learnings – Page 76 – Take off with Natarajan

The Bridge at Q’eswachaka….Bridge Building at its Best…

August 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Every year, local communities on either side of the Apurimac River Canyon use traditional Inka engineering techniques to rebuild the Q’eswachaka Bridge. The entire bridge is built in only three days. The bridge has been rebuilt in this same location continually since the time of the Inka.

This video was produced by Noonday Films for the National Museum of the American Indian exhibition, “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire,” on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., from June 26, 2015,

WHAT DOES GANGNAM STYLE MEAN?…..

August 21, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Gangnam” is an area in South Korea, specifically a small area in Seoul, South Korea, home to about 1% of the population of Seoul and is about the size of Manhattan. It is known for its wealthy, “new money”, inhabitants. (The region has only very recently become extremely upscale, with a gradual upswing in the last half century or so. Before that, there really wasn’t much there but farmland.)

How wealthy do you have to be to live in Gangnam? The average price of an apartment there costs around 3/4 of a million dollars per year. For reference, the average South Korean household’s annual income is about $40,000.

So “Gangnam Style” simply is referencing this sort of elite, “new money”, wealthy culture and lifestyle that has sprung up around the region. As pop critic Kim Zakka, who lives in Seoul, said “Gangnam inspires both envy and distaste. Gangnam residents are South Korea’s upper class, but South Koreans consider them self-interested, with no sense of nobility.”

Or, as Park Jae-sang (PSY, who himself was from a wealthy family and grew up close to Gangnam) said, Gangnam residents are seen as “good-looking because of plastic surgery, stylish because they can splurge on luxury goods, and slim thanks to yoga and personal trainers.” Sounds a bit like wealthy people from Los Angeles…

He further states,

People who are actually from Gangnam never proclaim that they are—it’s only the posers and wannabes that put on these airs and say that they are “Gangnam Style”—so this song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying so hard to be something that they’re not.

“Oppan Gangnam style” literally means “Older Brother has Gangnam style”. He’s not talking to his little sister, though. The “oppa” / “older brother” usage here is common in South Korea, not unlike “daddy” in certain parts of the US, but in this case specifically being a term that shows respect and affection- used by women about certain older men. Basically, it just means “boyfriend” or “close, guy friend who is older than you” in this sense, though can also be used to literally mean an older brother in your family.

Koreans also have a similar moniker for males to use instead of “oppa”- namely, “hyung”, meaning “older brother”, which can again be used to refer to your literal older brother or be used figuratively to refer to a slightly older male who you aren’t related, but you are close to. Similarly, there is an “older sister” nickname, “nuna”. These titles can also be used in addition to the person’s name itself, such as “Park oppa” or “Bong Cha nuna”. Again, this is all meant as a way to show affection and respect.

As to the name of the region, “Gangnam”, it literally translates to “South of the River”.

The Gangnam Style music video itself on YouTube seems destined to be the first video posted there to pass 1 billion views. As of the publishing of this article (December 7), it has received just over 900 million views, up close to 200 million views from about three weeks ago. So by the end of 2012, the Gangnam Style video should cross the 1 billion views threshold.

Probably the most amazing thing about this Gangnam Style fad is that, given that the video is 4 minutes and 12 seconds long, if all 900 million times it’s been viewed it was viewed to its completion (not even considering all the spinoffs and re-postings), that means approximately 63 million man-hours (or about the number of hours 30,288 workers spend working full time-40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, with no holidays or vacation) have been spent watching a video of a guy mimicking riding a horse to a beat, with the vast majority of those who’ve watched it not understanding much of anything he’s saying.

Bonus Facts:

Gangnam Style has reportedly made Park Jae-sang (PSY, short for “Psycho”) over $8 million so far from digital downloads and YouTube advertising alone, but it has only made him about $60,000 from South Koreans buying the song. Despite the apparent lack of overt popularity in South Korea, PSY has been given a 4th Class Order of Cultural Merit by the South Korean Ministry of Culture for “increasing the world’s interest in Korea”.
Even more amazing than the Gangnam Style man-hours is that videos on Justin Bieber’s YouTube channel have been watched about 3.2 billion times. Even if we assume a very conservative average length of video of 2 minutes, on the Bieber channel alone (let alone all the spinoffs posted on YouTube and the Bieber videos posted elsewhere), we could well be looking at 106+ million man hours spent watching Bieber

