” இந்த தூணுக்கு அடிப்பாகம் எது ….நுனி எது …” ?

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பத்ராசலத்தில் ஸ்ரீராமர் கோயில் திருப்பணி

நடந்து முடிந்தது. கோயில் திருப்பணியில்

கை தேர்ந்த கணபதி ஸ்தபதி அந்த பொறுப்பை

ஏற்றிருந்தார்.

பத்ராசலத்துக்கு யாத்திரையாக வந்திருந்த

மகாபெரியவர்களிடம் “தாங்கள் அவசியம் வந்து

பார்வையிட வேண்டும்.தங்கள் கடாக்ஷம் வேண்டும்”

என அழைத்தார் ஸ்தபதி.பெரியவர்கள் கோதாவரியில்

ஸ்நானத்துக்குச் செல்லும் வழியில் அங்கே

நுழைந்தார்கள்.

கல்தூண் ஒன்றில் சிற்பம் செதுக்கும் வேலை

நடந்து வந்தது.

“இந்தத் தூணுக்கு அடிப்பாகம் எது,நுனிப்பாகம் எது”

என்று கேட்டார்கள் பெரியவர்கள். ஸ்தபதிக்கு ஒரே

திகைப்பு! ‘இதைப் பார்த்தாலே தெரிகிறதே! இப்படி

ஏதோ குழந்தைத்தனமாகக் கேள்வி கேட்கிறார்களே!’

என்று எண்ணியபடி அந்தப் பாகங்களைச் சுட்டிக்

காண்பித்தார்.

“இந்த அடிப்பாகத்தை நுனியாகவும்,நுனியை

அடிப்பாகமாகவும் மாற்றலாமா?”என்று கேட்டார்கள்.

ஸ்தபதிக்கு ஒரே குழப்பமாக இருந்தது.

“செதுக்குவதற்கு முன்னால் ஒவ்வொரு தூணுக்கும்

இதுதான் அடிப்பாகம்,இதுதான் நுனி என்று எப்படித்

தீர்மானம் செய்வாய்” என்று கேட்டார்கள் சுவாமிகள்.

ஸ்தபதி பதில் சொல்லத் தெரியாமல் நின்றார்.

“சுத்தி எடுத்துவா, இதைக் கீழேயிருந்து மேல் வரை

கத்தியால் தட்டு.ஏதாவது தெரிகிறதா பார்”என்றார்கள்.

தட்டியபிறகு ஸ்தபதிக்கு ஏதோ ஒரு சந்தேகம்.

ஆனால் சொல்லத் தெரியவில்லை.

“மீண்டும் ஒருமுறை தட்டு.அதிலிருந்து வரும்

சத்தத்தைக் கவனி” என்றார்கள்.

“கீழே சத்தம் ‘கணீர்’ என்று வருகிறது. மேலே செல்லச்

செல்ல சத்தம் குறைகிறது” என்றார்,ஸ்தபதி.

“மரத்திலே வைரம் பாய்ந்த கட்டை என்பார்கள்.

அது சிகப்பாகக் கெட்டியாக இருக்கும். சுலபமாகப்

பிளக்க முடியாது.அதிலிருந்துதான் மரப்பாச்சி-

மரப்பொம்மை செய்வார்கள்.நீ அதைப்பற்றி

கேட்டிருப்பாய். அதுபோலதான் கல்லிலும்

வைரம் பாய்ந்த பாகம் கெட்டியாய் இருக்கும்.

அதிலிருந்து வெண்கலம் போல ‘கணீர்’ என்று

சத்தம் வரும். அதுவும் கெட்டியாக (அடர்த்தி

நிறைந்ததாக) இருக்கும். அந்தப் பகுதியைத்தான்

அடிப்பாகமாகக் கொள்வார்கள்.

“சத்தம் அதிகம் வரும் பாகம் அடி; குறைவாக

உள்ளது நுனி. நீ சரியாகத்தான் வைத்திருக்கிறாய்.

