet) making it the largest temple in India and one of the largest religious complexes in the world. In fact, Srirangam temple can be easily termed as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world (Angkor Wat being the largest non-functioning temple). The temple is enclosed by 7 concentric walls with a total length of 32,592 feet or over six miles. These walls are enclosed by 21 Gopurams (Towers). Among the marvels of the temple is a "hall of 1000 pillars" (actually 953).

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat), is a temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia, built for King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation—first Hindu, dedicated to Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Ten Longest Bridges In World

2009-06-30T13:13:00.016+07:00

Here is a list of the ten longest bridges in the world with pictures and descriptions. Those beautiful photos are showing to us that there are no borders and everything is reachable.

10. Seven Mile Bridge

The Seven Mile Bridge, in the Florida Keys, runs over a channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait, connecting Key Vaca (the location of the city of Marathon, Florida) in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is one of the many bridges on US 1 in the Keys, where the road is called the Overseas Highway.

9. San Mateo-Hayward Bridge

The San Mateo-Hayward Bridge (commonly called San Mateo Bridge) is a bridge crossing California’s San Francisco Bay in the United States, linking the San Francisco Peninsula with the East Bay. More specifically, the bridge’s western end is in Foster City, the most recent urban addition to the eastern edge of San Mateo. The eastern end of the bridge is in Hayward. The bridge is owned by the state of California, and is maintained by Caltrans, the state highway agency.

8. Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge (French: Pont de la Confédération) is a bridge spanning the Abegweit Passage of Northumberland Strait, linking Prince Edward Island with mainland New Brunswick, Canada. It was commonly referred to as the “Fixed Link” by residents of Prince Edward Island prior to its official naming. Construction took place from the fall of 1993 to the spring of 1997, costing $1.3 billion. The 12.9-kilometre (8 mi) long bridge opened on 31 May 1997.

7. Rio-Niteroi Bridge

The Rio-Niteroi Bridge is a reinforced concrete structure that connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi in Brazil.

Construction began symbolically on August 23, 1968, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in their first and thus far only visit to Brazil. Actual work begun in January, 1969, and it opened on March 4, 1974.

Its official name is “President Costa e Silva Bridge”, in honor of the Brazilian president who ordered its construction. “Rio-Niteroi” started as a descriptive nickname that soon became better known than the official name. Today, hardly anyone refers to it by its official name.

6. Penang Bridge

The Penang Bridge (Jambatan Pulau Pinang in Malay) E 36 is a dual-carriageway toll bridge that connects Gelugor on the island of Penang and Seberang Prai on the mainland of Malaysia on the Malay Peninsula. The bridge is also linked to the North-South Expressway in Prai and Jelutong Expressway in Penang. It was officially opened to traffic on September 14, 1985. The total length of the bridge is 13.5 km (8.4 miles), making it among the longest bridges in the world, the longest bridge in the country as well as a national landmark. PLUS Expressway Berhad is the concession holder which manages it.

5. Vasco da Gama Bridge

The Vasco da Gama Bridge (Portuguese: Ponte Vasco da Gama, pron. ) is a cable-stayed bridge flanked by viaducts and roads that spans the Tagus River near Lisbon, capital of Portugal. It is the longest bridge in Europe (including viaducts), with a total length of 17.2 km (10.7 mi), including 0.829 km (0.5 mi) for the main bridge, 11.5 km (7.1 mi) in viaducts, and 4.8 km (3.0 mi) in dedicated access roads. Its purpose is to alleviate the congestion on Lisbon’s other bridge (25 de Abril Bridge), and to join previously unconnected motorways radiating from Lisbon.

4. Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge (commonly known as the Bay Bridge) is a major dual-span bridge in the U.S. state of Maryland; spanning the Chesapeake Bay, it connects the state’s Eastern and Western Shore regions. At 4.3 miles (7 km) in length, the original span was the world’s longest continuous over-water steel structure when it opened in 1952. The bridge is officially named the William Preston Lane, Jr. Memorial Bridge after William Preston Lane, Jr. who, as governor of Maryland, implemented its construction.

3. King Fahd Causeway

The King Fahd Causeway is multiple dike - bridge combination connecting Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and the island nation of Bahrain.

A construction agreement signed on July 8, 1981 led to construction beginning the next year. The cornerstone was laid on November 11, 1982 by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa of Bahrain; construction continued until 1986, when the combination of several bridges and dams were completed. The causeway officially opened for use on November 25, 1986.

2. Donghai Bridge

Donghai Bridge (literally “East Sea Grand Bridge”) is the longest cross-sea bridge in the world and the longest bridge in Asia. It was completed on December 10, 2005. It has a total length of 32.5 kilometres (20.2 miles) and connects Shanghai and the offshore Yangshan deep-water port in China. Most of the bridge is a low-level viaduct. There are also cable-stayed sections to allow for the passage of large ships, largest with span of 420 m.

1. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, or the Causeway, consists of two parallel bridges that are the longest bridges in the world by total length.[2] These parallel bridges cross Lake Pontchartrain in southern Louisiana. The longer of the two bridges is 23.87 miles (38.42 km) long. The bridges are supported by over 9,000 concrete pilings. The two bridges feature bascule spans over the navigation channel 8 miles (13 km) south of the north shore. The southern terminus of the Causeway is in Metairie, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. The northern terminus is at Mandeville, Louisiana.

Guide to Cultivating Fabulous Friendships!

2009-06-09T10:07:00.001+06:00

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. - Lois Wys

Few people would dispute the benefits of friendship. Friendship cannot be created once. It must be created over and over again. People and priorities change. What worked yesterday may not work today. We must nurture our friendships so they may flourish with us through our changing lives, and that’s where this guide comes in. The problem seems to be how to fit our friends into an already overcrowded life.

Choose friends wisely. Focus your energy on people who make you feel good.
We all know the saying, “you can’t choose your family”. So, make sure you’re smart and choose friends who are worthy of your valuable time and attention. It sounds harsh, but you cannot keep every friend you have ever made. No one has the time and energy for that. If you don’t consciously choose which relationships to focus on, you’ll spread yourself too thin and you’ll have less to give to those who deserve it most.

Do not be fooled by glamour and street cred. A person’s behavior is much more important than their words or how they represent themselves. Surround yourself with people who reflect the person you want to be. Choose friends you are proud to know, people you admire, who love and respect you. People who make your day a little sunnier, simply by being in it.

Make time. Prioritize Relationships.
If you have to really think about the last time you were in contact with a friend, then it was too long ago. Life can run at a crazy pace. We may think of people, then something comes up and we never call them. The month ends, another comes along, and again that call is never made. This is how relationships peter out. It starts to feel easier to walk away than struggle back through the neglect.

Don’t fall into the habit of thinking I’ll “try and find the time”. It’s a cop-out. You cannot find time. You make time. Every day you decide where to put your attention, and those activities will in turn create your day, your week and eventually your life. Be mindful of where you focus your time and energy. Does this match your values and how you want your life to be? There’s no use saying “my family and friends are the most important thing” if you work 80 hours a week and never see them. Be conscious of how you spend your time and choose to prioritize the people in your life.

The easiest way to make time for friends is to organize future gatherings while you are all together. Make time for that first meeting, and then work out the timing of the next one. That way you’ll manage to regularly see each other and there is less stress all round. The reality is most of our relationships need work. Make the time to send an email or give a quick phone call to show your friends they matter. Otherwise how will they know?

