Tuesday, December 26, 2006

History of India

Stone Age rock shelters with paintings at Bhimbetka in the state of Madhya Pradesh are the earliest known traces of human life in India. The first known permanent settlements appeared over 9,000 years ago and gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilization, dating back to 3300 BCE in western India. It was followed by the Vedic Civilization which laid the foundations of Hinduism and other cultural aspects of early Indian society. From around 550 BCE, many independent kingdoms and republics known as the Mahajanapadas were established across the country laying the foundations of ancient India.

The empire built by the Maurya dynasty under Emperor Ashoka the Great united most of modern Southern Asia except the Dravidian kingdoms in the south. From 180 BCE, a series of invasions from Central Asia followed including the Indo-Greeks, Indo-Scythians, Indo-Parthians and Kushans in the north-western Indian Subcontinent. From the third century CE, the Gupta dynasty oversaw the period referred to as ancient India's "Golden Age." While the north had larger, fewer kingdoms, in the south there were several dynasties such as the Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, Hoysalas, Cheras, Cholas, Pallavas and Pandyas in different times and regions.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Hail formation

Hail forms on condensation nuclei such as dust, bugs, or ice crystals, when super cooled water freezes on make contact with. In clouds contains large numbers of super cooled water droplets, these ice nuclei grow quickly at the expense of the liquid droplets because the saturation vapor pressure over ice is slightly less than the saturation vapor pressure over water. If the hail stones grow large enough, latent heat released by further freezing may melt the external shell of the hail stone. The development that follows, usually called wet growth, is more efficient because the liquid outer shell allows the stone to accrete other smaller hail stones in addition to super cooled droplets.

Once a hailstone become too heavy to be supported by the storm's updraft it falls out of the cloud. The reason rain can't fall, is typically because of the tough winds inside a thunderstorm cloud. These winds hold the rain and freeze it. As the process repeats, the hail grows gradually larger. When a hail stone is cut in half, a series of concentric rings, like that of an onion, are revealed. From these rings we can determine the total number of times the hail stone had traveled to the top of the storm before falling to the ground.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Mean sea level pressure

Mean sea level pressure is the pressure at sea level or the station pressure condensed to sea level assuming an isothermal layer at the station temperature. This is the pressure usually given in weather reports on radio, television, and newspapers. When barometers in the home are set to match the local weather reports, they measure pressure condensed to sea level, not the actual local atmospheric pressure. The reduction to sea level means that the usual range of fluctuations in pressure is the same for everyone. The pressures which are measured high pressure or low pressure do not depend on geographical location. This makes isobars on a weather map meaningful and useful tool. The altimeter setting in aviation, set either QNH or QFE, is another atmospheric pressure reduced to sea level, but the method of making this reduction differs slightly.

QNH barometric altimeter setting which will cause the altimeter to read airfield elevation when on the airfield. In ISA temperature conditions the altimeter will read altitude above mean sea level in the vicinity of the airfield.

QFE barometric altimeter setting which will cause an altimeter to read zero when at the reference datum of a particular airfield. In ISA temperature conditions the altimeter will read height above the datum in the vicinity of the airfield.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Immigration and multiculturalism

Since the time of olden Rome, the city has always been a site for colonization. This once extensive to all reaches of the Roman Empire, but was more cramped to the rest of Italy in later centuries, as Rome's political power waned. Still, many of its citizens' families invent from outside the city, and the Romanesco phrase Romano de Roma has been coined to indicate someone who descends from a family that has lived in Rome for at least seven generations, the mark of a "true" Roman.

Over the next half of 20th century, Rome has seen rising immigration from other countries. There currently is an important immigrant population, including a great number of clandestine. The 2005 ISTAT estimations state that 145,000 immigrants live in the comune, or 5.69% of the total comune inhabitants. The foreign population in the metropolitan area of Rome consists in 206,000 persons, or 5.37% of the total urban area population. The foreign population in the metropolitan area of Rome is about 248,000 persons or 4.67% of the whole metropolitan area population. By far the largest number of immigrants is Eastern European, with the largest figures of foreigners coming from Romania, The Philippines, Poland, Albania, Peru, Bangladesh, and Ukraine.