உனக்கு எல்லாம் தெரிந்திருக்கிறது. சொல்லத்தான்

தெரியவில்லை” என்றார்கள் பெரியவர்கள்.

ஸ்தபதி உடனே சாஷ்டாங்கமாகப் பெரியவர்களின்

காலில் விழுந்து நமஸ்கரித்து, “தங்கள் அருளால்தான்

எல்லாம் நன்றாக அமைய வேண்டும்” என்று

பிரர்த்தித்தார். அப்படியே அமைய ஆசீர்வதித்தார்கள்

பெரியவர்கள்.

எல்லாக் கலைஞர்களுமே இப்படித்தான் முதலில்

சாமான்யமாக மதித்து,கடைசியில்,’இவர்களிடம்

நாம் கற்கவேண்டியது நிறைய இருக்கு’ என்ற

முடிவுக்கு வருவார்கள்.

தெய்வத்துக்கு தெரியாத கலை ஏதும் உண்டா?

Read more: http://periva.proboards.com/thread/8986/#ixzz3WbYK3Z4e

source……. http://www.periva.proboards.com

Natarajan

Most Extreme Runways in the World …

Long lines, terse agents, overpriced food and delays – in the world of travel, airports are notorious for being necessary obstacles standing between travellers and their final destinations. But according to users of the question-and-answer site Quora.com, at the world’s most unique airports, the take-offs and landings make it all worth the ride.

A death-defying descent
Nepal’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport is built for adventurers. Tucked high in the Himalayan town of Lukla, the airport’s 460m runway has a steep 12% incline, making it only accessible to helicopters and small, fixed-wing planes. To the north of the runway, there are mountains, and to the south is a steep, nearly 600m drop, leaving absolutely no room for error.

The terrifying airstrip serves as an entry point for mountain climbers who are keen to tackle the world’s tallest mountain. “This is where most Everest summiters land,” wrote Quora userAmy Robinson. “It is one of the most dangerous airports in the world.”

Perhaps it’s appropriate, then, that this airport was named after the region’s most famous adventurers: Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first people to reach Everest’s summit.

Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Lukla, Himalayas, Nepal (Credit: Credit: Prakash Mathema/Getty)

A harrowing Himalayan runway Credit: Prakash Mathema/Getty)

A runway under water
At high tide, the runway of Scotland’s Barra Airport is nowhere to be seen.

“The airport is unique, being the only one in the world where scheduled flights use a beach as the runway,” wrote Quora user Amit Kushwaha. As such, flight times are dictated by the tide.

Barra Airport, Traigh Mhor beach, Outer Hebrides, Scotland (Credit: Credit: Califer001/Barra Airport/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

A wet and wild take-off at Scotland’s Barra Airport. (Credit: Califer001/Barra Airport/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Located in the shallow bay of Traigh Mhor beach on Barra Island in the Outer Hebrides, the airport’s runways are laid out in a triangular formation and are marked by wooden poles to help guide the Twin Otter propeller planes onto the sand.

A stretch for tropical take-offs
For pilots, landing at the Maldives’ Male International Airportis daunting. The lone asphalt runway – which lies just two metres above sea level – takes up the entire length of Hulhule Island in the North Male Atoll, so a minor miscalculation could send the plane careening off into the Indian Ocean.

Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, Male International Airport, Hulhule Island, Maldives (Credit: Credit: Thinkstock)

Landing on a tropical island in the Maldives. (Credit: Thinkstock)

“[It’s] one of the few airports in the world that begins and ends with water and takes up an entire island,” wrote Quora userPeter Baskerville.

Because Hulhule Island (one of 1,192 coral islands spread over roughly 90,000sqkm) is used mainly for the airport, visitors typically take speedboats to their final destinations once they land.

Hit the brakes
Landing at Juancho E Yrausquin Airport, on the Caribbean island of Saba, “is not for the faint of heart,” wrote Quora userDhairya Manek.