At its peak, there were about 400,000 people working on the Apollo program, which ran from 1961 to 1972 and put a man on the Moon in 1969. We can get an approximate upper bound on man-hours during the Apollo program up to the Moon landing if we assumed all 400,000 people worked 40 hours a week every week from 1961 to Armstrong stepping on the Moon (which is a gross over exaggeration, as the program started with just 10,000 people and many involved had significantly lesser roles. Of course, I’d imagine many involved put in a lot more hours per week than 40, but it’s still probably a gross over estimate… work with me here people ;-)). This upper bound comes out at about 6.7 billion man hours. The real number is probably significantly less, but with this upper bound number and the Gangnam Style + the conservative estimate on Bieber’s YouTube channel man-hours watched, that would account for about 3% of the man hours needed to go from just barely being able to put a man in space, to putting a man on the Moon. If only we could harness the power of Bieber for good…
Incidentally, PSY just recently signed on with Schoolboy Records, the same label Justin Bieber is under. If they ever appear in a YouTube video together…

Source…www.todayifoundout.com

Natarajan

Take a look inside India’s brand new Ghost Airport ….Jaisalmer Airport….

August 20, 2015August 21, 2015Natarajan1 Comment

Located in northwestern India, Jaisalmer Airport was completed more than two years ago at a cost of $17 million. At a time when the spanking new facility should be welcoming hundreds of thousands of passengers per year, it sits abandoned. In fact, the airport has yet to operate a single day.

According to Reuters, Jaisalmer is one of more than 200 no-frills airports planned by India’s previous government. They were meant to encourage travel and commerce in far-flung parts of the Indian sub-continent.

However, in many cases, local political greed won out over reason and airports were placed in locations where there simply isn’t enough demand for air travel to warrant a full-scale airport.

In fact, Jaisalmer is one of eight airports the Indian Government has constructed over the past decade at a cost of more than $50 million to have never entered service, Reuters reports.

Why aren’t airports such Jaisalmer in business? According to Reuters, one reason is because airlines can’t open routes to these small under-developed areas. The domestic Indian market is incredibly competitive and for a route to have any chance of profitability, it has to either fly to or from one of the country’s mega cities.

This means that in order for an airline to open a route to Jaisalmer, it has to originate in a major hub such as Delhi or Mumbai. However, airports in these cities are incredibly congested and the precious space there is at these facilities are prioritized for more profitable destinations. As a result, the less populated locales remain perpetually underserved.

Here’s closer look at India’s brand new ghost airport.
It’s a desert town known for its tourism and natural beauty. However, it’s also sparsely populated.

According to the Economic Times, the airport was supposed to open for business in August 2013.

ECONOMIC TIMES

But it never did.

Today, the abandoned Jaisalmer Airport sits as a reminder of the massive waste caused by poorly planned development.

Here’s what the airport looks like today

The arrival and departure lanes are empty. They should be filled with buses, cars, and Taxis.

This door leads to the check-in area.

No tourists here.

This baggage carousel sits idle.

As are these baggage carts.

No one has ever used these dusty seats.

These dusty bathroom sinks are also brand new.

Outside, the desert environment is taking its toll on the airport.

The roads are in poor condition.

The solar panels lay dormant.

The airport’s only visitor on this day is a stray dog.

Bones from a dead animal sit on a road leading to the airport.

Someone mounted satellite dishes to the outer wall of the airport.

However, Jaisalmer Airport is not beyond saving. In fact, from afar, it looks like quite a nice facility.

Source….

BENJAMIN ZHANG in http://www.businessinsider.com

http://www.ndtv.com www. stuff.co.nz

Natarajan

Amazing footage debunks the 200-year-old theory of how hummingbirds get their food …

August 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Hummingbirds are named for the sound of their rapidly beating wings, but now their tongues have captured scientists’ attention.

These tiny birds can suck 10 drops of nectar out of a flower every 15 milliseconds, researchers at the University of Connecticut recently discovered. For nearly two centuries, scientists have thought the birds used a much slower “wicking” technique, LiveScience reported.

It turns out that hummingbird tongues do not wick – they pump

By capturing video footage of 18 species of hummingbirds drinking from artificial “flowers,” the research team – led by research scientist Alejandro Rico-Guevara, ecology and evolutionary biology professor Margaret Rubega, and mechanical engineering associate professor Tai-Hsi Fan – found that the birds’ tongues have tube-like grooves that rest in a collapsed state, but open and fill with nectar upon contact with flowers.