Probably as a result of its multiethnic past, the city has reacted with less complexity to the current waves of immigration into Italy. In meticulous, Mayor Walter Veltroni has made multiculturalism one of the key points of supporting program; inhabitants of Rome who are not citizens of an EU country are now permitted to elect their own legislature in the city council, even if they do not embrace formal legal residence in Rome.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Nutrition

Animals are consumers that get their power from producers, who in turn derive their power from a number of sources.

Most animals grow by ultimately using the energy of daylight. Plants use this energy to change carbon dioxide into simple sugars using a procedure known as photosynthesis. Initially with the molecules and water, photosynthesis converts the power of sunlight into compound energy stored in the bonds of glucose and releases oxygen. These sugars are then used as the structure blocks which allow the plant to raise. When animals eat these plants, the sugars produced by the plant are used by the animal. They are either used straight to help the animal grow, or busted down, releasing stored solar energy, and giving the animal the energy required for movement. This process is known as glycolysis.

Many animals that live secure to hydrothermal vents and cold seeps on the ocean floor are not needy on the energy of sunlight for their food. Instead, chemosynthetic archaea and eubacteria form the bottom of the food chain. These creatures use the energy from compounds seeping from the vents to control the manufacture of sugars and other molecules, and animals live by either intake those microbes them within their tissues.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Archaeoastronomy and Stonehenge
Stonehenge is aligned northeast–southwest, and it has been suggested that particular significance was placed by its builders on the solstice and equinox points, so for example on a midsummer's morning, the sun rose close to the Heelstone, and the sun's first rays went directly into the centre of the monument between the horseshoe arrangement. It is unlikely that such an alignment could have been merely accidental.A huge debate was triggered by the 1963 publication of Stonehenge Decoded, by British born astronomer Gerald Hawkins, who claimed to see a large number of astronomical alignments, both lunar and solar, at the site and argued that Stonehenge could have been used to predict eclipses. Hawkins' book received wide publicity, partly because he used a computer in his calculations, then a rarity. Further contributions to the debate came from British astronomer C. A. Newham and Sir Fred Hoyle, the famous Cambridge cosmologist, as well as by Alexander Thom, a retired professor of engineering, who had been studying stone circles for more than 20 years. Their theories have faced criticism in recent decades from Richard Atkinson and others who have suggested impracticalities in the 'Stone Age calculator' interpretative approach. Today, the consensus is that most of the astronomical case, although not all, was overstated.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Early machines were uncomplicated machines that substituted one form of effort with a more humanly manageable effort, as exciting a large weight with a
system of pulleys or a lever. Later equipment was also able to substitute natural forms of renewable energy, such as wind, tides, or flowing water, for
human energy. The sailboat replaced the paddled or oared boat. Still later, early forms of automation were fanatical by clock type mechanisms or similar
plans using some form of artificial power source wound-up spring, channeled curving water, or steam to produce some simple, repetitive action, such as
moving figures, creation of music, or playing games. Such early moving devices, featuring human like figures, were known as automatons and date from
maybe 300 BC. In 1801, the patent was subjected for the automated loom using punched cards. This invention by Joseph Marie Jacquard transformed
the textile industry.The most observable part of modern automation can be said to be developed robotics. Some advantages are repeatability, tighter quality control, and
higher efficiency, addition with business systems, increased efficiency productivity and reduction of labor. Some disadvantages are high capital necessities,
severely decreased flexibility, and increased confidence on maintenance and repair. For example, Japan had to scrap many of its industrial robots
when they were establish to be incapable of adaptation to substantially changed manufacture requirements and so not necessarily able to justify their high
first costs.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

CoolTool
Tool is a piece of equipment that commonly provides a mechanical advantage in accomplish a physical task. Nearly all basic tools are simple machines. For example, a crowbar simply functioning as a lever. The further out from the pivot point, more force is transferred along the lever.
Philosophers thinking were that only humans used tools, and defined humans as tool using animals. But the observation has confirmed that apes , monkeys and other animals, mostly primates, but also some birds, and sea otters can use tools as well. Later, philosophers thought that only humans had the ability to make tools, until zoologists observed birds and monkeys also making tools.
Non physical entities such as process, information architecture, creativity and learning itself are all priceless tools that we humans use to better ourselves individually and collectively. Certainly, the term ‘tool’ should not be restricted strictly to physical objects, but also cognitive methodologies.