Lingam

The linga or lingam (Sanskrit for “symbol”) is the symbol of the god Shiva and the form in which he is most commonly worshipped. The phallic symbol is the main object of worship in Shaivite temples and homes throughout India and the world.

The linga is a simple stylized phallus that nearly always rests on pedestal of a stylized yoni, or female sex organ. Together, the linga and yoni represent the power of creative energy and fertility.

History of the Shiva Linga

Scholars believe that the linga was revered by some non-Aryan peoples of India since antiquity, and short, cylindrical pillars with rounded tops have been found in Harappan remains.

The Vedic Aryans appeared to have disapproved of linga worship, but literary and artistic evidence shows that it was firmly established by the 1st–2nd century AD.

The linga’s form began to be conventualized during the Gupta period, so that in later periods its original phallic realism was to a considerable degree lost.   Types of Lingas   Lingas range from temporary versions made of sandalwood paste or river clay for a particular rite to more elaborate ones of wood, precious gems, metal, or stone. There are precise rules of proportion to be followed for the height, width, and curvature of the top.

Variations include the mukhalinga, with one to five faces of Shiva carved on its sides and top, and the lingodbhavamurti, a South Indian form that shows Siva emerging out of a fiery linga to demonstrate his superiority over Vishnu and Brahma.

Some lingas are topped with a cobra, symbolizing the kundalini chakra located at the base of the spine (see Kundalini Yoga).

The most revered lingas are the svayambhuva (“self-originated”) lingas, which were made directly from light without human assistance. Nearly 70 are worshipped throughout India and are places of pilgrimage.

Rituals of the Shiva Linga   In the primary religious ritual of devotees of Shiva, the linga is honored with offerings of flowers, milk, pure water, fruit, leaves and rice.

BEER

Beer is the world’s most widely consumed alcoholic beverage; it is the third-most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is thought by some to be the oldest fermented beverage.

Beer is produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar. The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat.

Unmalted maize and rice are widely used adjuncts to lighten the flavor because of their lower cost. The preparation of beer is called brewing.

Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included.

Some of humanity’s earliest known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, and “The Hymn to Ninkasi”, a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method of remembering the recipe for beer in a culture with few literate people.

Today, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries.

The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume (abv) although it may sometimes vary between 0.5% (de-alcoholized) and 15% (malt liquors).

Beer forms part of the culture of beer-drinking nations and is associated with social traditions such as beer festivals, as well as a rich pub culture involving activities like pub crawling and pub games such as bar billiards.

SAVE BIRDS

London Bridge

Carries: 5 lanes of A3

Crosses: River Thames

Locale: Inner London

Maintained by: Bridge House Estates, City of London Corporation

Design: prestressed concrete box girder bridge

Total length: 269 m (882.5 ft)

Width: 32 m (105.0 ft)

Opened: 17 March 1973

London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London.

Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London.

On the south side of the bridge are Southwark Cathedral and London Bridge station; on the north side are the Monument to the Great Fire of London and Monument tube station.

It was the only bridge over the Thames downstream from Kingston until Putney Bridge opened in 1729. The current bridge opened on 17 March 1973 and is the latest in a succession of bridges to occupy the spot and claim the name.

The bridge carries part of the A3 road, which is maintained by the Greater London Authority; the bridge itself is owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, an independent charity overseen by the City of London Corporation.

The area between London Bridge and Tower Bridge on the south side of the Thames is a business improvement district (BID) and is managed by Team London Bridge.

LPG

Liquefied petroleum gas, also called LPG, GPL, LP Gas, liquid petroleum gas or simply propane, is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as a fuel in heating appliances and vehicles.

It is increasingly used as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant, replacing chlorofluorocarbons in an effort to reduce damage to the ozone layer.

When specifically used as a vehicle fuel it is often referred to as autogas.   Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are primarily propane (C3H8), primarily butane (C4H10) and, most commonly, mixes including both propane and butane, depending on the season — in winter more propane, in summer more butane.

In the United States, primarily only two grades of LPG are sold, commercial propane and HD-5. These specifications are published by the Gas Processors Association (GPA) and the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM).

Propane/butane blends are also listed in these specifications. Propylene, butylenes and various other hydrocarbons are usually also present in small concentrations. HD-5 limits the amount of propylene that can be placed in LPG, and is utilized as an autogas specification.

A powerful odorant, ethanethiol, is added so that leaks can be detected easily. The international standard is EN 589. In the United States, tetrahydrothiophene (thiophane) or amyl mercaptan are also approved odorants, although neither is currently being utilized.

LPG is synthesised by refining petroleum or “wet” natural gas, and is almost entirely derived from fossil fuel sources, being manufactured during the refining of petroleum (crude oil), or extracted from petroleum or natural gas streams as they emerge from the ground.

It was first produced in 1910 by Dr. Walter Snelling, and the first commercial products appeared in 1912. It currently provides about 3% of all energy consumed, and burns relatively cleanly with no soot and very few sulfur emissions. As it is a gas, it does not pose ground or water pollution hazards, but it can cause air pollution.

LPG has a typical specific calorific value of 46.1 MJ/kg compared with 42.5 MJ/kg for fuel oil and 43.5 MJ/kg for premium grade petrol (gasoline). However, its energy density per volume unit of 26 MJ/l is lower than either that of petrol or fuel oil.

LPG evaporates quickly at normal temperatures and pressures and is usually supplied in pressurised steel gas cylinders. They are typically filled to between 80% and 85% of their capacity to allow for thermal expansion of the contained liquid.

The ratio between the volumes of the vaporized gas and the liquefied gas varies depending on composition, pressure, and temperature, but is typically around 250:1.

ENGLISH

English is a West Germanic language spoken originally in England, and is now the most widely used language in the world. It is spoken as a first language by a majority of the inhabitants of several nations, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand.

It is the third most common native language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. It is widely learned as a second language and is an official language of the European Union, many Commonwealth countries and the United Nations, as well as in many world organisations.

English arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and what is now south-east Scotland, but was then under the control of the kingdom of Northumbria.

Following the extensive influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th century, it has been widely propagated around the world, becoming the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions.

Historically, English originated from the fusion of closely related dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) settlers by the 5th century – with the word English being derived from the name of the Angles, and ultimately from their ancestral region of Angeln.

A significant number of English words are constructed based on roots from Latin, because Latin in some form was the lingua franca of the Christian Church and of European intellectual life. The language was further influenced by the Old Norse language due to Viking invasions in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman-French, and vocabulary and spelling conventions began to give the appearance of a close relationship with Romance languages to what had then become Middle English.