That’s because it is widely regarded as having the shortest commercially serviceable runway in the world – approximately 396m. (Typically, runways are between 1,800m and 2,400m.) That means only small aircraft, which can quickly decrease speed, can land here.

Juancho E Yrausquin Airport, Saba, Caribbean (Credit: Credit: Patrick Hawks/Juancho E Yrausquin Airport/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

The world’s shortest runway. (Credit: Patrick Hawks/Juancho E Yrausquin Airport/Flickr/CC BY 2.0)

Its setting is as beautiful as it is dangerous. “The airport’s runway is located on a cliff that drops into the Caribbean Sea on three sides and is flanked by high hills on the other,” Manek wrote. “Jet airplanes are not allowed to land at the airport due to its incredibly short runway.”

Nerve-racking… yet stunningly beautiful’
At 2,767m above sea level, Colorado’s Telluride Regional Airport is North America’s highest commercial airport. “[It’s] nerve-racking to experience, yet stunningly beautiful,” wrote Quora user Erin Whitlock.

Telluride Regional Airport, Colorado, USA (Credit: Credit: Robert Alexander/Getty)

Telluride’s ‘nerve-racking’ runway. (Credit: Robert Alexander/Getty)

Telluride’s single runway – which sits on a plateau in the Rocky Mountains, next to a heart-stopping, 300m drop to the San Miguel River below – used to be notorious for a giant dip in its centre. But renovations in 2009 made the airstrip safer and made it possible for larger aircraft to land. Today, the airport’sMountain Flying Safety guide advises pilots of single- or light-twin-engine aircraft not to attempt night landings, not to attempt flight if high-altitude winds exceed 30 knots, and not to fly if visibility is less than 15 miles.

A heart-stopping approach
So petrifying was the landing at the now-closed Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong, passengers had a nickname for it: the Kai Tak Heart Attack.

Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong, Kai Tak Heart Attack (Credit: Credit: Frederic J Brown/Getty)

Hong Kong’s heart-stopping approach. (Credit: Frederic J Brown/Getty)

“The Kai Tak Airport no longer exists, but it was one of the wonders of the flying world when it was in operation [between 1925 and 1998],” wrote Quora user Jay Wacker. “It was on a little bit of reclaimed land in a harbour and there were high-rises on both sides. It was a relatively short runway for big planes, and it always felt harrowing when landing on a 747. When you looked out the window during take-off or landing, you felt like you could look into the living rooms of people.”

 Source……..www.bbc.com
Natarajan

The First Website EverMade…

Today I found out what the first website ever made was.  Simply put, it was a website made by the World Wide Web’s creator Tim Berners-Lee, who was working for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).

The first ever website was published on August 6, 1991 and served up a page explaining the World Wide Web project and giving information on how users could setup a web server and how to create their own websites and web pages, as well as how they could search the web for information.  The URL for the first ever web page put up on the first ever website was http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

The First Ever Machine to Run a Web Server.

This link is no longer active and, unfortunately, nobody bothered to make a copy of this original page, which tended to be updated daily anyways.  The earliest version of it that was recorded was in 1992 and a copy of that page can be found here.

The first ever web browser, called WorldWideWeb, was also created by Tim Berners-Lee.  This browser had a nice graphical user interface; allowed for multiple fonts and font sizes; allowed for downloading and displaying images, sounds, animations, movies, etc.; and had the ability to let users edit the web pages being viewed in order to promote collaboration of information.  However, this browser only ran on NeXT Step’s OS, which most people didn’t have because of the high cost of these systems (this company was owned by Steve Jobs, so you can imagine the cost bloat ;-)).

In order to provide a browser anyone could use, the next browser he developed was much simpler and, thus, versions of it could be quickly developed to be able to run on just about any computer, pretty much regardless of processing power or operating system.  It was a bare-bones inline browser (command line / text only), which didn’t have most of the features of his original browser, but at least could be used on pretty much any computer out there at the time and allowed people to access the information on the web.