Treat others how you want to be treated.
This is one of the first lessons my mother taught me, and it is probably the most important. You may have heard of the law of attraction, which states that what we project to the world will be sent right back to us. This means you must decide what qualities are important to you, because you cannot receive what you do not give.

Personally, I don’t think you can go past honesty, loyalty and integrity as a foundation for choosing friends. Be considerate. Don’t make plans you won’t keep. Be a safe haven for your friends, someone they can rely on. What qualities rank highly for you? Do you just want some laughs every now and then, or people who will be there for you when life throws you a curve ball?

Have fun. Share rituals. Laugh Often.
Any long term relationship, friendships included, can fall into a rut. Take the time to have fun, maybe do the activities you loved when you were young. If life isn’t fun, then what’s the point? Misery shared is still… well, misery. Focus on joy and laughter and your friendships will stay a positive presence in your life.

Hold onto rituals. They connect you with your friends and your youth. Shared memories help define our life and how we see ourselves. Don’t throw them away just because they’re getting harder to manage. The key is to negotiate. Maybe you used to have weekly poker games, but now you have three kids, so what do you do? Have the poker games once a month, and let your partner also have a night out to re-connect with their friends. You’ll both benefit.

Accept people the way they are. Suspend judgment.
Some people are good with phone calls, others are not. Some people always know the right thing to say, others seem to have a knack for getting it all wrong. The key with managing friendships and reducing conflict is to accept people the way they are. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Fighting your friends’ natural personality is a losing battle. We cannot control other people, and frankly, we have no right to try. The sooner we accept this, the easier all our relationships become.

Respect boundaries.
Don’t criticize your friend’s partner, children, parenting style or family. This is always a no, no. We may all like to rant about our loved ones, but we do not want to hear anyone else do it. This is a golden rule. Stencil it on your forehead if you must.

There will be disagreements. Stay calm. Don’t make mountains out of molehills.
Drama is a part of life, but we don’t have to wallow in it. Things happen, ugly words can be exchanged. This is the nature of human relationships. Before you react to a hurtful situation with a friend, always stop and breathe. Try not to react in anger. Express your feelings honestly, but calmly. I’m not saying that it’s easy, but it is the best way to minimize conflict and angst in life. And bottling up feelings doesn’t help either. They just fester and we stay angry and are unable to move on.

Accept that friendships change and sometimes end.
Although I’ve had the majority of my friendships since I was a teenager, there are times in life when people change enough as to have nothing in common anymore. Sometimes this is temporary, other times it’s not. Either way, the best thing you can do when a relationship falters is to let it go. That doesn’t mean immediately deciding not to see each other anymore. Letting go means choosing to see the friendship as it is now, and releasing the need for it to be something else. Relationships have an energy of their own. They can ebb and flow. Sometimes you’re not quite clicking, other times you are. Petering out friendships can be very stressful, but change is a part of life and relationships which do end can still be treasured for what they brought before. They don’t have to be a mistake. And every time a gap appears, life will usually move in to fill it. Maybe this will be in the form of a new friend, or a even better relationship with yourself. Keep an open mind and an open heart, and wait and see

Treat yourself with kindness and respect, and others will do the same.
This is probably the most important point. You cannot be a friend to others, if you are not a friend to yourself. Have you ever noticed that some people are taken advantage of by everyone. They attract users and frauds like honey. This is not a coincidence. If you want other people to treat you with respect, then you need to be the first person in line to respect yourself. Being a good friend does not mean being a doormat. The kinder you are to yourself the happier you will be. The happier you are, the more you have to give to others. It is one big merry-go-round of happiness. Join the ride.

8 Tips to Take Control of Your Weight

2009-06-09T10:05:00.001+06:00

Anyone who is overweight will testify that losing weight is not as easy as it seems. The people that are lean, or have gone from fat to skinny will say it’s just a matter of motivation and elbow grease. Although it is not as simple as that. Our environments have waged war on us. Their weapons are sedentary lives and trans fats of mass destruction. All is not lost though, here are some quick simple tips to get ahead!

Substitute Water. Our bodies are about 65-70% water. It follows that water would be not only essential, but the best possibly choice of liquids to ingest. In fact, our bodies will sometimes simulate a hunger response, when in reality the body is craving hydration. When hungry, drink a glass or two of water to check if it suppresses your hunger.
Chew Your Food. Chewing our food very slowly and deliberately has several benefits that are often overlooked. It gives us the ability to relax, and enjoy our meal. Slow chewing is the first, and highly important, step in a complex system of digestion. Besides, if we eat slowly, we might feel full before finishing the whole meal, and can leave the rest for the next meal.
Exercise daily. How silly of me to include something as obvious as exercise. I did a 30 day trial with waking up, and walking for 30 minutes first thing in the morning. My journal records that I was feeling amazing during the period of time that I was following this habit.
Publicize your intentions. Start a blog, join a forum, and have other people keep you accountable to help. Tell other people your plan, it would help you get the motivation to go with it!
Create a food schedule. Plan your day so that you’re eating at approximately the same time each day. This scheduling will incorporate itself into your circadian rhythm, and aid in digestion.
Do not over eat. Know your limit and stop eating when you are full. I have often been a victim of wanting to finish a meal so that it doesn’t go to waste. This has left me with many a stomach ache. Next time, doggy bag it for later, and don’t hurt yourself!
Choose your snacks wisely. Put down the Lays® and cheese puffs. Pick up the apple and baby carrots. Make the right decision, I know you can do it.
Lifestyle. Remember, it’s not about special diets, or special exercise programs. The real secret is in turning your health into a lifestyle, and focusing on this healthy lifestyle with every choice you make.

20 Great Ways to Find More Free Time

2009-06-09T10:03:00.000+06:00

“The real problem of leisure time is how to keep others from using yours.” - Arthur Lacey

Are there a hundred different things you wish you could do with your life someday — anything from exercising to meditation or yoga to writing that novel you always wished you could write to reading more to relaxing and watching the sunrise? But perhaps you never have the time, like most people.

The truth is, we all have the same amount of time, and it’s finite and in great demand. But some of us have made the time for doing the things we love doing, and others have allowed the constant demands and pressures and responsibilities of life to dictate their days.

It’s time to move from the second group back into the first. Reclaim your time. Create the life you want and make the most of the free time you lay claim to. It’s not hard, though it does take a little bit of effort and diligence.