The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the historical events that mark the emergence of Modern English from Middle English.

Owing to the assimilation of words from many other languages throughout history, modern English contains a very large vocabulary, with complex and irregular spelling, particularly of vowels.

Modern English has not only assimilated words from other European languages but also from all over the world, including words of Hindi and African origin.

The Oxford English Dictionary lists over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical, scientific, and slang terms.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a business management strategy, originally developed by Motorola in 1986. Six Sigma became well known after Jack Welch made it a central focus of his business strategy at General Electric in 1995, and today it is widely used in many sectors of industry.

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes.

It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization (“Black Belts”, “Green Belts”, etc.) who are experts in these methods.

Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction and/or profit increase).

The term Six Sigma originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing processes.

The maturity of a manufacturing process can be described by a sigma rating indicating its yield, or the percentage of defect-free products it creates.

A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of the products manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects (3.4 defects per million).

Motorola set a goal of “six sigma” for all of its manufacturing operations, and this goal became a byword for the management and engineering practices used to achieve it.

Kiwi Bird

The Kiwi’s name doesnt come from its call, but from the Polynesian name for the Bristled- Thighed Curlew, the Kivi.This bird has the same way of feeding as the Kiwi, by poking it’s long beak into soft ground.

It has very strong legs for burrowing and ripping apart rotton logs.

The Kiwi cannot fly, and lives in burrows on the ground.

Its diet is mainly worms, spiders, bugs, grubs and fruit.

Kiwi’s mate for life, some have been together for 30 years.

A Kiwi’s egg is large compared with the size of its body (An egg averages 20% of the females weight, compared to 2% for an Ostrich).

The female is larger than the male. In some varieties the males are the ones that sit on the egg.

It is the only known bird to have external nostrils at the end of its beak, and one of the few birds to have a good sence of smell. At night a Kiwi can often be heard making snuffling noises, which is caused by the bird trying to clear dirt out of its nostrils when it is searching for food.

The Kiwi is the smallest member of the family of birds called Ratities. This group includes some of the worlds biggest birds like the Emu, Ostrich, as well the extinct Moa and the Elephant Birds of Madagascar.

It has an average body temperature of 38 degrees C, which is 2 degrees lower than other birds and two degrees higher than humans.

Karate

Karate is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed partially from indigenous fighting methods called te and from Chinese kenpō.

Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands.

Grappling, locks, restraints, throws, and vital point strikes are taught in some styles. A karate practitioner is called a karateka.

Karate was developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom prior to its 19th-century annexation by Japan. It was brought to the Japanese mainland in the early 20th century during a time of cultural exchanges between the Japanese and the Ryukyuans.

In 1922 the Japanese Ministry of Education invited Gichin Funakoshi to Tokyo to give a karate demonstration. In 1924 Keio University established the first university karate club in Japan and by 1932, major Japanese universities had karate clubs.

After the Second World War, Okinawa became an important United States military site and karate became popular among servicemen stationed there.

The martial arts movies of the 1960s and 1970s served to greatly increase its popularity and the word “karate” began to be used in a generic way to refer to all striking-based Oriental martial arts.

Karate schools began appearing across the world, catering to those with casual interest as well as those seeking a deeper study of the art.

For many practitioners, karate is a deeply philosophical practice. Karate-do teaches ethical principles and can have spiritual significance to its adherents.

Gichin Funakoshi (“Father of Modern Karate”) titled his autobiography Karate-Do: My Way of Life in recognition of the transforming nature of karate study.

Today karate is practiced for self-perfection, for cultural reasons, for self-defense and as a sport.   In 2005, in the 117th IOC (International Olympic Committee) voting, karate did not receive the necessary two thirds majority vote to become an Olympic sport.

Web Japan (sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs) claims there are 50 million karate practitioners worldwide.

Mickey Mouse

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves.

He is one of the most recognizable cartoon characters in the world and is the mascot of The Walt Disney Company, the world’s largest media conglomerate in terms of annual revenue.

Mickey debuted in November 1928 in the animated cartoon Steamboat Willie after initially appearing in a test screening earlier that year.

He went on to appear in over 130 films including The Band Concert (1935), Brave Little Tailor (1938), and Fantasia (1940). Mickey appeared primarily in short films, but also in a few feature-length films.

Nine of Mickey’s cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, one of which, Lend a Paw, won the award in 1942. In 1978, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Beginning 1930, Mickey has also been featured extensively as a comic strip character. His self-titled newspaper strip, drawn primarily by Floyd Gottfredson, ran for 45 years.

Mickey has also appeared in comic books and in television series such as The Mickey Mouse Club (1955–1996) and others.

He also appears in other media such as video games as well as merchandising, and is a meetable character at the Disney parks.

Mickey typically appears alongside his girlfriend Minnie Mouse, his pet dog Pluto, his friends Horace Horsecollar, Donald Duck, and Goofy, and his nemesis Pete among others (see Mickey Mouse universe).

Originally characterized as a mischievous antihero, Mickey’s increasing popularity led to his being rebranded as an everyman, usually seen as an ever cheerful, yet shy role model.

In 2009, Disney announced that they will begin to rebrand the character again by putting less emphasis on his pleasant, cheerful side and reintroducing the more mischievous and adventurous sides of his personality most evident in his earlier films of the 1920s and 1930s; the repositioning of Mickey started with the video game Epic Mickey.

EGG

Can’t remember if an egg is fresh or hard boiled? Just spin the egg. If it wobbles, it’s raw. If it spins easily, it’s hard boiled.

A fresh egg will sink in water, a stale one will float. Eggs contain all the essential protein, minerals and vitamins, except Vitamin C. But egg yolks are one of few foods that naturally contain Vitamin D.

Eggs also contain choline, which is necessary for healthy cell membranes in the body. Choline stimulates brain development and function and helps preserving memory.

Eggs also are good for your eyes because they contain lutein which helps prevents age-related cataracts and muscular degeneration. In fact, eggs contain more lutein than spinach and other green vegetables.

The color of the egg shell is not related to quality, nutrients, flavour, or cooking characteristics. White shelled eggs are produced by hens with white feathers and white ear lobes.

Brown shelled eggs are produced by hens with red feathers and red ear lobes. Brown egg layers usually are slightly larger and require more food, thus brown eggs usually cost more than white eggs.

An egg shell has as many as 17,000 pores over its surface. A whole egg is about 3 tablespoons worth of liquid, the egg yolk measures about 1 tablespoon of liquid.

Older hens tend to lay bigger eggs but double-yolked eggs are produced by younger hens whose egg production cycles are not yet synchronized.