The first web server was also written by Tim Berners-Lee called CERN HTTPd, the latter part standing for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol daemon”.   For those not familiar, a daemon is simply a program that more or less runs in the background on a system doing whatever it is programmed to do; in this case, listening for and responding to requests for web pages that exist on the machine it is running on; thus this daemon would be called a “server”.

Source…….www.todayifoundout.com

Natarajan

Unique Kailas Temple @ Ellora Caves Complex….!!!

This is the world famous Kailasa temple at Ellora and let’s look objectively into who could have built this amazing structure. By the end of this video, I hope you will agree with me that our history is completely wrong, and that this temple was built by a very advanced civilization.

What is so special about this temple? This temple was not constructed by adding stone blocks, but an entire mountain was carved to create this temple. This is the only example in the whole world where a mountain was cut out from the top, to create a structure. In all the other temples and caves, even in Ellora and the rest of the world, the rock was cut from the front and carved as they went along. The whole world has followed a rock cutting technique called “cut-in monolith” while Kailasa temple is the only one that has used the exact opposite technique called “cut-out monolith”.

To see why this rock cutting technique is so different, let’s take a look at this pillar that is over 100 feet tall. See how small human beings look when compared to this pillar. Normally, to create such a huge pillar, it would take years of work, carving accurately on the huge rock. But this pillar was carved by scooping out all the pieces of mountain around it. You can imagine the amount of rock, which has been removed to create this pillar.

Historians and archaeologists are confused because of the sheer amount of rock that was removed in this temple. Archaeologists confirm that over 400,000 tons of rock had to be scooped out, which would have taken not years, but centuries of human labor. Historians have no record of such a monstrous task and they think that it was built in less than 18 years.

Let us do a simple math and see if historians could be right. I am going to assume that people worked every day for 18 years and for 12 hours straight with no breaks at all. I am going to ignore rainy days, festivals, war time and assume that people worked like robots ceaselessly. I am also going to ignore the time taken to create intricate carvings and complex engineering design and planning and just focus on the removal of rock.

If 400,000 tons of rock were removed in 18 years, 22,222 tons of rock had to be removed every year. This means that 60 tons of rock was removed every day, which gives us 5 tons of rock removed every hour. I think we can all agree, that is not even possible today to remove 5 tons of rock from a mountain, every hour. Not even with all the so called advanced machines that we have. So, if it is not humanly possible, was it done by humans at all? Was this created with the help of extraterrestrial intelligence?

Now, forget about creating such an extraordinary structure. Can human beings at least destroy this temple? In fact, Aurangzeb a Muslim king employed a thousand workers to completely demolish this temple. In 1682, he ordered that that the temple be destroyed, so that there would be no trace of it. Records show that a 1000 people worked for 3 years, and they could only do a very minimal damage. They could break and disfigure a few statues here and there, but they realized it is just not possible to completely destroy this temple. Aurangzeb finally gave up on this impossible task.

Note that this attempted destruction is very similar to another mysterious structure called The Menkaure’s pyramid in Egypt. Another Muslim ruler wanted all the pyramids to be destroyed, and started his work from the Menkaure’s pyramid. After years of trying, he was only able to make a small dent on the pyramid. He gave up too. Were all these indestructible structures around the world created by extraterrestrials? Is that why human beings are not even able to destroy them?

In fact, archaeologists agree that Kailasa temple was created before any other temple in the Ellora cave complex. Could this have been built centuries before human beings started carving other temples nearby? Is this why the architecture, the design, and the size is so much better and bigger than other temples? If it was built by humans, it is logical to expect that the rock cutting techniques and design would become better over time. People would gain more experience and knowledge and make better structures in the future. However, the Kailasa temple is the oldest and the biggest temple carved with engineering perfection.