Not all of these will be applicable to your life — choose the ones you can apply and give them a try:

Take a time out. Freeing up your time starts with taking a step back to take a good look at your life. You need to block off at least an hour. Several hours or half a day is better. A whole day would be awesome. A weekend would be even more ideal, though not necessary practical for many folks. With this block of time, take a look at your life with some perspective. Is it what you’ve always wanted? How would you get to where you’ve always wanted to be? What do you enjoy doing, but don’t have enough time to do? What things actually fill up your day? Are there things you could drop or minimize to make more time? We’ll look at some of these things in the following items, but it starts with taking a time out to think and plan.
Find your essentials. What is it that you love to do? Make a short list of 4-5 things. These are the things you want to make room for.
Find your time-wasters. What do you spend a lot of your time on that isn’t on your essential list? Take a close look at these things and really think about whether they’re necessary, or if there are ways to reduce, minimize or eliminate these things. Sometimes you do things because you assume they’re necessary, but if you give it some thought you can find ways to drop them from your life. Figure out what you do simply to waste time — maybe surfing certain sites, watching TV, talking a lot at the water cooler, etc. You’re going to want to minimize these time-wasters to make room for the more important stuff, the stuff that makes you happy and that you love to do.
Schedule the time. As you sit down and think about your life and what you want to do, versus what you actually do, you will be looking at ways to free up time. It’s crucial that you take a blank weekly schedule (you can just write it out on a piece of paper, or use your calendar) and assign blocks for the things you love — the stuff on your essentials list. If you want to exercise, for example, when will you do it? Put the blocks of time on your schedule, and make these blocks the most important appointments of your week. Schedule the rest of your life around these blocks.
Consolidate. There are many things you do, scattered throughout your day or your week, that you might be able to consolidate in order to save time. A good example is errands — instead of running one or two a day, do them all in one day to save time and gas. Another example is email, or any kind of communication — batch process your email instead of checking and reading and responding throughout the day. Same thing with meetings, paperwork, anything that you do regularly.
Cut out meetings. This isn’t possible for everyone, but in my experience meetings take up a lot of time to get across a little information, or to make easy decisions that could be made via email or phone. As much as you can, minimize the number of meetings you hold and attend. In some cases this might mean talking to your boss and telling her that you have other priorities, and asking to be excused. In other cases this might mean asking the people holding the meeting if you can get the info in other ways. If so, you’ve saved yourself an hour or so per meeting (sometimes more).
De clutter your schedule. If you have a heavily packed schedule, full of meetings and errands and tasks and projects and appointments, you’re going to want to weed it out so that it’s not so jam-packed. Find the stuff that’s not so essential and cancel them. Postpone other stuff. Leave big blank spaces in your schedule.
Re-think your routine. Often we get stuck in a routine that’s anything but what we really want our days to be like. Is there a better way of doing things? You’re the creator of your life — make a new routine that’s more pleasant, more optimal, more filled with things you love.
Cut back on email. I mentioned email in an earlier point above, regarding consolidating, but it’s such a major part of most people’s lives that it deserves special attention. How often do you check email? How much time do you spend composing emails? If you spend a major part of your work day on email, as many people do (and as I once did), you can free up a lot of time by reducing the time you spend in email. Now, this won’t work for everyone, but it can work for many people: choose 2-3 key times during the day to process your inbox to empty, and keep your responses to 5 sentences.
Learn to say no. If you say “yes” to every request, you will never have any free time. Get super protective about your time, and say “no” to everything but the essential requests.
Keep your list to 3. When you make out your daily to-do list, just list the three Most Important Tasks you want to accomplish today. Don’t make a laundry list of tasks, or you’ll fill up all your free time. By keeping your task list small, but populated only by important tasks, you ensure that you are getting the important stuff done but not overloading yourself.
Do your Biggest Rock first. Of the three Most Important Tasks you choose for the day, pick the biggest one, or the one you’re dreading most, and do that first. Otherwise you’ll put that off as much as possible and fill your day with less important things. Don’t allow yourself to check email until that Big Rock is taken care of. It starts your day with a sense of major accomplishment, and leaves you with a lot of free time the rest of the day, because the most important thing is already done.
Delegate. If you have subordinates or coworkers who can do a task or project, try to delegate it. Don’t feel like you need to do everything yourself. If necessary, spend a little time training the person to whom you’re delegating the task, but that little time spent training will pay off in a lot of time saved later. Delegating allows you to focus on the core tasks and projects you should be focusing on.
Cut out distractions. What is there around your workspace that distracts you from the task at hand? Sometimes it’s visual clutter, or papers lying around that call for your attention and action, or email or IM notifiers on your computer that pop up at the wrong time, or the phone, or coworkers. See if you can eliminate as many of these as possible — the more you can focus, the more effective you’ll be and the less time you’ll waste. That equals time saved for the good stuff.
Disconnect. The biggest of distractions, for most people, is the Internet. My most productive times are when I’m disconnected from the grid. Now, I’m not saying you need to be disconnected all the time, but if you really want to be able to effectively complete tasks, disconnect your Internet so you can really focus. Set certain times of the day for connectivity, and only connect during those periods.
Outsource. If you can’t delegate, see if you can outsource. With the Internet, we can connect with people from all over the world. I’ve outsourced many things, from small tasks to checking email to legal work to design and editing work and more. That allows me to focus on the things I’m best at, the things I love doing, and saves me a lot of time.
Make use of your mornings. I find that mornings are the absolute best times to schedule the things I really want to do. I run, read and write in the mornings — three of the four things on my Essentials List (spending time with family is the other thing on the list). Mornings are great because your day hasn’t been filled with a bunch of unscheduled, demanding, last-minute tasks that will push back those Essentials. For example, if you schedule something for late afternoon, by the time late afternoon rolls around, you might have a dozen other things newly added to your to-do list, and you’ll put off that late-afternoon Essential. Instead, schedule it for the morning, and it’ll rarely (if ever) get pushed back.
The Golden Right-after-work Time. Other than mornings, I find the time just after work to be an incredible time for doing Essential things. Exercise, for example, is great in the 5-o’clock hour, as is spending time with family, or doing anything else relaxing.
Your evenings. The time before you go to bed is also golden, as it exists every single day, and it’s usually completely yours to schedule. What do you want to do with this time? Read? Spend time with your kids? Work on a hobby you’re passionate about? Take advantage of this time.
Lunch breaks. If the three golden times mentioned above don’t work for you, lunch breaks are another good opportunity to schedule things. Some people like to exercise, or to take quiet times, during their lunch breaks. Others use this time to work on an important personal goal or project.

10 Deadly Sins of Negative Thinking

2009-06-09T09:59:00.001+06:00

The way to overcome negative thoughts and destructive emotions is to develop opposing, positive emotions that are stronger and more powerful.” - Dalai Lama

Life could be so much better for many people, if they would just spot their negative thinking habits and replace them with positive ones.

Negative thinking, in all its many-splendored forms, has a way of creeping into conversations and our thinking without our noticing them. The key to success, in my humble opinion, is learning to spot these thoughts and squash them like little bugs. Then replace them with positive ones. You’ll notice a huge difference in everything you do.

Let’s take a look at 10 common ways that negative thinking emerges — get good at spotting these patterns, and practice replacing them with positive thinking patterns. It has made all the difference in the world for me.

10 Deadly Sins of Negative Thinking

1. I will be happy once I have _____ (or once I earn X).

Problem: If you think you can’t be happy until you reach a certain point, or until you reach a certain income, or have a certain type of house or car or computer setup, you’ll never be happy. That elusive goal is always just out of reach. Once we reach those goals, we are not satisfied — we want more.

Solution: Learn to be happy with what you have, where you are, and who you are, right at this moment. Happiness doesn’t have to be some state that we want to get to eventually — it can be found right now. Learn to count your blessings, and see the positive in your situation. This might sound simplistic, but it works.

2. I wish I were as ____ as (a celebrity, friend, co-worker).

Problem: We’ll never be as pretty, as talented, as rich, as sculpted, as cool, as everyone else. There will always be someone better, if you look hard enough. Therefore, if we compare ourselves to others like this, we will always pale, and will always fail, and will always feel bad about ourselves. This is no way to be happy.

Solution: Stop comparing yourself to others, and look instead at yourself — what are your strengths, your accomplishments, your successes, however small? What do you love about yourself? Learn to love who you are, right now, not who you want to become. There is good in each of us, love in each of us, and a wonderful human spirit in every one of us.