There are about 70 calories in an uncooked egg and 77 calories in a cooked egg. China produces the most eggs, at about 160 billion per year.

In the US, about 280 million hens produce more than 65 billion eggs per year. A hen can lay about 250 eggs per year.

Chicken are descendants of the red jungle fowl (gallus gallus spadiceus) that lives in Asia. The chicken is one of the first domestic animals, appearing in China around 1400 BC. The are some 150 chicken species and hundreds of chicken breeds.

Kabul

Kabul, also spelled Cabool, Caubul or Cabul, mostly in historical contexts, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Kabul is the 5th fastest growing city in the world and the world’s 64th largest city.

It is also the capital of Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan. According to latest estimates, the population of the Kabul metropolitan area is over 4 million.

The city serves as the nation’s cultural and learning centre, situated 1,791 metres (5,876 ft) above sea level in a narrow valley, wedged between the Hindu Kush mountains along the Kabul River.

It is linked with Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif via the circular Highway 1 that stretches across Afghanistan. It is also the start of the main road to Jalalabad and further to Peshawar, Pakistan.

The Kabul International Airport is located about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) from the center of the city, next to the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood.

Bagram Airfield is about 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Kabul.   Kabul’s main products include fresh and dried fruit, nuts, Afghan rugs, leather and sheep skin products, furniture, antique replicas, and domestic clothes.

The wars since 1978 have limited the economic productivity but after the establishment of the Karzai administration in late 2001 some progress has been made.

Kabul is over 3,500 years old; many empires have long fought over the valley for its strategic location along the trade routes of South and Central Asia.

Between 1504 and 1526 AD, it served as the headquarters of Babur, builder of the Mughal Empire. It remained under the Delhi Sultanate until 1738, when Nader Shah and his Afsharid forces conquered the Mughal Empire.

After the death of Nader Shah Afsharid in 1747, the city fell to Ahmad Shah Durrani, who added it to his new Afghan Empire. In 1776, Timur Shah Durrani made it the capital of the modern state of Afghanistan.

It was invaded several times by the British-Indian forces during the Anglo-Afghan wars in the 19th century. After the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, the city was air raided by the British Royal Air Force.

Since the Marxist revolution in 1978, the city has been a target of foreign-backed militant groups such as the Mujahideen, Taliban, Haqqani network, Hezbi Islami, and others.

While the Afghan government tries to rebuild the war-torn city, insurgents have continued to stage attacks not only against the Afghan government and US-led NATO forces but also against foreign diplomats and Afghan civilians.

Theory of Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the inherited characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.

Life on Earth originated and then evolved from a universal common ancestor approximately 3.7 billion years ago. Repeated speciation and the divergence of life can be inferred from shared sets of biochemical and morphological traits, or by shared DNA sequences.

These homologous traits and sequences are more similar among species that share a more recent common ancestor, and can be used to reconstruct evolutionary histories, using both existing species and the fossil record.

Existing patterns of biodiversity have been shaped both by speciation and by extinction.   Charles Darwin was the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection.

Evolution by natural selection is a process that is inferred from three facts about populations:

1) more offspring are produced than can possibly survive,

2) traits vary among individuals, leading to differential rates of survival and reproduction, and

3) trait differences are heritable.

Thus, when members of a population die they are replaced by the progeny of parents that were better adapted to survive and reproduce in the environment in which natural selection took place.

This process creates and preserves traits that are seemingly fitted for the functional roles they perform. Natural selection is the only known cause of adaptation, but not the only known cause of evolution.

Other, nonadaptive causes of evolution include mutation and genetic drift.   In the early 20th century, genetics was integrated with Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection through the discipline of population genetics.

The importance of natural selection as a cause of evolution was accepted into other branches of biology. Moreover, previously held notions about evolution, such as orthogenesis and “progress” became obsolete.

Scientists continue to study various aspects of evolution by forming and testing hypotheses, constructing scientific theories, using observational data, and performing experiments in both the field and the laboratory.

Biologists agree that descent with modification is one of the most reliably established facts in science. Discoveries in evolutionary biology have made a significant impact not just within the traditional branches of biology, but also in other academic disciplines (e.g., anthropology and psychology) and on society at large.

Jeans

1. ‘Jeans’ were named after Genoese sailor from italy because they wore clothes made of a blue fabric of cotton, and linen and wool blend. The word ‘denim’ came from the name of a French material that is found in a town called De Nimes in France.

2. Initially jeans were not made from Cotton. In the 18th century, as trade and cotton plantations boomed, cotton become the apt choice. Workers wore jeans because the material was very durable. It was usually dyed with indigo, which was taken from plantations in the Americas and India.

3. In 1853, German Hewish dry goods merchant Levi Strauss started selling blue jeans under the name ‘Levis’ in San Francisco. In 1891, Levi Strauss & Co’s patent for jeans with rivets went public and many companies began to adopt a similar concept.

4. During the Second World War, jeans (called ‘overalls’ at that time) got introduced to the world by American Soldiers, who usually wore them when they were off-duty.

5. The late Hollywood actor James Dean popularised jeans when he starred in the movie, Rebel without a Cause. Thus, Jeans became a symbol of youth rebellion during the 1950s in America. Teens who wore Jeans, were banned from restaurant, Theatre and Schools.

6. Tips For Buying Good Fitting Jeans – Avoid focusing on just size. You need to pay attention to the fit too. – Don’t Choose jeans that are too bulky or baggy. – Make sure that back pockets don’t add bulk or make your bottom look too large because of any embroidered designs or embellishments.

7. May 20 is considered to be the birthday of blue jeans.

8. In India, trousers made of denim which were worn by the sailors of Dhunga came to be known as dungarees.

9. Jeans are the world’s most sought after casual wear. Over 200 pairs of jeans can be made from a bale of cotton.

Butterflies

Butterflies range in size from a tiny 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.

Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.

Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.

The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!

Monarch butterflies journey from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and return to the north again in the spring.

Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.

Representations of butterflies are seen in Egyptian frescoes at Thebes, which are 3,500 years old.

Antarctica is the only continent on which no Lepidoptera have been found.

There are about 24,000 species of butterflies. The moths are even more numerous: about 140,000 species of them were counted all over the world.

The Brimstone butterfly (Gonepterix rhamni) has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.

Some Case Moth caterpillars (Psychidae) build a case around themselves that they always carry with them. It is made of silk and pieces of plants or soil.

The caterpillars of some Snout Moths (Pyralididae) live in or on water-plants.

The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.

The Morgan’s Sphinx Moth from Madagascar has a proboscis (tube mouth) that is 12 to 14 inches long to get the nectar from the bottom of a 12 inch deep orchid discovered by Charles Darwin.