In previous studies, captive birds sipped nectar from feeders in laboratories containing far more liquid than a real flower. This time, scientists filmed wild hummingbirds feeding from transparent feeders that mimic the shape, nectar amounts, and calorie concentrations of hummingbirds’ favorite flowers.

The study has yielded the largest data set of any hummingbird study to date – the result of five years’ work. Dr. Rico-Guevara told LiveScience that building the transparent “flowers” was a challenging but essential part of the research, since “when the [hummingbird’s] bill goes inside a flower, you don’t see what is happening inside at all.” The design used transparent tubes filled with artificial nectar, with cameras set up nearby.

The next challenge was observing different species of hummingbirds. The only hummingbird found east of the Mississippi is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, so the researchers had to go further afield to gather a broad sample. By setting up shop in a number of locations across the Americas – including Connecticut, Texas, California, Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia – they gathered footage of 32 different birds from 18 different species.

“I tried to get as many different kinds of hummingbirds as possible,” Rico-Guevara told LiveScience. “Not just to get different species, but [also] the crazy ones, the extreme ones, just to be able to generalize what happens.”

The discovery of the micro-pump method of feeding may lead scientists to revisit previous hummingbird research, Rico-Guevara said. Earlier studies indicate that some flowers produce diluted nectar, which would be helpful for hummingbirds feeding using capillary “wicking” as previously assumed, but which is unnecessary for micro-pump feeding.

The new study was published Wednesday in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

“Our research shows how they really drink and provides the first mathematical tools to accurately model their energy intake,” Rico-Guevara said in the news release, “which will in turn inform our understanding of their foraging decisions and ecology

Check out footage of the feeding below:

Source….Sarah Caspari ….www.businessinsider.com and http://www.youtube.com

Read the original article on Christian Science Monitor.

Natarajan

Message for the Day…” Place all Your burden on God…You will then be Care-free and Grief-free…”

August 20, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Sathya Sai Baba

You are not a despicable creature, born in slime or sin, to eke out a drab existence and be extinguished forever. You are immortal and eternal. So when the call comes, respond with your whole heart. The Principle of Divinity must be experienced, for it is beyond expressions and explanation. The richness, fullness and depth of that experience can never be communicated in words. You must feel that it is your highest destiny to attain that experience. You are a mixture of Deha and Deva – the mortal and the immortal. Liberation means stoppage of grief and acquisition of joy. All that you have to do is to place all your burdens on God. It makes you care-free and grief-free. Then you will take everything as a divine play of the Lord you love and live in bliss just as He is, when His plans are going through!

Simple Ways You Can Test Common Food Items For Dangerous Adulterants….

August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

With the alarming rate at which adulteration of food is increasing in India, it is not an exaggeration to say that almost nothing that we eat/drink daily is safe for our health. And what is further astonishing is that all the food items that I am referring to, make an essential part of our daily balanced diet.

Now while we cannot be really sure of when this flourishing business of food adulteration will reach its dead-end, it falls upon us to keep the safety of our health intact. And one of the most potential ways we can do so is by performing simple tests to see whether or not the food item is fit for consumption.

1. Milk

Test for your safety

Put a drop of milk on a slanted surface. If the drop leaves a white trail, it’s a sign of pure milk. But, if it fails to leave the trail, it is adulterated.
If the milk turns yellow when heated, and leaves a bitter and soapy kind of after taste, take it as a sure shot sign that it has synthetic substances added to it.

2. Coffee powder

Test for your safety

Sprinkle a small amount of coffee powder on the surface of water contained in a glass. The coffee will remain afloat whereas the chicory in it will sink to the bottom leaving behind a coloured trail.

3. Chilli powder

Test for your safety

Mix a spoonful of chilli powder in a glass full of water. If you spot a formation of coloured water extract, it is because the chilli powder is adulterated.

4. Turmeric powder

Test for your safety

Add a few drops of concentrated HCL in a test tube containing turmeric powder. Appearance of pink, purple, or violet hues in the mixture confirms adulteration.

5. Mustard seeds and oil

Test for your safety

Take a few seeds and crush them. The argemone seeds on being crushed will reveal a whitish structure on the inside. Mustard seeds, on the other hand, have a yellow inner surface.

6. Ice cream

Test for your safety

If the ice cream starts to froth on adding a few drops of lemon juice to it, it indicates the presence of washing powder in it.