3. Seeing others becoming successful makes me jealous and resentful.

Problem: First, this assumes that only a small number of people can be successful. In truth, many, many people can be successful — in different ways.

Solution: Learn to admire the success of others, and learn from it, and be happy for them, by empathizing with them and understanding what it must be like to be them. And then turn away from them, and look at yourself — you can be successful too, in whatever you choose to do. And even more, you already are successful. Look not at those above you in the social ladder, but those below you — there are always millions of people worse off than you, people who couldn’t even read this article or afford a computer. In that light, you are a huge success.

4. I am a miserable failure — I can’t seem to do anything right.

Problem: Everyone is a failure, if you look at it in certain ways. Everyone has failed, many times, at different things. I have certainly failed so many times I cannot count them — and I continue to fail, daily. However, looking at your failures as failures only makes you feel bad about yourself. By thinking in this way, we will have a negative self-image and never move on from here.

Solution: See your successes and ignore your failures. Look back on your life, in the last month, or year, or 5 years. And try to remember your successes. If you have trouble with this, start documenting them — keep a success journal, either in a notebook or online. Document your success each day, or each week. When you look back at what you’ve accomplished, over a year, you will be amazed. It’s an incredibly positive feeling.

5. I’m going to beat so-and-so no matter what — I’m better than him. And there’s no way I’ll help him succeed — he might beat me.

Problem: Competitiveness assumes that there is a small amount of gold to be had, and I need to get it before he does. It makes us into greedy, back-stabbing, hurtful people. We try to claw our way over people to get to success, because of our competitive feelings. For example, if a blogger wants to have more subscribers than another blogger, he may never link to or mention that other blogger. However, who is to say that my subscribers can’t also be yours? People can read and subscribe to more than one blog.

Solution: Learn to see success as something that can be shared, and learn that if we help each other out, we can each have a better chance to be successful. Two people working towards a common goal are better than two people trying to beat each other up to get to that goal. There is more than enough success to go around. Learn to think in terms of abundance rather than scarcity.

6. Dammit! Why do these bad things always happen to me?

Problem: Bad things happen to everybody. If we dwell on them, they will frustrate us and bring us down.

Solution: See bad things as a part of the ebb and flow of life. Suffering is a part of the human condition — but it passes. All pain goes away, eventually. Meanwhile, don’t let it hold you back. Don’t dwell on bad things, but look forward towards something good in your future. And learn to take the bad things in stride, and learn from them. Bad things are actually opportunities to grow and learn and get stronger, in disguise.

7. You can’t do anything right! Why can’t you be like ____ ?

Problem: This can be said to your child or your subordinate or your sibling. The problem? Comparing two people, first of all, is always a fallacy. People are different, with different ways of doing things, different strengths and weaknesses, different human characteristics. If we were all the same, we’d be robots. Second, saying negative things like this to another person never helps the situation. It might make you feel better, and more powerful, but in truth, it hurts your relationship, it will actually make you feel negative, and it will certainly make the other person feel negative and more likely to continue negative behavior. Everyone loses.

Solution: Take the mistakes or bad behavior of others as an opportunity to teach. Show them how to do something. Second, praise them for their positive behavior, and encourage their success. Last, and most important, love them for who they are, and celebrate their differences.

8. Your work sucks. It’s super lame. You are a moron and I hope you never reproduce.

Problem: I’ve actually gotten this comment before. It feels wonderful. However, let’s look at it not from the perspective of the person receiving this kind of comment but from the perspective of the person giving it. How does saying something negative like this help you? I guess it might feel good to vent if you feel like your time has been wasted. But really, how much of your time has been wasted? A few minutes? And whose fault is that? The bloggers or yours? In truth, making negative comments just keeps you in a negative mindset. It’s also not a good way to make friends.

Solution: Learn to offer constructive solutions, first of all. Instead of telling someone their blog sucks, or that a post is lame, offer some specific suggestions for improvement. Help them get better. If you are going to take the time to make a comment, make it worth your time. Second, learn to interact with people in a more positive way — it makes others feel good and it makes you feel better about yourself. And you can make some great friends this way. That’s a good thing.

9. Insulting People Back

Problem: If someone insults you or angers you in some way, insulting them back and continuing your anger only transfers their problem to you. This person was probably having a bad day (or a bad year) and took it out on you for some reason. If you reciprocate, you are now having a bad day too. His problem has become yours. Not only that, but the cycle of insults can get worse and worse until it results in violence or other negative consequences — for both of you.

Solution: Let the insults or negative comments of others slide off you like Teflon. Don’t let their problem become yours. In fact, try to understand their problem more — why would someone say something like that? What problems are they going through? Having a little empathy for someone not only makes you understand that their comment is not about you, but it can make you feel and act in a positive manner towards them — and make you feel better about yourself in the process.

10. I don’t think I can do this — I don’t have enough discipline. Maybe some other time.

Problem: If you don’t think you can do something, you probably won’t. Especially for the big stuff. Discipline has nothing to do with it — motivation and focus has everything to do with it. And if you put stuff off for “some other time”, you’ll never get it done. Negative thinking like this inhibits us from accomplishing anything.

Solution: Turn your thinking around: you can do this! You don’t need discipline. Find ways to make yourself a success at your goal. If you fail, learn from your mistakes, and try again. Instead of putting a goal off for later, start now. And focus on one goal at a time, putting all of your energy into it, and getting as much help from others as you can. You can really move mountains if you start with positive thinking.

Origins of the Numerals

2009-05-03T10:00:00.003+06:00

Today's numbers, also called Hindu-Arabic numbers, are a combination of just 10 symbols or digits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. These digits were introduced in Europe within the XII century by Leonardo Pisano (aka Fibonacci), an Italian mathematician. L. Pisano was educated in North Africa, where he learned and later carried to Italy the now popular Hindu-Arabic numerals.

Hindu numeral system is a pure place-value system, that is why you need a zero. Only the Hindus, within the context of Ind-European civilizations, have consistently used a zero. The Arabs, however, played an essential part in the dissemination of this numeral system.

Numerals, a time travel from India to Europe
The discovery of zero and the place-value system were inventions unique to the Indian civilization. As the Brahmi notation of the first 9 whole numbers...

Before adopting the Hindu-Arabic numeral system, people used the Roman figures instead, which actually are a legacy of the Etruscan period. The Roman numeration is based on a biquinary (5) system.

To write numbers the Romans used an additive system: V + I + I = VII (7) or C + X + X + I (121), and also a substractive system: IX (I before X = 9), XCIV (X before C = 90 and I before V = 4, 90 + 4 = 94). Latin numerals were used for reckoning until late XVI century!

The graphical origin of the Roman numbers

Other original systems of numeration

Other original systems of numeration were being used in the past. The "Notae Elegantissimae" shown below allow to write numbers from 1 to 9999. They are useful as a mnemotechnic aid, e.g. the symbol K may mean 1414 (the first 4 figures of the square root of 2).

Chinese and Japanese contributions

The Ba-Gua (pron. pah-kwah) trigrams and the Genji-Koh patterns, antique Chinese and Japanese symbols, are strangely enough related to mathematics and electronics. If all the entire lines of the trigrams (___) are replaced with the digit 1 and the broken lines (_ _) with the digit 0, each Ba Gua trigram will represent then a binary number from 0 to 7, and each number is laid in front of its complementary (0<>7, 1<>6, 2<>5, etc...).