Unlike other temples, the Kailasa is the only temple that is visible from the air. Out of 34 temples, all carved side by side, Kailasa stands out and you can see it while flying over it. Is this just a coincidence? Or was it designed for people to see it from the air, like Nazca lines of Peru? Even on Google earth, the aerial view of Kailasa temple clearly shows an X mark. This is how it looks from the top; you can see a circular design that is studded with 4 lions that create this huge X mark. Was this created as a signal for extraterrestrials, who can spot the location while flying?

Source……..www.you tube.com

Natarajan

Harvard, IIT Graduates are Tea Sellers too….!!!

An increasing number of b-school graduates are exploring tea-based services and products for businesses and some of them have tasted success too.

Harvard, IIT graduates are tea sellers tooAmuleek Singh Bijral had some of the best offers from the corporate world after graduating from Harvard Business School. But those offers weren’t his cup of tea; so, Bijral did something that surprised even his closest friends — he set up Chai Point, an online tea selling business in Bengaluru and Noida five years ago.

Bijral obviously read the tea leaves well quite early in his career.

Chai Point, which received Rs 12 crore from Saama Capital, is now looking to raise its next round of funding worth Rs 80-100 crore to finance plans to expand to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai.

Chai Point has 50 stores and claims to have sold 10 million cups of tea.

Bijral says there is no single organised player in India’s Rs 33,000-crore chai market and Chai Point targets white-collar workers across the country who are fast on technology and love the new experience of sipping tea.

The idea is catching on — Chai Point’s latest app has seen about 12,000 downloads in the last three months.

In the backdrop of rising real estate prices, Chai Point is keen to do a hub-spoke model in each city it plans to enter.

Bijral isn’t alone. Nitin Saluja, founder of Chaayos, ventured into the business after he started missing home-made ginger tea during his days in the US.

In 2012, the IIT Mumbai graduate opened Chaayos in the National Capital Region along with IIT Delhi’s Raghav Verma.

Both are in discussions to take the next leap in scalability and are in talks with venture capital investors to raise Rs 30-40 crore.

Investors seem to be getting interested in putting in more money, with good reason.

Ankur Bisen, senior vice-president, at retail consulting firm Technopak, says, “Tea-based cafes have seen interest because Chaayos and Chai Point have demonstrated to investors that they can grow beyond local catchment areas to different cities,” Bisen adds.

Replicating the success of Starbucks and Cafe Coffee Day through the chai business is an idea that has inspired many graduates from India’s premier institutes.

A year ago, Pankaj Judge, an IIT Kharagpur graduate, opened his first outlet of Chai Thela in Noida with a plan to enter Delhi and Gurgaon.

From aam aadmi chai to adrak chai, to tulsi chai, Chai Thela offers 30-plus varieties of tea through seven outlets in Noida.

“We want to do with chai what Starbucks and Cafe Coffee Day did with coffee,” Judge says, explaining why the potential is huge.

On average, each of his outlets sells 400-500 cups of tea per day.

Chai Thela, which focuses on IT parks, hospitals and college campuses, is in discussions with angel investors to raise Rs 1 crore now and another Rs 12 crore after six months.

Recently, another firm TeaBox, an online retailer of premium tea, raised Rs 36 crore in fresh funds led by venture capital firm JAFCO Asia and existing investor Accel Partners.

TeaBox, which eyes international markets, plans to expand its footprint to the US, China, Japan, etc.

“The high disposable income as well as influence of western culture have changed the lifestyle of Indians who like to consume high-end tea in the same way as they enjoy a good wine,” Kaushal Dugar, founder, TeaBox, says.

Bisen says when a concept in the food services space reaches a decent size and show results, it starts attracting the fancy of investors.

Agrees Prashanth Prakash of Accel India. “Most tea retailers continue to rely on a

legacy value chain consisting of multiple middlemen,” he says.

“But the renewed interest in category is bringing in a new set of retailers like Chaayos, who essentially would continue to be a part of the same set-up,” he adds.

Lead image used for representational purposes only

Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

Source……….. http://www.rediff.com

Natarajan

” எத்தர்கள் எத்தனை விதம் ….Eiffel Tower ” விலைக்கு வந்த கதை …” !!!