7. Green chillies

Test for your safety

Soak a small cotton piece in paraffin and rub it against a small portion of the outer surface of green chilli or any other green vegetable for that matter. If the cotton turns green, it means that the vegetable is artificially coloured.

8. Ghee

Test for your safety

Add 1 ml of water to a test tube containing about 0.5 g of ghee and bring the mixture to boil. Once it cools, add a drop of iodine (or iodine tincture solution) to it. If the final output is blue in colour, then it is adulterated with starchy substances.

9. Sugar

Test for your safety

Unadulterated sugar, when added to a glass of water, will sink directly to the bottom. But if it has chalk powder in it, the adulterants will remain at the surface of the water.

10. Black pepper

Test for your safety

Add a few corns of pepper to alcohol. The pure corns will stay afloat whereas the pappaya seeds will sink.

11. Tea

Test for your safety

Sprinkle some tea powder on a damp blotting paper. Change in the colour of the blotting paper to something similar to yellow, orange, or red proves the presence of artificial colour in it.

One of the most common reasons behind food adulteration is to deceit the buyer of their money by luring them into buying a ‘good-looking’ food item. However, whatever maybe the reason behind this, it goes unsaid that an act of deliberately adding toxic substances to food items is an act of POISONING.

Source….ananta sharma….www.storypick.com

Natarajan

6 Weird Facts About Gravity…

August 19, 2015August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Credit..NASA

Gravity: You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone

Here on Earth, we take gravity so for granted that it took an apple falling from a tree to trigger Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation. But gravity, which draws objects together in proportion to their mass, is about much more than fallen fruit. Read on for some of the strangest facts about this universal force.

It’s all in your head

Credit: © Paul Simcock | Dreamstime.com

Gravity may be pretty consistent on Earth, but our perception of it isn’t. According to research published in April 2011 in the journal PLoS ONE, people are better at judging how objects fall when they’re sitting upright versus lying on their sides.

The finding means that our perception of gravity may be less based on visual cues of gravity’s real direction and more rooted in the orientation of the body. The findings may lead to new strategies to help astronauts deal with microgravity in space.

Coming down to Earth is tough

Credit: NASA Kennedy Space Center

Speaking of astronauts, their experience has shown that a switch to weightlessness and back can be tough on the body. In the absence of gravity, muscles atrophy and bones likewise lose bone mass. According to NASA, astronauts can lose 1 percent of their bone mass per month in space.

When astronauts come back to Earth, their bodies and minds need time to recover. Blood pressure, which has equalized throughout the body in space, has to return to an Earthly pattern in which the heart must work hard to keep the brain nourished with blood. Occasionally, astronauts struggle with that adjustment. In 2006, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper collapsed at a welcome-home ceremony the day after returning from a Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

The mental readjustment can be just as tricky. In 1973, Skylab 2 astronaut Jack Lousma told Time magazine that he’d accidentally smashed a bottle of aftershave in his first days back from a month-long sojourn in space. He’d let go of the bottle in mid-air, forgetting that it would crash to the ground rather than just float there.

For weight loss, try Pluto

Credit: nullPluto may no longer be a planet, but it’s still a good bet for lightening up. A 150-pound (68 kilogram) person would weigh no more than 10 pounds (4.5 kg) on the dwarf planet. The planet with the most crushing gravity, on the other hand, is Jupiter, where the same person would weigh more than 354 pounds (160.5 kg).

The planet humans are most likely to visit, Mars, would also leave explorers feeling light-footed. Mars’ gravitational pull is only 38 percent that of Earth’s, meaning a 150-pound person would feel like they weigh about 57 pounds (26 kg).

Gravity is lumpy

Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFCEven on Earth, gravity isn’t entirely even. Because the globe isn’t a perfect sphere, its mass is distributed unevenly. And uneven mass means slightly uneven gravity.

One mysterious gravitational anomaly is in the Hudson Bay of Canada (shown above). This area has lower gravity than other regions, and a 2007 study finds that now-melted glaciers are to blame.

The ice that once cloaked the area during the last ice age has long since melted, but the Earth hasn’t entirely snapped back from the burden. Since gravity over an area is proportional to the mass atop that region, and the glacier’s imprint pushed aside some of the Earth’s mass, gravity is a bit less strong in the ice sheet’s imprint. The slight deformation of the crust explains 25 percent to 45 percent of the unusually low gravity; the rest may be explained by a downward drag caused the motion of magma in Earth’s mantle (the layer just beneath the crust), researchers reported in the journal Science.