Write "a", "b", "c", "d" and "e" under the five small red sticks of each Genji-Koh pattern. By doing so, you will have the 52 manners to CONNECT 5 variables in boolean algebraics. The binded sticks form a "conjunction" (AND, .), and the isolated sticks or groups of sticks form a "disjunction" (OR, +). The pattern at the top left represents: [("a" and "d") or ("b" and "e") or "c"]

World’s Longest & Smallest

2009-03-17T14:48:00.001+06:00

World’s Longest::
World’s largest novel was published in France from 1913 to 1927. By this time 7 volumes were published in Remembrance of Things Past written by Marcel Praust. This is the longest written novel in this world up to now. Its total words are 15 million.

World’s Smallest::
In 1930 Leonidas, in Brazil, tried to make a revolution in the arena of newspaper. To create a gangbang he tried to publish an unbelievable small paper named Vosa Senoria. 1.75 x 3.94 inches newspaper made huge response in South America. In 1985 his daughter took charge of this paper. She then reduced the size of his father’s newspaper to 0.98 x 1.38 inches. Generally this newspaper contains 16 pages. Its publicity is 5000.

World’s Smallest Stamp::
World’s smallest stamp was introduced in the Boliva province, Columbia. 8mm x 9.55mm
(0.315 x 0.376 inch) sizes this stamp’s name Boliver Green. Its price was 10 cents and it was first introduced in 1863.

Most Valuable Book::
In 1188 Gospels of Henry the Lion was written. Gospels of Henry the Lion was written according to the direction of the Emperor of Brongewik, Henry and his wife Methildy. It was mainly Henry’s political ambitious. This book was sold by 12 million US Dollar in an auction in 1983.

Foot prints in the sand

2009-03-17T14:32:00.001+06:00

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed He was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of Footprints in the sand: one belonging To him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, He looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of His life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very Lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he Questioned the Lord about it:

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow You, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most Troublesome times in my life, There is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied:

"My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, When you see only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you."

Some Interesting Facts

2009-03-17T14:23:00.002+06:00

* In Kentucky, 50 percent of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.
* Kotex was first manufacturer of bandages, during W.W.I.
* Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.
* In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
* About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
* You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than in any other weather.
* An average person laughs about 15 times a day.
* Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
* Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.
* The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.
* A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.
* The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500's.
* The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
* The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is.
* Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
* The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.
* In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones - Bhutan.
* Every person has a unique tongue print.
* Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.
* Women's hearts beat faster than men's.
* Pollsters say that 40 percent of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets.
* Bubble gum contains rubber.
* You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog.
* Only 55 percent of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
* The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.
* Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks.
* The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people.
* Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.
* In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills.
* A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
* It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.
* Some toothpastes contain antifreeze.
* Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns.
* Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the Western Pacific.
* There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones.
* Most lipstick contains fish scales.
* Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992.
* Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego.
* The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.
* When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.
* Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
* 43. 27 percent of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless existential hell."
* In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.

10 RULES for A GOOD DAY

2009-03-17T14:23:00.001+06:00

1. TODAY I WILL NOT STRIKE BACK:
If someone is rude, if someone is impatient, if someone is unkind...
I will not respond in a like manner.

2. TODAY I WILL ASK GOD TO BLESS MY "ENEMY":
If I come across someone who treats me harshly or unfairly, I will
quietly ask God to bless that individual. I understand the "enemy"
could be a family member, neighbor, co-worker, or a stranger.

3. TODAY I WILL BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT I SAY:
I will carefully choose and guard my words being certain that I do
not spread gossip.

4. TODAY I WILL GO THE EXTRA MILE:
I will find ways to help share the burden of another person.

5. TODAY I WILL FORGIVE:
I will forgive any hurts or injuries that come my way.

6. TODAY I WILL DO SOMETHING NICE FOR SOMEONE,
BUT I WILL NOT DO IT SECRETLY:
I will reach out anonymously and bless the life of another.

7. TODAY I WILL TREAT OTHERS THE WAY I WISH TO BE
TREATED:
I will practice the golden rule - "Do unto others as I would have
them do unto me" - with everyone I encounter.

8. TODAY I WILL RAISE THE SPIRITS OF SOMEONE I
DISCOURAGED:
My smile, my words, my expression of support, can make the
difference to someone who is wrestling life.

9. TODAY I WILL NATURE MY BODY:
I will eat less; I will eat only healthy foods. I will thank God for my
body.

10. TODAY I WILL GROW SPIRITUALLY:
I will spend a little more time in prayer today: I will begin reading
something spiritual or inspirational today; I will find a quiet place
(at some point during the day)!

Some More Interesting FACTS

2009-03-17T14:20:00.002+06:00

Did you know......... Some interesting facts

> A zebra is white with black stripes.

> All the planets in our solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

> Hummingbirds are the only animal that can also fly backwards.

> Insects do not make noises with their voices. The noise of bees, mosquitoes and other buzzing insects is caused by rapidly moving their wings.

> The cockroach is the fastest animal on 6 legs covering a meter a second.

> The word "listen " contains the same letters as the word "silent".

> The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and the parrot.

> A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

> India invented the Number System . Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

> The whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.

> A hippopotamus can run faster than a man.

> India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.

> 'Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia' is the fear of long words.

> Didaskaleinophobia is the fear of going to school.

> Phobatrivaphobia is a fear of trivia about phobias !!

> It is impossible to lick your elbow. ( We know you gonna try this !!! )

> A snail can sleep for 3 years. ( wow, lucky chap he ? )

> The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start

> In 1883 the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa put so much dust into the earth's atmosphere that sunsets appeared green and the moon appeared blue around the world for almost two years.

> "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

> Twenty-Four-Karat Gold is not pure gold since there is a small amount of copper in it. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.

> Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.

> Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Say no evil ).

> 55 per cent of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn. Reading about yawning makes most people yawn. Hello, zzzzz zzzz ?

Secrets of Success

2009-03-17T14:20:00.001+06:00

Roof said : Aim high !

Fan said : Be cool !

Clock said : Every minute precious !

Mirror said : Reflect before you act !

Window said : See the world !

Calender said : Be upto date !

Door said : Push hard (the oportunity door) to achieve your goal.

52 Ways Plan For Perfect Health

2009-03-17T14:17:00.000+06:00

1. Drink eight glasses of water a day.
2. Include two vegetables and one fruit in every meal.
3. Begin each meal with a raw vegetable salad.
4. Make a light snack of assorted sprouts.
5. Start the day with a glass of warm water and a dash of lime.
6. Use only fresh vegetables.
7. Once a week have only fresh fruits until noon, make lunch the first meal of the day.
8. Eat only freshly cooked meals not refrigerated leftovers.
9. Include one green vegetable and one yellow vegetables n every meal.
10. Go on a ‘juice fast’ for a day. Start with vegetable juice, and sip fruit for lunch and dinner.
11. Kick the old coffee habit. Have a glass of fresh fruit juice instead.
12. Cut out all deep-fried foods from your diet.
13. Cut down on high sugar products like soft drinks, ice-cream, candy and cookies in your diet.
14. Never skip a meal, even if you ‘re on a diet. Eat a fresh fruit or have vegetable juice instead.
15. Avoid beverages like soda, coffee, colas and so on.
16. Include high fibre foods – plenty of fruits, vegetables and grains – in planning your diet.
17. Use salt in moderation.
18. Wash vegetables thoroughly in clean water before chopping.
19. Stream or boil vegetables (rather than fry or sauté).
20. Retain peels of potato, cucumber, carrot and tomato while cooking.
21. Do take a moment off to mentally list out the nutritional value of the food you ‘re about to eat.
22. Don’t rush through your meals. Set aside enough time to appreciate, enjoy and digest your food.
23. Make every meal an enjoyable experience. Set dishes out attractively and chew slowly to appreciate the full flavour of the foods you eat.