Some moths never eat anything as adults because they don’t have mouths. They must live on the energy they stored as caterpillars.

Many butterflies can taste with their feet to find out whether the leaf they sit on is good to lay eggs on to be their caterpillars’ food or not.

Many insects can carry 50 times their own body weight. This would be like an adult person lifting two heavy cars full of people.

There are over a million described species of insects. Some people estimate there are actually between 15 and 30 million species.

Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.

Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton. This protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don’t dry out.

Point Calimere

Point Calimere, also called Cape Calimere, is a low headland on the Coromandel Coast, in the Nagapattinam district of the state of Tamil Nadu, India.

It is the apex of the Cauvery River delta, and marks a nearly right-angle turn in the coastline. A historic landmark here was the Chola lighthouse, destroyed in the tsunami of 2004.

 The forests of Point Calimere, also known the Vedaranyam forests, are one of the last remnants of the dry evergreen forests that were once typical of the East Deccan dry evergreen forests ecoregion.

The Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, with an area of 24.17 km², was created on June 13, 1967. The sanctuary includes the cape and its three natural habitat types: dry evergreen forests, mangrove forests, and wetlands.

In 1988, the sanctuary was enlarged to include the Great Vedaranyam Swamp and the Talaignayar Reserve Forest, and renamed the Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary, with a total area of 377 km².

Point Calimere homes the endangered endemic Indian Blackbuck and is one of the few known wintering locations of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

It also holds large wintering populations of Greater Flamingos in India. The area is dotted with salt pans and these hold large crustacean populations that support the wintering bird life.

Pesticide residues running off from agricultural fields and shrimp farms has entered the ecosystem and many species have high concentrations of DDT and HCH in their tissue.

Not far from Point Calimere is the mangrove forest of Muthupet.

Point Calimere is also associated with the mythological Hindu epic, The Ramayana. The highest point of the cape, at an elevation of 4 m, is Ramarpatham,”Rama’s feet” in Tamil.

A stone slab bears the impressions of two feet and is understood to be the place where Rama stood and reconnoitered Ravana’s kingdom in Sri Lanka, which lies 48 km. to the south.

Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, proboscideans commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair.

They lived from the Pliocene epoch from around 5 million years ago, into the Holocene at about 4,500 years ago. And were members of the family Elephantidae, which contains, along with mammoths, the two genera of modern elephants and their ancestors.

Description

Like their modern relatives, mammoths were quite large. The largest known species reached heights in the region of 4 m (13 ft) at the shoulder and weights up to 8 tonnes (9 short tons), while exceptionally large males may have exceeded 12 tonnes (13 short tons).

However, most species of mammoth were only about as large as a modern Asian elephant. Both sexes bore tusks. A first, small set appeared at about the age of six months and these were replaced at about 18 months by the permanent set.

Growth of the permanent set was at a rate of about 1 to 6 inches (2.5 to 15 cm) per year.   Based on studies of their close relatives, the modern elephants, mammoths probably had a gestation period of 22 months, resulting in a single calf being born.

Their social structure was probably the same as that of African and Asian elephants, with females living in herds headed by a matriarch, whilst bulls lived solitary lives or formed loose groups after sexual maturity.

Homeopathy

1 – Hippocrates ‘The Father of Medicine’ of Ancient Greece said there were two Laws of Healing: The Law of Opposites and the Law of Similars. Homeopathy treats the patient with medicines using the Law of Similars, orthodox medicine uses the Law of Opposites, e.g. antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, anticonvulsants, antihypertensives, anti-depressants, anti-psychotics.

2 – Homeopathic theories are based on fixed principles of the Laws of Nature which do not change — unlike medical theories which are constantly changing!

3 – Homeopathy is an evidence-based, empirical medicine.

4 – Homeopathy is both an art and a science.

5 – The Homeopathic provings of medicines are a more scientific method of testing than the orthodox model.

6 – Homeopathic medicine awakens and stimulates the body’s own curative powers. The potentized remedy acts as a catalyst to set healing into motion.

7 – Homeopathic medicines work by communicating a current/pattern/frequency of energy via the whole human body to jump start the body’s own inherent healing mechanisms.

8 – Homeopathy assists the body to heal itself, to overcome an illness which brings the patient to a higher level of health. Orthodox medicine suppresses the illness, bringing the patient to a lower level of health.

9 – The homeopathic practitioner endeavours to search for and treat the cause of the disease in order to heal the effect.

10 – Outcomes of homeopathic treatment are measured by the long term curative effects of prescribing and complete eradication of the disease state.

11 – The homeopathic practitioner treats the whole person, believing all symptoms are interrelated and seeks to select a medicine which most closely covers them all.

Elevator

 

There are many myths and misconceptions about elevators. This is because the majority of all elevator equipment is hidden from public view, which thus leaves much to the imagination of a passenger.

The following are some of the most common myths and their corresponding truths:

MYTH – Many people believe elevators are held up by only one rope that can break, leaving passengers in a free falling car.

TRUTH – Elevators are supported by multiple steel cables. Each cable alone can support a fully loaded car. The only elevator fall due to a complete cable system failure occurred during the 1940’s when an airplane crashed into the empire state building and severed all the cables on a particular elevator.

MYTH – Some people believe that an overcrowded elevator will fall.

TRUTH – An overloaded car will normally not move. The doors will stay open and a buzzer may ring until enough people get off of the elevator to reduce the weight.

MYTH – Some people have claimed that they have been in an elevator that fell several floors and then “caught itself”.

TRUTH – This feeling is a mystery. Elevator experts believe people may think this has happened as a result of the following: They boarded an elevator that was traveling in the opposite direction they thought it was traveling. They saw the elevator floor indicator lights flash by quickly which gave the visual impression of falling.

MYTH – Some people believe the hall doors will open when an elevator is not there.

TRUTH – The elevator is designed so that the car controls the opening of the hall door. When the car arrives at a landing, the car door engages the hall door and the car door operator then opens both sets of doors. If the car is not at the landing, it cannot trigger the hall doors to open.

MYTH – Some people believe that if an elevator is stuck between floors that they are in danger of falling and should try to get out.

TRUTH – Attempting to leave the car on your own could result in serious injury. Elevator cars are designed to be “safe rooms”, and the safest place is inside the car. You should ring the alarm and utilize the emergency telephone if the elevator is equipped with one. You should only leave the car with the assistance of professional rescue personnel.

Toothbrush

The toothbrush is an oral hygiene instrument used to clean the teeth and gums that consists of a head of tightly clustered bristles mounted on a handle, which facilitates the cleansing of hard-to-reach areas of the mouth.