 

‘உலக மகா எத்தர்கள்’ நூலிலிருந்து  ………….

:பாரிஸ் நகர இரும்பு வியாபாரிகளான அந்த ஐந்து பேரும், அந்நகர பொதுக் கட்டடங்களைப் பராமரிக்கும் அரசு அதிகாரியான விக்டர் லஸ்ட்விக் சொல்வதை, வியப்புடன் கேட்டுக் கொண்டிருந்தனர். ‘பாரிஸ் நகரின் பெருமையை உலகுக்கு உணர்த்தும் சின்னமான, ‘ஈபில் டவர்’ விலைக்கு வருகிறது. அதைப் பராமரிக்க ஆகும் செலவு அதிகமாவதால், அரசு கஷ்டப்படுகிறது. எனவே, அதை அடியோடு இடித்து அப்புறப்படுத்த முடிவெடுத்துள்ளது. அதற்கு குத்தகை எடுப்பவர்கள் தங்கள், ‘டெண்டர்’களை முத்திரையிட்ட உறைகளில், தனித்தனியே கொடுத்து விட வேண்டும்…’ என்றார் லஸ்ட்விக்.
ஐந்து வியாபாரிகளும், மனக் கணக்குப் போட்டனர். ‘ஈபில் டவரை உடைத்தால், மிக உயர் ரக இரும்பு, 7,000 டன் கிடைக்குமே… என்ன ஒரு அதிர்ஷ்டம்!’ என நினைத்து மகிழ்ந்து, ஐந்து வியாபாரிகளும், ‘டெண்டர்’ அனுப்பி வைத்தனர். மறுநாளே, ஆண்ட்ரி பாஸன் என்பரின் டெண்டர் எடுத்துக் கொள்ளப்பட்டிருப்பதாகவும், பணத்தைக் கட்ட வேண்டும் என்றும் தகவல் சொல்லப்பட்டது.
பணத்தை தயார் செய்து விட்டார் பாஸன். ஆனால், அவருக்கு ஒரு சந்தேகம்… ஈபில் டவரை இடிப்பது, டெண்டர் எடுப்பது போன்ற மிக முக்கியமான விஷயத்தை ஒரு அரசு அலுவலகத்தில் கூப்பிட்டுப் பேசாமல், ஓட்டல் அறையில் ஏன் பேசுகிறார் என்று!
மறுநாள், விக்டர் லஸ்ட்விக்கை அவரது அரசு அலுவலகத்தில் சந்தித்த போது, இச்சந்தேகத்தைக் கேட்டார் பாஸன். உடனே விக்டர், தன் உதவியாளரை வெளியே அனுப்பி விட்டு, ‘ஒரு அரசு ஊழியன் வாழ்க்கை இருக்கிறதே… அது ரொம்ப மோசம்; இதுபோன்ற பெரிய, ‘டெண்டர்’ விஷயங்களில், நாங்கள் பல கோடீஸ்வரர்களைக் கூப்பிட்டு, விருந்து கொடுக்க வேண்டும்; அன்றைக்கு பிரமாதமாக ஆடை அணிந்து, ஓடி ஓடி உபசரிக்க வேண்டும்; இவற்றை எல்லாம் இந்த அரசு கொடுக்கும் பிச்சைக் காசிலேயே முடிக்க வேண்டும். முடிகிற காரியமா? அது தான், இந்த மாதிரி, குத்தகை விடும்போது…’ என்று கூறி, ‘ஹி… ஹி…’ என்று சிரித்தார்.
புரிந்து கொண்ட பாஸன், ‘டெண்டர்’ கொடுத்ததற்காக அதிகாரிக்கு, ஒரு பெரிய தொகையைக் கொடுத்து விட்டு, ராஜநடையில் வெளியேறினார்.
ஒரு மணி நேரத்தில், ‘செக்’கைப் பணமாக்கிக் கொண்டு தலைமறைவாகி விட்ட விக்டர், அதன் பின், இன்று வரை போலீசிடம் பிடிபடவே இல்லை. !!!