24. Choose to be radiantly healthy. Keep yourself inf ormed about the nutritive value of every food you buy.
25. Shop for groceries yourself. Notice the look, feel and smell of fresh fruit and vegetables and enjoy their intrinsic goodness.

26. Watch out for eating habits paired with emotional states, like reaching for a chocolate when you’re depressed. Resist the urge and eat fruit instead.

27. Eat popcorn (rather than chips) while watching a movie.
28. Sit at the table at meal times. Don’t read the paper or review bills while eating.
29. Make it a point to have dinner with the entire family at the table, and not in front of the TV.
30. Eat just to the point of the fullness. Don’t stuff yourself !
31. Stop smoking.
32. Restrict alcohol consumption.
33. Get a good night’s sleep, every night.
34. Enrol today in an exercise programme.
35. Take a brisk, 20 minute invigorating walk each morning.
36. Spend 10 minutes every morning and evening doing basic stretches.
37. Do not use elevators when you can climb the stairs.
38. Enrol in a TM programme today.
39. Focus on your breathing. Take a deep breath, then exhale slowly. Repeat a couple of times a day.
40. Learn to relax. Spend 20 minutes consciously relaxing each muscle of your body.
41. Spend 20 minutes a day in silent meditation, prayer or contemplation.
42. Learn the healing power of laughter. Watch a crazy movie, recall a joke or read a funny book and laugh out loud.
43. Tap the powers of your sub-conscious. Relax your body for 20 minutes and project the ’Perfect You’ on your mind screen.

44. Balance your lifestyle. Devote equal time each week to work and fun.
45. Join kids in a sports activity and rediscover the joys of childhood.
46. Do keep in touch with friends. Call up or visit them and be at peace with the world.
47. Enroll in an activity (like dancing, swimming or roller skating…) you never indulged in because you were afraid of “what people might say”.

48. Forgive someone who you think has done you wrong and cleanse your spirit of rancor.
49. Do a nice turn to someone you don’t know too well, but who could do with a friend.
50. Spend a quiet half-hour chatting with your family.
51. Listen to soothing music for 15 minutes at least each day.
52. Read a great book once a week.

Fun Facts

2009-03-17T14:14:00.000+06:00

1. It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.

2. It's been proven that people can lessen reactions to allergies by laughing.

3. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system.

4. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day.Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

5. In the middle ages, people would pin the name of their sweetheart to their sleeve on Valentine's Day and keep it there for a week, hence 'wearing their heart on their sleeve'.

6. It was during the Victorian era that the formerly nude Cupid was redesigned as wearing a skirt.

7. The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!!

8. February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

9. Tomato Ketchup was once used as medicine in the United States. Was sold as "Dr.Miles Compound Extract of Tomato"

10. When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.

Time for Some Facts

2009-03-11T17:40:00.000+06:00

The human body contains enough phosphorus to make the heads of 200 matches, enough fat for seven bars of soap, and enough iron to make one nail.

The human body has enough fat to produce 7 bars of soap.

The human body has over 45 miles of nerves.

The human body has over 600 muscles, 40% of the body's weight.

The human brain is about 85% water.

The human eyes can distinguish about 17,000 different colors.

The human head weighs 7 pounds.

The human heart creates enough pressure in the bloodstream to squirt blood 30 feet.

The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30ft.

The human heart pumps 1.5 million gallons of blood a year.

The hummingbird is the only bird that can hover and fly straight up, down, or backward!

The hummingbird, the loon, the swift, the kingfisher, and the grebe are all birds that cannot walk.

The Hundred Year War actually lasted 116 years (1337 to 1453).

The ice cream soda was invented in 1874 by Robert Green. He was serving a mixture of syrup, sweet cream and carbonated water at a celebration in Philadelphia . He ran out of cream and substituted ice cream.

The idiom "pillar of salt" means to have a stroke, or to become paralyzed and dead.

The Iditarod Dogsled Race got its name from Iditarod, a small mining village along the race's route. The race commemorates an emergency operation in 1925 to get medical supplies to Nome , Alaska following a diphtheria epidemic.

The Imperial torte, a square chocolate cake with five thin layers of almond paste, was created by a master pastry chef at the court of Emperor Franz Joseph (1830 1916).

The infamous "Red Baron" was German World War I pilot Manfred von Richthofen.

The infinite sign is called a lemniscate.

The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as a football field.

The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.

The internet is NOT FREE, a group of companies actually own the internet.

The Jazz Singer, 1927, was the first movie with audible dialogue.

The Jordanian city Amman was once called Philadelphia .

The Kama Sutra was written by Mallanga Vatsyayana, who was rumored to be celibate.

The kangaroo and the emu are shown supporting the shield on Australia 's coat of arms.

The kangaroo rat can cover ground at a rate of 17 feet per second. It can leap as much as 18 inches straight up and can switch directions at the peak of its jump.

The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs.

The kilt was invented by a English gentleman who came to Scotland to open a factory because he got tired of his Scottish workers showing up in a long tunic with a belt (they couldn't afford pants). Rather than raise wages so they could afford pants he invented the kilt which is just a lot of fabric and they could afford that. The kilt did not become a symbol of clan pride until the English banned the kilt in Scotland . Then it became part of national pride to wear the newly invented clan plaids.

The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache.

The kiss that is given by the bride to the groom at the end of the wedding ceremony originates from the earliest times when the couple would actually make love for the first time under the eyes of half the village!

The kissing under the missletoe tradition originated from the Druids.

The kiwi has nostrils near the tip of its bill that allows it to sniff the ground for food.

The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand , can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind, and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 70 million years.

The Kwoma of New Guinea consider it proper for the girl to make sexual advances rather than the boy in order to help the men avoid upsetting the girl's parents.

The largest amount of money you can have without having change for a dollar is $1.19 (3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies cannot be divided into a dollar).

The largest animal ever seen alive was a 113.5 foot, 170-ton female blue whale.

The largest antique ever sold is the London Bridge . It was sold and moved Lake Havasu City , AZ in 1971.

The largest baseball card collection, 200,000 cards, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The largest bell in the world is the Tsar Kolokol in the Kremlin in Moscow . It's 20' 2" high and 21' 8" in diameter. Cast in 1735, it weighs 222.56 tons and has never been wrung...it cracked before it was installed.

The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich. Ostrich eggs are from 6 to 8 inches long. Because of their size and the thickness of their shells, they take 40 minutes to hard-boil.

The largest body of fresh water in the world is Lake Superior .

The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell.

The largest cell in the human body is the female reproductive cell, the ovum.

The smallest is the male sperm.

The largest cockroach on record is one measured at 3.81 inches in length.

The largest coffee importer center in the U.S. is located in the city of New Orleans, LA.

The largest desert in the world, the Sahara , is 3,500,000 square miles.

The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 lbs., 13 oz.

The largest Great White Shark ever caught measured 37 feet and weighed 24,000 pounds. It was found in a herring weir in New Brunswick in 1930.

The largest hailstone ever recorded was 17.5 inches in diameter bigger than a basketball.