Toothpaste, which often contains fluoride, is commonly used in conjunction with a toothbrush to increase the effectiveness of toothbrushing. Toothbrushes are available with different bristle textures, sizes and forms.

Most dentists recommend using a toothbrush labelled “soft”, since hard bristled toothbrushes can damage tooth enamel and irritate the gums.

Toothbrushes have usually been made from synthetic fibers since they were developed, although animal bristles are still sometimes used.

History

A variety of oral hygiene measures have been used since before recorded history. This has been verified by various excavations done all over the world, in which chew sticks, tree twigs, bird feathers, animal bones and porcupine quills were recovered.

The earliest description of a toothbrush was made in a Chinese historical work, dated to approximately 1600 BC. It described a chewing stick, consisting of a twig and a frayed end. Various forms of toothbrush have been used.

Indian medicine (Ayurveda) used the twigs of the neem or banyan tree to make toothbrushes and other oral-hygiene-related products for millennia.

The end of a neem twig is chewed until it is soft and splayed, and it is then used to brush the teeth. In the Muslim world, the usage of miswak—a type of chewing stick consisting of the roots or twigs of the Arak tree (Salvadora persica), which have antiseptic properties—is common practice and dates to pre-Islamic times.

Muhammad popularized the use of miswak and some erroneously believe it’s his invention. Rubbing baking soda or chalk against the teeth has also been common practice in history.

During the 1900s, celluloid handles gradually replaced bone handles in toothbrushes. Natural animal bristles were also replaced by synthetic fibers, usually nylon, by DuPont in 1938.

The first nylon bristle toothbrush, made with nylon yarn, went on sale on February 24, 1938. The first electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, was invented in Switzerland in 1954. Today, nylon is widely used for the bristles and the handles are commonly made from thermoplastic materials.

Kurinji Flower

Kurinji Flower is a gregarious flowering plant hence it blooms once in 12 years. It belongs to the species Strobilanthes. Kurinji Flower is native to Nilgiris, India.

In Asia there are over 200 species of Stroilanthes. There are 150 species in India alone of which 40 species are found in the Western Ghats and the Nilgiris.

Vital statistics of Kurinji Flower

Botanical Name: Strobilanthes kunthiana

Colloquial Name: Kurinji, Kurunji, Neelakurinji

Family: Acanthaceae (Ruellia family)

The Kurinji flower is bright purple-blue in color. The Kurinji flower is bell shape. The kurinji blooms in a clustered manner on a typical inflorescence stocks. The flowering season ranges between August and November with a peak period of late September and October.

Interesting facts related to Kurinji flowers

The name of place Nilgiris (in Tamil Nadu, India) means Blue Mountains. The mountains got their name after NeelaKurinji flower (Neela means blue in Tamil and Malayalam) as they covered the vast hills like blue color during the blooming season.

It has been noticed that there has been an increase in the rock bees during the flowering season.   It is interesting that with the blooming of kurinji flowers Paliyan tribal people calculate their age.

The writers and poets of Sangam age (2nd to 3rd century AD) have expressed the Kurinji flower and the associated mountainous landscape where it blooms as a symbol for the union of lovers.

It has been described vividly by the poets in the ancient Tamil Sangham literature like Ahananuru, Maduraikkanchi and Kurinjipattu.

The ancient Tamil Nadu was once divided into five geographical zone and one of the zones name was called Kurinji.

According to Hindu mythology, Murgan (second son of God Shiva) married Valli, a veda (tribal hunter) girl and wore a Kurinji garland during his wedding ceremony.

Murga is known as Kurinji Andvar (God of Kurinji). There is a famous temple dedicated to Murgan on a hilltop in Kodaikanal.

YOUR TEST TODAY

THE ANS IS IN FIRST WORD OF QUESTION. (MARY)



DISCUSSION VS ARGUMENT

Islam Principles

Monotheism: Islam, as its name means, is peace and the call for full submission to God, the one and only one, with no partner, no son, no father, no companion, no resemblance. This full submission to God leads to peace in yourself and between yourself and the universe that you are part of it.

Muhammad prophecy: Prophet Muhammad is God messenger and prophet to call for Islam.

Quran holy book: Quran, Islam holy book, was revealed by God to Prophet Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel. Quran is the text of God holy words that remained without single letter alteration or addition since Quran revelation to prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) until present and will remain as such until (with God promise) the Day of Judgment. See related question, below, on why Quran was revealed.

Sunnah: Prophet Muhammad sayings, doings, and practices that are recorded and authenticated by sincere early Muslims and followed up by Muslims.

Islam five pillars: These five pillars to be believed and followed up in by all Muslims. Denying any of them intentionally and knowingly by any Muslim gets him/her out of Islam faith. See related question, below, on Islam faith pillars.These five pillars are: 1) witness that no god except the one and only one God (Allah) and Muhammad is his messenger and prophet, 2) performing praying (Salat), 3) pay the alms giving (Zakat), 4) fasting Ramadan (Sawm), 5) and doing pilgrimage (Hajj) by who can afford it.

Faith Principles: To have faith in: God (Allah)  God Angels  God holy books (including Psalms, Torah, the Bible, and Quran)  God prophets (including Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad; peace upon them)  day of Judgment  Destiny

Muslim conduct: To follow the Islam morals guided by the Quran and Prophet Muhammad Sunnah.

Good deeds: Muslim is not only commanded to perform ritual worships but also, and equally important, to do good deeds for the benefit of oneself, family, community, and humanity.

No religion compulsion: You are created free and you have full choice to believe in the religion and principles that you find them correct. Only God, the Creator and the All-Knowing, will judge your choice on the day of Judgment then, in the other eternal life, you go either to Hell or to the Paradise (with God mercy).

Cooperation for mankind goodness: God created people in different races, colors, peoples and tribes, and cultures not to live in conflicts but to compete in doing the good and to cooperate in piety and for mankind benefit.

Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_10_important_principles_of_the_Islam_religion

Socks

Sock is an item of clothing worn on the feet. The foot is among the heaviest producers of sweat in the body, as it is able to produce over 1 US pint (0.47 l) of perspiration per day.

Socks help to absorb this sweat and draw it to areas where air can evaporate the perspiration. In cold environments, socks decrease the risk of frostbite. Its name is derived from the loose-fitting slipper, called a soccus in Latin, worn by Roman comic actors.

History

12th-century cotton sock, found in Egypt. The knitter of this sock started work at the toe and then worked up towards the leg.

The heel was made last and then attached to loops formed while knitting the leg. This practice allowed the heel to be easily replaced when it wore out.

