Friday, October 3, 2008
Solution:
The area of a right triangle is computed by multiplying the base times the height and dividing by two. The pieces of the puzzle have an area of 32 square units. Although they can be assembled to form what appears to be a 13×5 right triangle, they actually form quadrilaterals that are slightly smaller or slightly bigger than a 13×5 right triangle.
The top figure has an area of 32 square units. The bottom figure, including the empty square, has an area of 33 square units. A real 13×5 right triangle would have an area of 32.5 square units. The distortion is difficult to see because one square of the picture is approximately 3% of the area.
The distortion can be seen more clearly when the empty square constitutes a larger percentage of the area, as in the figure below where 1 square represents 13% of the area.
This is an optical illusion that caught my attention!
I was surprised to know that we humans too have blind spots!
Wasn't that funny?
This picture is an ambigram, an image which can be viewed in more than one way depending on how you perceive it. The thing about this sort of image, in particular, is that it manages to convince you visually that you're looking at two completely contradictory views at the exact same time. What does this tell you about perception, and the way our brain processes conflicting stimuli? Can you see it as both images simultaneously, or merely as one, then the other, alternating based on how you squint or tip your head?
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Millions left for their promised new homeland with smiles on their faces as trains left both India and Pakistan.
The massive exchange of population that took place in the summer of 1947 was unprecedented.
This is a train to Pakistan being given a warm send-off.
In 1947, the border between India and its new neighbour Pakistan became a river of blood, as the exodus erupted into rioting.
These pictures are by Margaret Bourke-White from Khushwant Singh's book Train to Pakistan, Roli Books.Over 10 million people were uprooted from their homeland and travelled on foot, bullock carts and trains to their promised new home.
An aged and abandoned Muslim couple and their grand children sitting by the the roadside on this arduous journey. "The old man is dying of exhaustion. The caravan has gone on," wrote Bourke-White.
It left behind a trail of death and destruction. The Indian map was slashed to make way for a new country - Pakistan.
In a couple of months in the summer of 1947, a million people were slaughtered on both sides in the religious rioting.
The street was short and narrow. Lying like the garbage across the street and in its open gutters were bodies of the dead. Here, bodies of the victims of rioting are picked up from a city street.
With the tragic legacy of an uncertain future, a young refugee sits on the walls of Purana Qila, transformed into a vast refugee camp in Delhi.
Men, women and children who died in the rioting were cremated on a mass scale.
Villagers even used oil and kerosene when wood was scarce.
The migration
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Just because you've won the first round doesn't mean you are going to win the championship. Remember one swallow does not make a summer.
The expression comes from the world of Aesop's Fairy tales. In the story, a young man sees a swallow on a warm winter day. As you know, a swallow is a bird which usually appears in the spring. Thinking that the winter season is over, the young man sells off his woollen coat, and with the money he has made, he goes to the bar and drinks. unfortunately, in the days that follow, the temperature drops. The young man, shivering in the cold realises that one swallow does not make a summer.
Article idea: The Hindu dated on September 30, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Today is the tenth anniversary of google.
And hence the post is special!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Zeller's rule is used to calculate the day on which any date falls for any year. With this technique you will have the calendar for any given year available to you.
The rule is as follows
f = k + [(13*m - 1)/5] + d + [d/4] + [c/4] - 2*c
where,
k = day of month
m = month number, taking Mar=1, ..., Dec=10, Jan=11, Feb=12
d = last two digits of year, using the previous year for Jan and Feb
c = first two digits of year
Rules:
1.In Zeller's rule the year begins in March and ends in February. Hence, the month number from March is 1, April is 2, May is 3 and so on up to January, which is 11, and February is 12.
2.January and February are counted as the 11th and 12th months of the previous year. Hence, if you are calculating the day of any date on January 2026, the notation will be (month=11 and year= 2025) instead of (month=1 and year=2026).
3.While calculating, we drop off every number after the decimal point.
4.Once we have found the answer we divide it by 7 and take the remainder. Remainder 0 corresponds to Sunday; Remainder 1 corresponds to Monday ; Remainder 2 corresponds to Tuesday and so on....
Example:
Find the day on 26th June 1983
f = k + [(13*m - 1)/5] + d + [d/4] + [c/4] - 2*c
Here k=26, m=4, d=83, c =19
f= 26+(13*4-1/5)+83+83/4+19/4-2*19
= 105
105 divided by 7 leaves a remainder 0. Hence the day is a Sunday!
