Archives July 2013

Exercise is to the body what reading is to the mind. A cultured mind, truly finds immense pleasure in reading. Reading makes a man perfect. By reading we get information, facts and knowledge of the affairs of the world. It is reading that broadens our outlook by removing narrow thinking. The books prescribed for our formal education do not sometimes provide pleasure to us. This is an obligation on us to read those books as we have to continue with our education. We are to go through them even though we may not like them. The books that provide us pleasure are the books of I our liking and interest. Therefore we should have a vast field  of good books for our knowledge. Good books are better than our best friends. Our friends may ditch us, they may leave us in the lurch, but books can never desert us. They more...

Only the visual and radio bands of the electromagnetic spectrum pass through Earth's atmosphere relatively unhindered. For everything else, gamma-ray. X-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared, observations of space are much better from above Earth's atmosphere. The first real telescope in space was Orbiting Solar Observatory-1 (OSO-1), which was launched into a low Earth orbit on March 7, 1962, from Cape Canaveral. The lower portion rditated every two seconds, and the upper portion was fixed in space, using sun sensors and servomotors to point instruments accurately at the solar disc. The main aim was to observe solar flares—extremely violent explosions that occur near sunspots on the solar surface—in the gamma-ray, X- ray, and ultraviolet wavelengths. The spinning part of the spacecraft searched the whole sky for stellar gamma-ray sources. After three months and over 1,000 orbits the effectiveness of OSO-1 was greatly reduced when the United States tested a nuclear device at more...

Ragging means 'laughing at' or 'playing trick' on somebody. Sometimes, it may mean teasing somebody. In this sense, ragging is not very objectionable. However, ragging has become a threat to new students in some prestigious academic institutes. In the name of ragging, junior students are often subjected to physical and mental torture. Sometimes, students fall ill seriously and leave the institutions and give up their studies altogether. The Supreme Court has taken serious steps to curb this menace and has issued instructions to state governments to control ragging. Ragging causes serious illnesses and mental imbalance among the affected students. Every year, we hear of many deaths caused due to ragging. The raggers often contend that ragging helps a fresher to shake of his inertia and shyness and be smart. However, such tactful excuses cannot minimize the seriousness of the problem. Ragging should be banned in. the interest of a healthy more...

"This... revolutionary piece of technology ...has the potential to change people's lives." Anita Lifestone, Royal National Institute for the Blind Clinical trials were held in the United States in 2007 when seventy patients were fitted with a new device called the Argus II, which uses a camera connected to spectacles that feeds visual information to electrodes in the eye. In this trial, blind patients were able to see shape and movement. It seems that we could have a true "bionic eye" in the very near future. Prosthetics to restore vision have been researched since the 1950s. Usually ocular prosthetics consist of a thin, curved sheet—generally made of a type of glass called cryolite or medical grade acrylic—that is fitted over the existing nonfunctioning eye. More recently, however, researchers have been trying to restore vision to those who have lost it—although it is extremely difficult to give sight to people who- more...

Scout movement originated in Britain in 1908. Sir Baden Powell was its patron. Slowly the movement extended to every civilized country including India. It started as a trial experimental camp in 1907 but the movement spread with speed to almost every part of the world. In 1908, a handbook  "Scouting for Boys", was published. Over 1,00,000 scouts served in his majesty's forces during the First World War and 10,000 gave up their lives. These underage scouts performed public duties at home like coast-watching. When the war broke out again in 1939 thousands of scouts once more joined the armed forces. During this war, too, those scouts who were underage rendered particularly good service. Many of them were decorated for gallantry.   The principle underlying the boy scout movement is the development of good citizenship among the youth. Active self- expression is encouraged among the scouts and emphasis is laid upon more...

Global warming means the rise in the mean global temperature to a level which/ affects the life-forms on the earth surface. The factors responsible for this warming may be both natural and manmade. Warming of the globe due to natural factors is not an unusual phenomenon. The earth's climate is variable. For example, about 18,000 years ago, the Earth was about 5°C cooler than it is today. That was the last glacial period on the earth. Thereafter, the global temperature began to rise. The earth is kept warm due to what is known as the- green house effect. Without it the earth would be a frozen waste land. The short wave lengths or ultra violate radiation coming from the sun penetrates the atmosphere and   absorbed by the earth. This observed energy is also radiation back to space at infra-red wave lengths. The earth atmosphere contains gases which trap some more...

"The stirrup... enabled the horseman to become a better archer and swordsman." Professor Albert Dien, historian The oldest recorded account of a single metal mounting stirrup is a depiction found on a pottery shard uncovered from a tomb in western China belonging to the Jin Dynasty and dating to around 300 B.C.E. The stirrup was at first used primarily as a tool to assist the rider in mounting his horse. China at that time was constantly plagued by threats of mounted warfare from its northern nomadic neighbors. Considering that the Chinese developed the harness and horse collar a thousand years before their arrival in Europe, and that they had an established expertise in metal casting, it is not surprising that stirrups appeared among China's elite mounted cavalry. Their use of a single stirrup for mounting soon evolved toward using stirrups in pairs to provide a stable foundation for riding and more...

Money is the medium of transaction in the civilized societies. It is present today in two forms-apparent and hidden, in its first form it is legal and it is open for taxation. In the second form it is illegal and is not exposed for taxation.   The black money is the result of the activities of dishonest persons. It is the offspring of cunningness and underhand policy. Hence it is underhand earnings. It is unaccounted money. It is evaded money. Hence it is called black money. Black money as a matter of fact came into being during the Second World War. During war-time government imposed control on certain commodities. It gave good opportunities to people to make big profits. Since then it has been increasing from year to year. Now at present according to the government sources, the figures of black money have gone upto 22000 crores in our country. more...

Interest in atmospheric pressure arose when miners and well-diggers realized that pumps and siphons would only raise water to a maximum distance of about 33 feet (10 m). Hearing that the Grand Duke of Tuscany had a suction pump that could not raise water as far as he wanted, the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) investigated the problem in 1643, creating what is known as the Torricelli tube. Imagine that you have such a tube of straight glass, 40 inches (100 cm) long, sealed at one end and filled with mercury, and you carefully invert this tube, keeping the open end dipped in a reservoir of mercury. The mercury will retreat down the tube leaving a vacuum at the top. The height of mercury above the reservoir level will be about 30 inches (75 cm), and the weight of the mercury in the tube will be supported by the pressure more...

The snake charmer belongs to the wandering class of people. He earns his bread by his shows and feats which we cannot do. He goes from town to town and does not stay at one place for a long time. The snake charmer puts on a peculiar dress. He wears a large turban, a loose kurta and loose  tehmad.  You can see   large rings on his ears and steel bangles on his wrist. He carries two baskets with him hanging on the ends of a long bamboo. He has a special type of flute with him. When he enters a town he goes on playing upon his flute. The children hear the music and follow him to see snakes.  They persuade their mothers to stop him and show his programme. Then the snake charmer sits down on the ground and puts his baskets before him. He plays upon his more...