Socks have evolved over the centuries from the earliest models which were made from animal skins gathered up and tied around the ankles.

In the 8th century BC, the Ancient Greeks wore socks from matted animal hair for warmth. The Romans also wrapped their feet with leather or woven fabrics.

By the 5th century AD, socks called “puttees” were worn by holy people in Europe to symbolise purity. By 1000 AD, socks became a symbol of wealth among the nobility.

From the 16th century onwards, an ornamental design on the ankle or side of a sock has been called a clock.

The invention of a knitting machine in 1589 meant that socks could be knitted six times faster than by hand.

Nonetheless, knitting machines and hand knitters worked side by side until 1800.   The next revolution in sock production was the introduction of nylon in 1938.

Until then socks were commonly made from silk, cotton and wool. Nylon was the start of blending two or more yarns in the production of socks, a process that still continues.

In the 8th century, Ancient Greeks wore socks made from animal hair

Ancient Egyptians knitted socks as far back as the 8th century

By 1000AD, socks because a sign of nobility

Cloth was tied around the foot and lower leg during the middle ages and was held up by garter belts

1589, William Lee invented a weaving/knitting machine, creating an easy way for socks to be manufactured quickly

Using the knitting machine, socks were able to be produced 6 times faster than by hand

Prior to the incorporation of nylon into socks, they were primarily made of cotton or wool

“Socks” are derived from the Latin word “soccus” which means light covering of the foot

Old socks are used to make hand puppets

Nuclear medicine

Nuclear medicine is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

In nuclear medicine procedures, radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals.

These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs or cellular receptors.

This property of radiopharmaceuticals allows nuclear medicine the ability to image the extent of a disease process in the body, based on the cellular function and physiology, rather than relying on physical changes in the tissue anatomy.

In some diseases nuclear medicine studies can identify medical problems at an earlier stage than other diagnostic tests.

Nuclear medicine, in a sense, is “radiology done inside out” or “endo-radiology” because it records radiation emitting from within the body rather than radiation that is generated by external sources like X-rays.

Treatment of diseased tissue, based on metabolism or uptake or binding of a particular ligand, may also be accomplished, similar to other areas of pharmacology.

However, the treatment effects of radiopharmaceuticals rely on the tissue-destructive power of short-range ionizing radiation.

In the future nuclear medicine may provide added impetus to the field known as molecular medicine. As understanding of biological processes in the cells of living organism expands, specific probes can be developed to allow visualization, characterization, and quantification of biologic processes at the cellular and subcellular levels.

Nuclear medicine is a possible specialty for adapting to the new discipline of molecular medicine, because of its emphasis on function and its utilization of imaging agents that are specific for a particular disease process.

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country.

It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The city is famous for its harbour as well as its natural setting in the Cape floral kingdom, including such well-known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is also Africa’s most popular tourist destination.

Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was originally developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling (supply) station for Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India, and the Far East.

Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa. Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony.

Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa.

Today it is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, reflecting its role as a major destination for immigrants and expatriates to South Africa.

As of 2007 the city had an estimated population of 3.5 million. Cape Town’s land area of 2,455 square kilometres (948 sq mi) is larger than other South African cities, resulting in a comparatively lower population density of 1,425 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,690 /sq mi).

The city was named the World Design Capital for 2014 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

TIME

Time is the continuing progression of events occurring in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future, and a measure of the durations and frequencies of events and the intervals between them.

Time has long been a major subject of study in religion, philosophy, and science, but defining it in a manner applicable to all fields without circularity has consistently eluded scholars.

Nevertheless, diverse fields such as business, industry, sports, the sciences, music, dance, and the live theater all incorporate some notion of time into their respective measuring systems.

Some simple, relatively uncontroversial definitions of time include “time is what clocks measure” and “time is what keeps everything from happening at once”.

Two contrasting viewpoints on time divide many prominent philosophers. One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe, a dimension in which events occur in sequence.

Sir Isaac Newton subscribed to this realist view, and hence it is sometimes referred to as Newtonian time. Time travel, in this view, becomes a possibility as other “times” persist like frames of a film strip, spread out across the time line.

The opposing view is that time does not refer to any kind of “container” that events and objects “move through”, nor to any entity that “flows”, but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events.

This second view, in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz[14] and Immanuel Kant, holds that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

Time is one of the seven fundamental physical quantities in the International System of Units. Time is used to define other quantities — such as velocity — so defining time in terms of such quantities would result in circularity of definition.

An operational definition of time, wherein one says that observing a certain number of repetitions of one or another standard cyclical event (such as the passage of a free-swinging pendulum) constitutes one standard unit such as the second, is highly useful in the conduct of both advanced experiments and everyday affairs of life.

The operational definition leaves aside the question whether there is something called time, apart from the counting activity just mentioned, that flows and that can be measured.

Investigations of a single continuum called spacetime bring questions about space into questions about time, questions that have their roots in the works of early students of natural philosophy.

Furthermore, it may be that there is a subjective component to time, but whether or not time itself is “felt”, as a sensation or an experience, has never been settled.

Dried Fish

Fresh fish rapidly deteriorates unless some way can be found to preserve it. Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms.

Open air drying using sun and wind has been practiced since ancient times to preserve food. Water is usually removed by evaporation (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then the water is removed by sublimation.

Bacteria, yeasts and molds need the water in the food to grow, and drying effectively prevents them from surviving in the food.

Fish are preserved through such traditional methods as drying, smoking and salting. The oldest traditional way of preserving fish was to let the wind and sun dry it.

Drying food is the world’s oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. The method is cheap and effective in suitable climates; the work can be done by the fisherman and family, and the resulting product is easily transported to market.

History

Salt cod has been produced for at least 500 years, since the time of the European discoveries of the New World. Before refrigeration, there was a need to preserve the codfish; drying and salting are ancient techniques to preserve nutrients and the process makes the codfish tastier.

The Portuguese tried to use this method of drying and salting on several varieties of fish from their waters, but the ideal fish came from much further north.

With the “discovery” of Newfoundland in 1497, long after the Basque whalers arrived in Channel-Port aux Basques, they started fishing its cod-rich Grand Banks.

Thus, bacalhau became a staple of the Portuguese cuisine, nicknamed Fiel amigo (faithful friend). From the 18th century, the town of Kristiansund in Norway became an important place of purchasing bacalhau or klippfisk (literally “cliff fish”, since the fish was dried on stone cliffs by the sea to begin with.)

Since the method was introduced by the Dutchman Jappe Ippes in abt 1690, the town had produced klippfisk and when the Spanish merchants arrived, it became a big industry.

The bacalhau or bacalao dish is sometimes said to originate from Kristiansund, where it was introduced by the Spanish and Portuguese fish buyers and became very popular.