Source………www.dinamalar.com

Natarajan

” Vishyanand”…A Planet Named After Viswanathan Anand …!!!

Vishyanand: Planet named after Indian chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand

The Indian Chess grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand adds another feather in his cap with a minor planet being named after him. The planet was discovered back in 1988 but had not been formally named until recently. The news about a minor planet being named after him should excite Anand who recently fell to Magnus Carlsen in the recent World Chess Championship.

The minor planet is located roughly between the orbits of planets Mars and Jupiter. The discovery of the planet happened on October 10, 1988 thanks to the works of Kenzo Suzuki in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture in Japan.

Typically, the discoverer retains the rights to suggest a name for the discovered minor planet for 10 years. However, the final authority to assign a name to a minor planet rests with a committee within the International Astronomical Union.

When time came to formally name the numbered minor planet discovered in 1988, Michael Rudenko of Minor Planet Center, a committee of the International Astronomical Union, decided to give the minor planet the name of the chess grandmaster Anand.

Why Anand got his name the planet

According to Rudenko, the idea of naming the numbered minor planet after Anand was actually his own. However, he took some matters into consideration in arriving at the name. Rudenko selected Anand because he considered him a great chess player. Further to that, he selected him because he is an astronomy enthusiast.

How the naming happened

Therefore, when it came to giving the numbered minor planet a formal name, Rudenko proposed “Vishyanand”. The name itself was based on some set of rules that govern the naming of such objects. For one, the rule requires that the proposed name should have 16 characters or less. The naming rule also requires that the proposed name should not have spaces.

In addition to the name proposal, a brief citation that explains the reason for the proposed name should be supplied. Rudenko did all that to get “Vishyanand” through as the name of the numbered minor planet.

Anand is excited

Anand tweeted about his excitement for a planet being named after him. He also thanked Rudenko for taking the trouble to get his name to the outer space.

Source……… www .pc-tablet.co.in

Natarajan

“Why Bread Goes stale Six Times Faster in the Fridge than at Normal Room Temperature” ?

Today I found out bread goes stale about six times faster in the refrigerator then when kept at room temperature.

On the surface, this might seem counter intuitive; after all, everyone knows if you want to keep food fresher longer, you put it in the fridge.  The problem stems from what bread is made out of, specifically starch molecules, and how those starch molecules react in certain conditions.

Before we begin to dissect why bread goes stale faster in the fridge, it’s important to know what bread is actually made of.  Breads are essentially networks of wheat flour protein molecules (called gluten) and starch molecules.  Suspended in this network of molecules is carbon dioxide that is produced by the fermentation of yeast inside the dough. This gives bread its fluffy, foam-like texture.  Begin to play around with the amounts of these ingredients and other fancy tasting additives and you can get many different types of textures and tastes.

The starch inside of this mixture has its own characteristics.  Starch molecules are made of two base components, both are long chain sugar molecules.  Glucose (sugar) is classified as a monosaccharide, meaning one glucose unit. But if you link these units together, they can become a polysaccharide or complex carbohydrate (be afraid Atkins lovers, be very afraid).  The two units are Amylose and Amylopectin. Amylose, which usually consists of about 10,000 sugar units, is built like a narrow bundle of reeds with all its glucose units arranged in straight parallel lines.  Amylopectin, which usually consists of about 20,000 glucose units, have a more tree-shrub like appearance with its glucose units clumped together going in all directions.  Plant starch is typically 20-30% amylose and 70-80% amylopectin.