Without gravity, some bugs get tougher

Credit: CDC/Janice Haney Carr

Bad news for space cadets: Some bacteria become nastier in space. A 2007 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that salmonella, the bacteria that commonlycauses food poisoning, becomes three times more virulent in microgravity. Something about the lack of gravity changed the activity of at least 167 salmonella genes and 73 of its proteins. Mice fed the gravity-free salmonella got sick faster after consuming less of the bacteria.

In other words, Michael Crichton’s “The Andromeda Strain” had it wrong: The danger of infection in space may not come from space bugs. It’s more likely our own bugs grown stronger would strike us.

Black holes at the center of galaxies

Credit: April Hobart, NASA, Chandra X-Ray ObservatoryNamed because nothing, not even light, can escape their gravitational clutches, black holes are some of the most destructive objects in the universe. At the center of our galaxy is a massive black hole with the mass of 3 million suns. Scarier thought? It might be “just resting,” according Kyoto University scientist Tatsuya Inui.

The black hole isn’t really a danger to us Earthlings — it’s both far away and it’s remarkably calm. But sometimes it does put on a show: Inui and colleagues reported in 2008 that the black hole sent out a flare of energy 300 years ago. Another study, released in 2007, found that several thousand years ago, a galactic hiccup sent a small amount of matter the size of Mercury falling into the black hole, leading to another outburst.

The black hole, named Sagittarius A*, is dim compared with other black holes.

“This faintness implies that stars and gas rarely get close enough to the black hole to be in any danger,” Frederick Baganoff, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was involved with the 2007 study, told LiveScience’s sister site SPACE.com. “The huge appetite is there, but it’s not being satisfied.”

Source…www. livescience.com

Natarajan

8,000 YEARS OF SILVER: The precious metal’s journey from Anatolia to the modern stock exchange …

August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Along with gold, silver is one of the most sought-after metals.

Investors, industrialists, artists and others enjoy its many unique properties such as malleability, conductivity, strength and reflectivity.

It also has many beneficial applications in medicine, photography, decoration and technology.
People have been mining silver for thousands of years.

The mining of silver began between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago in Anatolia, or what is now modern-day Turkey. As early as 700 B.C., early Mediterranean civilizations were using the brilliant white metal as currency. Over the next several centuries, the epicenter of silver mining shifted from Greece to Spain to Germany to Eastern Europe.
The Spanish conquest of the Americas changed silver forever.

The Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century dramatically transformed silver production. From 1500 to 1800, a mere three countries controlled an 85 percent share of the world’s silver market: Peru, Mexico and Bolivia.

Today’s top 10 silver producers span the world.

In 2013, the top 10 silver producers, in descending order based on output, were Mexico, Peru, China, Australia, Russia, Bolivia, Chile, Poland, the U.S. and Argentina. About 671 million troy ounces of the precious metal are mined annually. In recent years, the price of silver has fluctuated between $19 and $24 an ounce. That amounts to approximately $13 trillion generated a year.

Silver’s got unique properties.

Silver’s melting point is 1,763°F whereas its boiling point is a blistering 4,013°, which is hotter than the inside of an active volcano.

Silver has a lot of industrial applications.

Silver has many important, far-reaching technological and electronic applications. It’s used in everything from cell phones, computers and semiconductors to automobiles, water-purification systems and—because it is the best conductor of heat of all elements—spacecraft solar radiation tiles. Silver and aluminum, the world’s strongest alloy, is used in the construction of Apache helicopters and C-17 aircraft.

Silver is used in film.

About 30% of silver consumption in the United States goes toward photography production, which requires silver nitrate.

Silver is great for wire.

Silver is the second-most malleable and ductile element following gold. Just an ounce of it can be stretched into 8,000 feet of wire.

Silver is used broadly in healthcare.

The white metal also has powerful antibacterial properties, which have been known since at least the days of the ancient Phoenicians, who kept water and wine in silver vessels to ensure freshness. Today, silver is found in bandages as well as surgical instruments, stethoscopes, catheters and other health care tools. Unlike other antibiotics, silver prevents bacteria from developing resistance to it.
For investors, silver is a store of value.