Bacalao was common everyday food in north west Norway to this day, as it was cheap to make. In later years it is more eaten at special occasions.

This dish was also popular in Portugal and other Roman Catholic countries, because of the many days (Fridays, Lent, and other festivals) on which the Church forbade the eating of meat. Bacalhau dishes were eaten instead.

ABOUT JAVA

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems (which has since merged into Oracle Corporation) and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems’ Java platform.

The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities than either C or C++.

Java applications are typically compiled to bytecode (class file) that can run on any Java Virtual Machine (JVM) regardless of computer architecture.

Java is a general-purpose, concurrent, class-based, object-oriented language that is specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible.

It is intended to let application developers “write once, run anywhere” (WORA), meaning that code that runs on one platform does not need to be recompiled to run on another.

Java is as of 2012 one of the most popular programming languages in use, particularly for client-server web applications, with a reported 10 million users.

The original and reference implementation Java compilers, virtual machines, and class libraries were developed by Sun from 1995.

As of May 2007, in compliance with the specifications of the Java Community Process, Sun relicensed most of its Java technologies under the GNU General Public License.

Others have also developed alternative implementations of these Sun technologies, such as the GNU Compiler for Java and GNU Classpath.

Finance

Finance is the study of how investors allocate their assets over time under conditions of certainty and uncertainty. A key point in finance, which affects decisions, is the time value of money, which states that a unit of currency today is worth more than the same unit of currency tomorrow.

Finance aims to price assets based on their risk level, and expected rate of return. Finance can be broken into three different sub categories: public finance, corporate finance and personal finance.

Areas of finance  

Personal finance

Corporate finance

Financial services

Public finance

Capital  

Capital, in the financial sense, is the money that gives the business the power to buy goods to be used in the production of other goods or the offering of a service. (The capital has two types of resources Equity and Debt)

Financial theory

Financial economics

Financial mathematics

Experimental finance

Behavioral finance

Intangible asset finance

A TIE

A tie (British English) or necktie (American English) is a long piece of cloth worn for decorative purposes around the neck or shoulders, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat.

Variants include the ascot tie, bow tie, bolo tie, zipper tie and the clip-on tie. The modern necktie, ascot, and bow tie are descended from the cravat.

Neck ties are generally unsized, but may be available in a longer size. Men and boys wear neckties as part of regular office attire or formal wear.

Neckties can also be worn as part of a uniform (e.g. military, school and waitstaff), whereas some choose to wear them as everyday clothing attire.

Neckties are traditionally worn with the top shirt button fastened, and the tie knot resting comfortably between the collar points.

However, it has become common in recent times for neckties to be worn as a casual item, tied loosely around the neck, nearly always with one or several buttons unfastened.

History

There is an older history of neckwear worn by soldiers (Chinese and Roman), whether as part of a uniform or as an emblem of belonging to a particular group, and some form of neckwear other than the outdoor scarf can be traced intermittently through the centuries.

The modern necktie taken up, then spread by, Western Europe traces back to the time of Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) when Croatian mercenaries from the Croatian Military Frontier in French service, wearing their traditional small, knotted neckerchiefs, aroused the interest of the Parisians.

Due to the slight difference between the Croatian word for Croats, Hrvati, and the French word, Croates, the garment gained the name “cravat”.

The new article of clothing started a fashion craze in Europe where both men and women wore pieces of fabric around their necks. In the late 17th century, the men wore lace cravats that took a large amount of time and effort to arrange.

These cravats were often tied in place by cravat strings, arranged neatly and tied in a bow. Therefore the international necktie day is celebrated on October 18 in Croatia and in various towns throughout the world, e.g. in Dublin, Tübingen, Como, Tokyo, Sydney and other towns.

Types

Cravat

Four-in-hand

Six- and seven-fold ties

Clip-on tie

Types of knots

There are four main knots used to knot neckties. In rising order of difficulty, they are:

four-in-hand knot. The four-in-hand knot may be the most common.

Pratt knot (the Shelby knot)

half-Windsor knot Windsor knot (also erroneously called the “double-Windsor” or, redundantly, “full Windsor”).

The Windsor knot is the thickest knot of the four, since its tying has the most steps.

Designer of Your Future

If you Translate Every Mistake of Your Life into a 'Positive' One,

YOU will Never be a 'Prisoner of Your Past'
but a 'Designer of Your Future'

Large-minded

Definition: (adjective)

Marked by breadth or tolerance of views; broad-minded.

Synonyms: liberal, tolerant.

Ballyhoo

Ectothermic

Definition: (adjective)

Of or relating to an organism that regulates its body temperature largely by exchanging heat with its surrounding

Superfluity

Definition: (noun)

Extreme excess.

Synonyms: overplus, plethora, embarrassment.

Ballyhoo

Definition: (noun)

Blatant or sensational promotion.

Synonyms: hoopla, hype, plug.

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation.

Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.

Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford.

He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has served as the United States Secretary of State since 2009 and was a Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009.

Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state’s education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association.

Clinton was elected president in 1992, defeating incumbent president George H.W. Bush. As president, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.

He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. He implemented Don’t ask, don’t tell, a controversial intermediate step to full gay military integration.

After a failed health care reform attempt, Republicans won control of Congress in 1994, for the first time in forty years.

Two years later, the re-elected Clinton became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term as president.

He successfully passed welfare reform and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children.

Later, he was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in a scandal involving a White House intern, but was acquitted by the U.S.

Senate and served his complete term of office. The Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clinton’s presidency.

Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II. Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work.

Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as prevention of AIDS and global warming.

In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife’s and then Barack Obama’s campaigns for president in 2008.

In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, and after the 2010 earthquake he teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U.S. presidents.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton

The Indian Rupee

The Indian rupee (sign: ; code: INR) is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India.

The modern rupee is subdivided into 100 paise (singular paisa), although this division is now theoretical; as of 30 June 2011, coin denominations of less than 50 paise ceased to be legal tender.

Banknotes are available in nominal values of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 rupees. Rupee coins are available in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 100 and 1000; of these, the 100 and 1000 coins are for commemorative purposes only; the only other rupee coin has a nominal value of 50 paise, since lower denominations have been officially withdrawn.

The Indian rupee symbol (officially adopted in 2010) is derived from the Devanagari consonant “र” (Ra) with an added horizontal bar.

The symbol can also be derived from the Latin consonant “R” by removing the vertical line, and adding two horizontal bars (like the symbols for the Japanese yen and the euro).

The first series of coins with the rupee symbol was launched on 8 July 2011.