The largest human organ is the liver, which weighs about 55 ounces in a person weighing 150 pounds. By some definitions, the skin is an organ, in which case skin would be the largest organ at 384 ounces.

The largest human organ is the skin, with a surface area of about 25 squar.

Fantasy Paintings

2009-03-11T16:57:00.000+06:00

The Painting are one of the difficult things to do, but who are really interested in painting they make Paintings very easy.

Amazing Hair Styles

2009-03-11T12:12:00.000+06:00

WORLD'S EASIEST QUIZ

2009-03-11T11:47:00.000+06:00

1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get cat gut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7) What was King George VI's first name?
8) What color is a purple finch?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?

Check your answers below.

ANSWERS TO THE QUIZ

1) How long did the Hundred Years War last?116 years

2) Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador

3) From which animal do we get cat gut? Sheep and Horses

4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November

5) What is a camel's hair brush made of? Squirrel fur

6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? Dogs

7) What was King George VI's first name? Albert

8) What color is a purple finch? Crimson

9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New Zealand

10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane? Orange (of course)

September 1752 - The Time that nothing happened.....

2009-03-11T11:30:00.000+06:00

Did you know that nothing happened between 3 and 13 September 1752?

In September 1752 the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in Great Britain and its American colonies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar, so 14 September got to follow 2 September on the day of the change. The result was that between 3 and 13 September, absolutely nothing happened!

The calendar switch also influenced the way George Washington's birthday is celebrated. He was born on 11 February 1731, but the anniversary of his birth is on 22 February because of the 11 days eliminated from the calendar switch. At the same time, New Year's Day was changed from 25 March to 1 January, thus according to the new calendar, Washington was born in 1732.

The first Roman Calendar (introduced in 535BC) had 10 months, with 304 days in a year that began in March. January and February were added only later. In 46BC, Julius Caesar created "The Year of Confusion" by adding 80 days to the year making it 445 days long to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons. The solar year - with the value of 365 days and 6 hours - was made the basis of the calendar. To take care of the 6 hours, every 4th year was made a 366-day year. It was then that Caesar decreed that the year begins with the 1st of January.

In 325AD Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week. He also introduced movable (Easter) and immovable feasts (Christmas).

In 1545 the Council of Trent authorised Pope Paul III to reform the calendar once more. Advised by astronomer Father Christopher Clavius and physician Aloysius Lilius, Pope Gregory XIII ordered that Thursday, 4 October 1582 was to be the last day of the Julian calendar. The next day was Friday, 15 October. For long-term accuracy, every 4th year was made a leap year unless it is a century year like 1700 or 1800. Century years can be leap years only when they are divisible by 400 (e.g. 1600). This rule eliminates three leap years in four centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for all ordinary purposes.

Protestant rulers ignored the new calendar that the Pope ordered. It was not until 1698 that Germany and the Netherlands changed to the Gregorian calendar. As mentioned, Britain made the change only in 1752. Russia adopted the new calendar in 1918, China in 1949.

In spite of the leap year, the Gregorian year is about 26 seconds longer than the earth's orbital period. Thus the beginning of the third millennium should have been celebrated at 9:01pm on 31 December 1999. But considering that the Gregorian calendar starts with Year 1, and not Year 0, adding 2000 years means that the third millennium started at 21h00:34s on 31 December 2000. However, because Dionysis Exeguus - the 6th Century monk whose task it was to pivot the calendar around the birth of Jesus Christ - miscalculated the founding of Rome by about 4 years (and left out the year 0), the TRUE THIRD MILLENNIUM actually started on 31 December 1995.

If you are working in UNIX, try this out. At $ prompt, type: cal 9 1752 Surprised??? ?

Isn't the output queer? A month with whole of eleven days missing. This was the time England shifted from Roman Julian Calendar to the Gregorian calendar, and the king of England ordered those 11 days to be wiped off the face of the month of September of 1752. (What couldn't a King do in those days?!) And yes, the workers worked for 11 days less, but got paid for the entire 30 days. And that's how "Paid Leave" was born.

Tyrannosaurus Rex 'Footprint' Found

2009-03-11T11:26:00.000+06:00

A Britain-based palaeontologist believes he has found the world's first known Tyrannosaurus rex footprint.

Phil Manning said he has high hopes the one square metre (about 11 square feet) print, from the famed Hell Creek area of the northwest US state of Montana, is from the flesh-eating giant, although 100 percent certainty is impossible.

Manning, whose work still needs to be peer-reviewed, suggested the 67-million-year-old print "could only" be one of the two species previously found in Hell Creek, Nanotyrannus or its bigger relative Tyrannosaurus rex.

"The size of the footprint at 76 centimetres (30 inches) in length suggests it is more likely to be the latter," said the academic, from the University of Manchester, northwest England.

Animal Shaped Natural builts

2008-04-06T16:28:00.000+06:00

Tiger Cares for Piglets and Vice-Versa

2008-02-25T11:19:00.010+06:00

The Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Thailand is famous for their unique attractions, fun shows, and the ability for tourists to get close to (and often touch) the tigers. However, the most famous attraction is the couplings of pigs and tigers: These pictures show two year old Saimai, a Royal Bengal tigress, with the six piglets she is raising.

The tiger doesn’t seem to mind the unclothed piglets, so I’m guessing the costumes were just meant to put on a cute show for the tourists. Either that or she ate the first set of tiger-clad piglets and the zoo hasn’t had time to create new outfits

While the zoo and all press materials claim the pairings are completely benevolent, I personally wonder if Saimai just views her pig-raising duties as a long “getting ready for dinner” ritual.

Fittingly, Saimai herself was cared for and nursed by a pig

Animals with Super Power

2008-02-25T11:19:00.009+06:00

corporate gifts

2008-02-25T11:19:00.008+06:00

Ideal for corporate gifts… or gifts for girl geeks. You have several gadgets to choose from.

Massive 3d Adidas goalkeeper

2008-02-25T11:19:00.007+06:00

To make sure they weren’t upstaged by Nike or other rivals, Adidas constructed this massive 3d advertisement at the Munich airport for the 2006 World Cup. Defining this as a billboard may be a stretch, but it was too cool not to include.

In 24 Hours Average Human

2008-02-25T11:19:00.006+06:00

1) HEART beats 1,03,689 times.

2) LUNGS respire 23,045 times.

3) BLOOD flows 16,80,000 miles.

4) NAILS grow 0.00007 inches

5) HAIR grows 0.01715 inches

6) Take 2.9 pounds WATER (including all liquids)

7) Take of 3.25 pounds FOOD.

8) Breathe 438 cubic feet AIR.

9) Lose 85.60, BODY TEMPERATURE.

10)Produce 1.43 pints SWEAT.

11)Speak 4,800 WORDS.

12)During SLEEP move 25.4 times

Some Amazing Facts

2008-02-25T11:19:00.005+06:00

Longest English Word: Praetertranssubstan tiationalistically has 37 letters.

Book Without Letter "e": GADFY, written by Earnest Wright in 1939 is a 50,000+ word book, which doesn't contain a single word with 'e' in it.

Word without Vowel:Rhythm, Sky, Fry, Cry.

Human Brain: Organ of body which has no sensation when cut.

Crocodile: Only animal & reptile which sheds tear while eating.

Fascinating Animals, Birds, Trees:-

1) SNAILS have 14175 teeth laid along 135 rows on their tongue.

2) A BUTTERFLY has 12,000 eyes.

3) DOLPHINS sleep with 1 eye open.