There are many ways to invest in silver, including bullion, coins, medallions, ETFs, mutual funds and accumulation plans.
Source….www.business insider.com

Natarajan

15 must-do road trips in India…….

August 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Here, the journey is your destination…

Most of us have been bitten by the travel bug, or so we assume. These 15 road trips across India, are a must if you are one of those who believe, “To travel is to live.” Bad roads, hiccups en route and unknown terrain, only add beauty to our travels. So go ahead and put these road trips on your bucket list.

Rediscover your love for travelling. Experience the warmth of people you have never met before. Explore the country. Make memories. Get inspired.

Let the adventures begin…

1. Manali to Leh

Photographs: Stephane Viau/Creative Commons

From June to September, the 450+ km stretch, invites you to enjoy a picturesque drive. With panoramic views of the Himalayas, driving thousands of feet above the sea level, it is one unforgettable journey.

2. Mumbai to Goa

Photographs: abcdz2000/Creative Commons

Leaving early in the wee hours of morning, driving through the Western Ghats and later along the Arabian Sea coast — reaching Goa in time for a late night party! Can it get any better?

3. Chennai to Pondicherry

Photographs: Sanyam Bahga/Creative Commons

Great roads (a blessing in India), scenic view and the sea breeze invites you for a long drive to a destination that is a photographer’s paradise and a foodie’s haven.

4. Ahmedabad to Kutch

Photographs: Superfast1111/Creative Commons

Explore 400 kms of untamed roads and get a taste of wildlife in the land of contrasts. Get lost in the barren yet fascinating landscape of the Rann of Kutch. A drive to Kutch is incomplete without a visit to a few handicraft villages and the sight of the full moon in the Great Rann of Kutch.

5. Jaipur to Jaisalmer

Photographs: Adrian Sulc/Creative Commons

Visit the numerous forts, local attractions and eat at roadside dhabas as you embrace the warmth of the Rajasthani heritage.

6. Mangalore to Gokarna

Photographs: Jacob Abraham/Creative Commons

One beach destination to another. This four-hour long scenic drive along the Konkan coast, is for the beach lovers. With quaint unpopulated beaches and local sea food haunts along the way, pit stops are a must.

7. Guwahati to Shillong

Photographs: Sandydessert/Creative Commons

Spanning two of India’s beautiful states — Assam and Meghalaya, this road trip entices you with amazing views of green valleys, little villages and rich sights.

8. Visakhapatnam to Araku Valley

Photographs: Adityamadhav83/Creative Commons

The gentle elevation, greenery and away from the hustle bustle of cities, makes it another destination for a road trip. Don’t miss a visit to the Borra caves and Katiki Watefalls.

9. Cochin to Munnar

Photographs: Ben3john/Creative Commons

Manoeuvre through the twisty and curvy roads, as you enjoy the greenery of the vast tea plantations of Munnar. Once the summer resort of the British, Munnar welcomes you with fog, mist and lovely small waterfalls.

10. Darjeeling to Pelling

Photographs: Shahnoor Habib Munmun/Creative Commons

Driving through scenic valleys and mountains, you will wish that this journey doesn’t come to an end. Get spell-bound by the spectacular view of the Himalayan range, stop by the little village bazaars and sip a cup of locally brewed tea and get lost in the abode of the gods.

11. Mysore to Ooty

Photographs: Adam Jones/Creative Commons

Cutting through Bandipur, a national park, you will get to see wildlife in its natural habitat. While it’s beautiful, be careful not to drive fast — small wild animals tend to cross the roads suddenly. Also, there’s ban on driving this route in the night. Nevertheless, the journey is as beautiful as its destination.

12. Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar

Photographs: Rishabh Tatiraju/Creative Commons

After passing through the beautiful Lonavala, as you inch closer to Mahabaleshwar, the hill presents some amazing views. Also stop by a strawberry farm on the way. Driving during the monsoon, the experience is adventurous and something that should feature on your bucket list.

13. Dharamshala to Bharmour

Photographs: John Hill/Creative Commons

The journey laced with the beauty terraced fields reminds you a little of the Inca landscape in Peru. The pretty pined forest, dramatic now-capped mountains and the greenery extending to infinity, will mesmerise you.

14. Bangalore to Coorg

Photographs: Leelavathy B.M/Creative Commons

Beat the humdrum of the IT city, drive through coffee estates, hues of greenery, and enjoy the sounds of crickets coupled with some awesome Coorgi cuisine.