The Reserve Bank manages currency in India.The Reserve Bank derives its role in currency management on the basis of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

Recently RBI launched a website Paisa-Bolta-Hai to raise awareness of counterfeit currency among users of the INR.

Moore’s Paradox

Moore’s paradox concerns the putative absurdity involved in asserting a first-person present-tense sentence such as ‘It’s raining but I don’t believe that it is raining’ or ‘It’s raining but I believe that it is not raining’.

The first author to note this apparent absurdity was G.E. Moore. These ‘Moorean’ sentences, as they have become known:

 1.can be true,

 2.are (logically) consistent, and moreover

 3.are not (obviously) contradictions.

The ‘paradox’ consists in explaining why asserting a Moorean sentence is (or less strongly, strikes us as being) weird, absurd or nonsensical in some way.

The term ‘Moore’s Paradox’ is due to Ludwig Wittgenstein, who considered it Moore’s most important contribution to philosophy.

Wittgenstein devoted numerous remarks to the problem in his later writings, which has brought Moore’s Paradox the attention it might otherwise not have received.

Subsequent commentators have further noted that there is an apparent residual absurdity in asserting a first-person future-tense sentence such as ‘It will be raining and I will believe that it is not raining’.

Moore’s Paradox has also been connected to many other of the well-known logical paradoxes including, though not limited to, the liar paradox, the knower paradox, the unexpected hanging paradox, and the Preface paradox.

There is currently no generally accepted explanation of Moore’s Paradox in the philosophical literature.

However, while Moore’s Paradox has perhaps been seen as a philosophical curiosity by philosophers themselves, Moorean-type sentences are used by logicians, computer scientists, and those working in the artificial intelligence community, as examples of cases in which a knowledge, belief or information system is unsuccessful in updating its knowledge/belief/information store in the light of new or novel information.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_paradox

The Discovery Of Artificial Cell

Fracas

Definition: (noun)

Noisy quarrel.

Synonyms: affray, altercation.

Who Is Credited With The Discovery Of Artificial Cell ?

Craig Venter

Viagra Chemical Name: Sildenafil Citrate

1 Bbarrel=159Litre

The Napoleon of India

Alpha is the 1st letter of Greek alphabet.Which is the last ?

Omega

Which ruler of Gupta dynasty is also called the Napoleon of India ?

Samudragupta

The operating system called UNIX is typically used for:

(a) Desktop computers
(b) Laptop computers
(c) Super computers
(d) All of these

Ans: (d)

The biggest salt water lake in the world is:

(a) Aral Sea
(b) Caspian Sea
(c) Ontario
(d) Michigan

Ans: (b)

Latest Bridge Camera

Birth years

1861-James Naismith.
1946-Sally Field.
1968-Jerry Yang.
1970-Ethan Hawke.
1987-Ana Ivanovic.
1988-Emma Stone.

Fujifilm Has Launched Its Latest Bridge Camera, The HS30EXR Which Boasts Of Super Macro Mode Upto 1cm.
The Camera Is Priced At Rs 26,999 in India.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space-based satellite navigation system that provides location and time information in all weather.

Prime Minister of Egypt

Who has been appointed the Prime Minister of Egypt on July 24, 2012 ?

(a) Mohammed Morsi
(b) Kamal Ganzouri
(c) Hesham Qandil
(d) None of them

Ans A

Which African country was formerly known as 'Abyssinia'?

Ethiopia

Baku is the capital city of which country ?

Azerbaijan

Excellent Tips by Warren Buffet

The President Of The Indian National Congress

Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player.

Which mineral is the ore of aluminium ?

(a)  Magnetite
(b) Bauxite
(c) Haematite
(d) Siderite

Ans: (b)

Which Disease Is Known As 'Royal Disease' ?

"Haemophilia".

Sarojini Naidu Baceme The President Of The Indian National Congress In The Year:
1925 (Kanpur).

Gandhiji-1924 (Belgaum).

Lettered

The mountains which are not a part of the Himalayan chain:
(a) Kunlun
(b) Hindukush
(c) Aravalli
(d) Karakoram

Ans: (b)

Lettered

Definition: (adjective)

Highly educated; having extensive information or understanding.

Synonyms: knowledgeable, well-read, learned.

Choose your Word wisely

Choose your Word wisely.

"Did" - Word of Achievement

"Cant" - Word of Defeat

"Should" - Word of Duty

"Will" - Word of Eager

"Can" - Word of Power

In 1997, to which Indian film star did Pakistan Government present its highest civilian award 'Nishan-e-Intiaz' ?

Dilip Kumar

'Kathakali', 'Mohiniaattam' and 'Thullal' dance forms are native of which state ?

Kerala.

A snail can sleep for 3 years

Penicillium

Penicillium camemberti is used in the cheese industry. It imparts a soft texture & a distinct flavour to cheese.

Founder & creator of Hotmail

Who is General Manager of Hewlett Packard (Hp) ?

Ans: Rajiv Gupt

Who is founder & creator of Hotmail ?

Ans: Sabeer Bhatia

Sabeer Bhatia founded Hotmail in which the uppercase letters spelling out HTML- The language used to write the base of a webpage.

Censer

Censer

Definition: (noun)

A container for burning incense (especially one that is swung on a chain in a religious ritual).

Synonyms: thurible.

Maj. Somnath Sharma Was The First Indian Who Was Awarded ?

"Param Vir Chakra".

Hydrozen Gas Is Lightest Gas Among All Gases.

Who Received The Indira Gandhi Prize Of Peace, Disarmament And Development Of The Year 2000 ?

Ans:(Mary Robinson).

Please Save Water

When you first fall in love

Intermit

Definition: (verb)

Cease an action temporarily.

Synonyms: pause, break.

A study on the human brain discovered that when you first fall in love,
your brain experiences panic & anxiety!

The first person to calculate the height of the Mount Everest

A jumbo jet uses 4,000 gallons of fuel to take off.

The human liver performs over 500 functions

Uranus has 27 moons.

Who was the first person to calculate the height of the Mount Everest ?

Radhanath Sikdar

A honey bee has four wings.

The first person to calculate the height of the Mount Everest

A jumbo jet uses 4,000 gallons of fuel to take off.

The human liver performs over 500 functions

Uranus has 27 moons.

Who was the first person to calculate the height of the Mount Everest ?

Radhanath Sikdar

A honey bee has four wings.

Disparage

Disparage

Definition: (verb)

To speak of in a slighting or disrespectful way.

Synonyms: belittle, pick at.

The First Movie To Get Oscar For Best Costume Design?

Ghandhi (1982)

The First Colorized Film Of India ?

"Mughal-e-Azam"