4) A BLUE WHALE can eat as much as 3 tones of food everyday,but at the same time can live without food for 6 months.

5) The EARTH has over 12,00,000 species of animals, 3,00,000 species of plants & 1,00,000 other species.

6) The fierce DINOSAUR was TYRANNOSAURS which has sixty long & sharp teeth, used to attack & eat other dinosaurs.

7) DEMETRIO was a mammal like REPTILE with a snail on its back. This acted as a radiator to cool the body of the animal.

8) CASSOWARY is one of the dangerous BIRD, that can kill a man or animal by tearing off with its dagger like claw.

9) The SWAN has over 25,000 feathers in its body.

10)OSTRICH eats pebbles to help digestion by grinding up the ingested food.

11)POLAR BEAR can look clumsy & slow but during chase on ice, can reach 25 miles / hr of speed.

12)KIWIS are the only birds, which hunt by sense of smell.

13)ELEPHANT teeth can weigh as much as 9 pounds.

14)OWL is the only bird, which can rotate its head to 270 degrees

24 Things to Always Remember

2008-02-25T11:19:00.004+06:00

1. Your presence is a present to the world.

2. You're unique and one of a kind.

3. Your life can be what you want it to be.

4. Take the days just one at a time.

5. Count your blessings, not your troubles.

6. You'll make it through whatever comes along.

7. Within you are so many answers.

8. Understand, have courage, be strong.

9. Don't put limits on yourself.

10. So many dreams are waiting to be realized.

11. Decisions are too important to leave to chance.

12. Reach for your peak, your goal, and your prize.

13. Nothing wastes more energy than worrying.

14. The longer one carries a problem, the heavier it gets.

15. Don't take things too seriously.

16. Live a life of serenity, not a life of regrets.

17. Remember that a little love goes a long way.

18. Remember that a lot . . . goes forever.

19. Remember that friendship is a wise investment.

20. Life's treasures are people . . . together.

21. Realize that it's never too late.

22. Do ordinary things in an extraordinary way.

23. Have health and hope and happiness.

24. Take the time to wish upon a star.

15 Pieces of Advice For Woman

2008-02-25T11:19:00.003+06:00

1. Don't imagine you can change a man - unless he's in nappies.

2. What do you do if your boyfriend walks out? You shut the door.

3. If they put a man on the moon - they should be able to put them all up there.

4. Never let your man's mind wander - it's too little to be out alone.

5. Go for the younger man. You might as well, they never mature anyway.

6. Men are all the same - they just have different faces, so that you can tell them apart.

7. Definition of a bachelor: a man who has missed the opportunity to make some woman miserable.

8. Women don't make fools of men - most of them are the do-it-yourself types.

9. Best way to get a man to do something is to suggest he is too old for it.

10. Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye-opener.

11. If you want a committed man, look in a mental hospital.

12. The children of Israel wandered around the desert for 40 years. Even in Biblical times, men wouldn't ask for directions.

13. If he asks what sort of books you're interested in, tell him cheque books.

14. Remember a sense of humour does not mean that you tell him jokes; it means that you laugh at his.

15. Sadly, all men are created equal!

Interesting Secrets

2008-02-25T11:19:00.002+06:00

Interesting Secrets::

Surfing the internet I've found a lot of secrets that are really interesting, and not to many people know about them.Let's see some interesting secrets... in ( ) I've made some comments.

* The most common name in the world is Mohammed. ( Strange ... )

* The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. ( And still so little )

* TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. ( I dare you to find another one.. )

* People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze,your heart stops fora millisecond. ( That's something new for me )

* It is impossible to lick your elbow. ( Trust me ... don't try )

* It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. ( So ...they can't see the birds ? )

* If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

* If the horse has one front leg in the air,the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

* If the horse has a all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

* A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

* American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class. ( So that's the American Economy secret )

* Butterflies taste with their feet. ( That's why butterflies don't wear snickers )

* Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. ( Good Bless )

* The electric chair was invented by a dentist. ( From a master of pain ... )

* The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet. ( Just 30 ? My heart can do more ...:) )

* Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.( Killlll them all, before they conquer the world )

* Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. ( Still wearing them ? )

* The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

World's Longest & Smallest

2008-02-25T11:19:00.001+06:00

World’s Longest::
World’s largest novel was published in France from 1913 to 1927. By this time 7 volumes were published in Remembrance of Things Past written by Marcel Praust. This is the longest written novel in this world up to now. Its total words are 15 million.

World’s Smallest::
In 1930 Leonidas, in Brazil, tried to make a revolution in the arena of newspaper. To create a gangbang he tried to publish an unbelievable small paper named Vosa Senoria. 1.75 x 3.94 inches newspaper made huge response in South America. In 1985 his daughter took charge of this paper. She then reduced the size of his father’s newspaper to 0.98 x 1.38 inches. Generally this newspaper contains 16 pages. Its publicity is 5000.

World’s Smallest Stamp::
World’s smallest stamp was introduced in the Boliva province, Columbia. 8mm x 9.55mm (0.315 x 0.376 inch) sizes this stamp’s name Boliver Green. Its price was 10 cents and it was first introduced in 1863.

Most Valuable Book::
In 1188 Gospels of Henry the Lion was written. Gospels of Henry the Lion was written according to the direction of the Emperor of Brongewik, Henry and his wife Methildy. It was mainly Henry’s political ambitious. This book was sold by 12 million US Dollar in an auction in 1983.

Under Sea Internet Cabling

2008-02-25T11:19:00.000+06:00

This is a cable network spread worldwide The ship used for cabling

Contents of Cable::

Polythin cover of Sabec,

Anti rust iron,

Aluminium protector from water infiltrstion,

cover of poly carbon, Compact copper,

Glotein petrochemical, 8- fiber optics

installation being used for cabling Cable in the bottom of Sea

Interrupted Cable: Due to damage of outer cover

And this also interruption reason

Tapestry - Table

2008-02-19T13:17:00.000+06:00

Tapestry - Table

Short Text

2008-02-19T12:32:00.000+06:00

By this site we can send multiple line of data which is not possible in Yahoo Messenger.

Tapestry - RenderBody

2008-02-19T12:30:00.000+06:00

Tapestry - RenderBody

Tapestry - RenderBlock

2008-02-19T12:18:00.000+06:00

Tapestry - RenderBlock

Tapestry - Insert

2008-02-19T12:03:00.000+06:00

Tapestry - Insert

About CSS

2008-02-07T11:01:00.000+06:00

Today i have completed learning CSS. It is somehow easy to learn. Similar to HTML formatting. but in some cases it has its own style. Moreover, the coding style is different for different browser i.e. in CSS we have to write code for different browser as in each browser has its own technique. For example: Mozilla uses the property opacity:x for transparency, while IE uses filter:alpha(opacity=x).

For this reason, while coding we have to code for several browser. I think this is very awesome. There should be some general rules which every body should follow.

Open Bank Account

2008-01-30T18:34:00.000+06:00

Today i and my Colleague went to Agrani Bank to open a bank account. Ohh.. the whole process is analog and so boring. From here to there we had to run to complete the whole process. Finally we have completed those procedure and the officer said a letter will be sent to our address & then we have to collect the cheque book.

Although i am not interested in Govt. Bank account. but our salary will be sent to that account. For this reason we had to do that.

However, i am thinking to open a private bank account in Dutch Bangla Bank by which i can draw money with debit card from any booth. and it is easier process than govt. bank.