When heated up in the presence of moisture or water molecules, for instance placing the bread dough in the oven, the starch molecules weaken and allow water molecules to enter, or get in between the chains of the sugar molecules and join with them.  This swells the starch granule and begins to soften it up, making it oh so warm and squishy!  In the case of bread dough, the moisture can come from two sources, either the wheat protein in the bread itself or the water added to the mixture that makes up the dough.  Once cooling begins, the moment you take it out of the oven, the process begins to reverse itself and the starch molecules begin to “dry out” or crystallize and harden again, a process known as retrogradation.  Thus, the slow process that makes croutons what they are begins (thank you Outback Steakhouse, thank you!)  Another example of a similar process in food can be observed by leaving honey uncovered on the counter.  Over time, it would dehydrate and all you would be left with is pure granules of hard white glucose molecules (sugar crystals).

So then why does this retrogradation process occur more rapidly in the refrigerator?   Although scientists have made considerable progress in dissecting the staling process, it still is not yet wholly understood.  The leading theory is that the dehydration reaction, condensation, is the main mediator in the dehydration process in this case.  Whatever the mediator, the cause of the staleness is the same; water molecules detach themselves from the starch molecules and the starch molecules begin to take their original shape and harden again.  The cool temperatures of the refrigerator make the dehydration process happen more quickly, specifically, about six times as fast via the process listed above.  This is why fruit and vegetables can last longer in the refrigerator.  In their case, the dehydration process slows the natural degradation caused by the presence of water molecules.

” A college maths professor brilliantly pranked his students …” !!! Watch How…

A college maths and computer science professor at Biola University in California had the best April Fools’ Day prank of 2015.

The YouTube video, which is going viral on Reddit, shows professor Matthew Weathers giving a lecture to his class with a projector. At the end of his lecture, he pulls up a YouTube video of one of his classes to show the students that they’re also available online.

Unexpectedly, his video counterpart picks a fight with the real Weathers, and they begin to argue with each other.

Weathers goes behind and “into” the screen himself where the pair begin to exchange blows and throw icons, some of which even fly out into the real world.

Eventually, video Weathers wins and traps the real Professor Weathers. The video professor Weathers deletes his competition and then comes out of the screen at the end.

His students went crazy for it. Watch the full video below.

Weathers said that he used Adobe Premier and After Effects to create the on-screen skit that the students saw, and spent a lot of time practicing to make sure everything was perfect — what we see in the video is exactly what happened in class.

“I practiced about 20 times to get the timing right,” Weathers told Reddit. “But yes, I also had audio cues that helped a lot.”

The video, which was filmed on March 31st since Weathers didn’t have class on April 1st, so far has been viewed almost 2 million times on YouTube.

This is not Weathers’s first April Fools-inspired maths class. Last year, he went “inside the screen” again to buy a book on Amazon and back in 2010 he did a skit where his shadow kept messing up his presentation.

His videos have been so popular that he even uploaded a tutorial on how to do it.

As for future pranks, Weathers told Reddit, “I haven’t figured that out yet… we’ll see what happens on April 1, 2016.”

You can see more of Matthew Weathers’s videos here.

Source:::: http://www.businessinsider.com.au

Natarajan

” Curiosity Sees Prominent Mineral Veins on Mount Sharp, Mars…”

This View from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows a network of two-tone mineral veins at an area called “Garden City” on lower Mount Sharp.

The veins combine light and dark material. The veins at this site jut to heights of up to about 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) above the surrounding rock, and their widths range up to about 1.5 inches (4 centimeters). Figure 1 includes a 30-centimeter scale bar (about 12 inches).

Mineral veins such as these form where fluids move through fractured rocks, depositing minerals in the fractures and affecting chemistry of the surrounding rock. In this case, the veins have been more resistant to erosion than the surrounding host rock.

This scene is a mosaic combining 28 images taken with Mastcam’s right-eye camera, which has a telephoto lens with a focal length of 100 millimeters. The component images were taken on March 18, 2015, during the 929th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover’s Mastcam. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project’s Curiosity rover.

Feature: Curiosity Eyes Prominent Mineral Veins on Mars
More information and image products

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS 

Source:::: http://www.nasa.gov

Natarajan