15. Chandigarh to Kaza

Photographs: nikkul/Creative Commons

Listed among the ‘world’s deadliest roads,’ this road trip is only for the adventurous traveller. Driving the dangerous and bad roads, you are gifted with spectacular landscape, rugged moonscape of Spiti and lush mountains.

This is not the end of the list, just the beginning. The rest is for you to discover.

This Ernest Hemingway quote just summarises, everything: It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

Source…Sindhu.M.V….www.rediff.com

Natarajan

How to spot the International Space Station….?

August 18, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

Every so often, the International Space Station (ISS) becomes visible in your night sky. Here’s how you can spot it.

A composite photograph of the International Space Station from Earth. Image Credit: Dave Walker.

A composite photograph of the International Space Station taken from Earth. Image Credit: Dave Walker.

Is it a meteor? Is it a plane? It might be the International Space Station (ISS).Every so often, the ISS becomes visible in the night sky. To us on Earth, it looks like a bright star moving quickly above the horizon. The ISS is so bright, it can even been seen from the center of a city. Then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it disappears. How do you know when you can see the ISS in your night sky?

NASA’s Spot the Station program lets you sign up to receive alerts to let you know when the ISS will be visible from your location – anywhere in the world. You can get alerts via email or text message. Typically, alerts are sent out a few times each month when the station’s orbit is near your location. Visit the Spot the Station website here to sign up, and view a list of upcoming sighting opportunities.

If you sign up for NASA’s new service, notices will be sent to you only when the ISS will be clearly visible from your location for at least a couple of minutes. If you live north of 51.6 degrees latitude (for example, in Alaska), you will likely have to visit the website to find sighting opportunities because notifications in this region would be rare.

The notices contain information on where to look for the ISS in the night sky. Just note where the sun sets and you can easily find the direction where the station will appear (for example, in the southwest or in the northwest). The height at which the station will appear is given in degrees. Just remember that 90 degrees is directly over your head. Any number less than 90 degrees will mean that the station will appear somewhere between the horizon and the 90 degree mark. The station is so bright that it is really hard to miss if you’re looking in the correct direction. Alternatively, you can stretch out your fist at arm’s length toward the horizon, which is equivalent to about 10 degrees. Then, just use the appropriate number of fist-lengths to find the location marker, e.g., four fist-lengths from the horizon would be equivalent to about 40 degrees.

NASA’s Spot the Station program is great. I’ve seen the station fly over twice now and it’s a pretty amazing experience—gets you thinking about how far our technology has advanced.

The first module of the ISS was launched into space in 1998 and the initial construction of the station took about two years to complete. Human occupation of the station began on November 2, 2000. Since that time, the ISS has been continuously occupied. The ISS serves as both an orbiting laboratory and a port for international spacecraft. The primary partnering countries involved in operating the ISS include the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Russia.

The ISS orbits at approximately 220 miles above the Earth and it travels at an average speed of27,724 kilometers (17,227 miles) per hour. The ISS makes multiple orbits around the Earth every day.

Photograph of the International Space Station taken from the space shuttle Endeavour on May 30, 2011. Image Credit: NASA.

Astronauts Robert Curbeam, Jr. and Christer Fuglesang working on the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.

Bottom line: Check out the ISS in the night sky the next time it flies over your location. You can sign up to receive alerts with NASA’s Spot the Station program or visit that website to view a list of viewing opportunities.

Source….

http://www.earthsky.org

Natarajan

But it never did.

Here’s what the airport looks like today

This door leads to the check-in area.

No tourists here.

This baggage carousel sits idle.

As are these baggage carts.

The roads are in poor condition.

The solar panels lay dormant.

1. Milk

Test for your safety

Test for your safety

3. Chilli powder

Test for your safety

4. Turmeric powder

Test for your safety

5. Mustard seeds and oil

Test for your safety

6. Ice cream

Test for your safety

7. Green chillies

Test for your safety

Test for your safety

9. Sugar

Test for your safety

10. Black pepper

Test for your safety

11. Tea

Test for your safety

Gravity: You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone

It’s all in your head

Coming down to Earth is tough

For weight loss, try Pluto

Gravity is lumpy

Without gravity, some bugs get tougher

Black holes at the center of galaxies

Silver’s got unique properties.

Silver has a lot of industrial applications.

Silver is used in film.

Silver is great for wire.

Silver is used broadly in healthcare.

Deanna Conners