Derivation of the formula:
Here we're defining
k = day of month
m = month number, taking Mar=1, ..., Dec=10, Jan=11, Feb=12
d = last two digits of year, using the previous year for Jan and Feb
c = first two digits of year
The formula is then
f = k + [(13*m - 1)/5] + d + [d/4] + [c/4] - 2*c
and we use the remainder after dividing f by 7 to find the day of the
week.
Where does this come from? Let's first note the reason for the odd
handling of months: we want leap day not to affect the formula, so we
move it to the end of the 'year', and act as if the year began on
March 1.
Now note that in defining f, all we care about is the remainder after
dividing, so it will be enough to make sure that f increases by 1
whenever the day of the week advances by one day; we don't care about
the actual value of f.
Now let's build the formula piece by piece.
How does the year affect the day? Well, since 365 = 7*52+1, each
normal year advances the day by 1, so our formula can start with the
year number:
f = d
Whenever the year advances by 1, so does the day of the week.
But we have to adjust this to account for leap years. Every four years
we have an extra day, so we'll want to add 1 to f. This is done by
adding [d/4], since this increases by 1 only when d becomes a multiple
of 4, which is a leap year. So now we have
f = d + [d/4]
Now how do centuries affect the day? A century contains 100 years, 24
of which normally are leap years (since century days, like 1900, are
NOT leap years). So each century the day advances by 124 days, which
is 7*18-2, and therefore the day of the week goes BACK 2 days. So we
have
f = d + [d/4] - 2*c
But every fourth century year IS a leap year (as 2000 was), so we
have to adjust just as we did for leap years:
f = d + [d/4] - 2*c + [c/4]
Now we come to the months, and this is the cute part. Consider, for
each month, how many days it has BEYOND 28, and then add that up to
see the effect the months have on the day of the week:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
Days 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 31 (28)
Excess 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 0
Accum 0 3 5 8 10 13 16 18 21 23 26 29
\_________________/\__________________/\_______
The number of accumulated days is counted at the start of the month,
so if we divide it by 7, the remainder shows how many weekdays the
start of the month is from the starting day for the 'year'.
Notice the pattern in the excess: 3,2,3,2,3 repeats every five months,
and the accumulation reaches 13 in that time. So every 5 months, we
want to add 13 days. That suggests that we want to add a term like
[13m/5]. That doesn't quite give us what we want:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Month Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
Days 31 30 31 30 31 31 30 31 30 31 31 (28)
Excess 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 0
Accum 0 3 5 8 10 13 16 18 21 23 26 29
13m 13 26 39 52 65 78 ...
[13m/5] 2 5 7 10 13 15 ...
If we subtract 2 from this, it isn't quite right; we have to shift it
a bit. So after playing with it a bit, we find
13m-1 12 25 38 51 64 77 ...
[(13m-1)/5] 2 5 7 10 12 15 ...
[(13m-1)/5]-2 0 3 5 8 10 13 ...
That's just what we want. So we'll use
f = d + [d/4] - 2*c + [c/4] + [(13m-1)/5] - 2
Finally, we have to add the day, since each day obviously adds one to
the day of the week; and adjust to get the right day of the week for,
say, Mar 1, 2000, since nothing we've done so far actually determined
WHICH day we start the whole pattern on. It turns out that we can just
remove the -2, and we get
f = d + [d/4] - 2*c + [c/4] + [(13m-1)/5] + k
And there's the formula!
Friday, September 5, 2008
A butterfly with transparent wings is rare and beautiful. As delicate as finely blown glass, the presence of this rare tropical gem is used by rain forest ecologists as an indication of high habitat quality and its demise alerts them of ecological change. Rivaling the refined beauty of a stained glass window, the translucent wings of the Glasswing butterfly shimmer in the sunlight like polished panes of turquoise, orange, green, and red.
All things beautiful do not have to be full of color to be noticed: in life that which is unnoticed has the most power.
The above picture is not an ms paint or photoshop work. It's a real picture. And just observe the pattern formed by the birds. Amazing! It justifies the title, one in a million shot!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Google has launched a new browser called google chrome. The interface of the browser is pretty simple. But it's damn fast.
Descrpition by google:
Google Chrome is a browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.
Download link: http://www.google.com/chrome
Screenshot of google chrome
An article about google chrome from the google blog:
At Google, we have a saying: “launch early and iterate.” While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available -- you can find it here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.
So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.
All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends -- all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.
On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.
Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.
This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.
We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we're committed to continuing on their path. We've used components from Apple's WebKit and Mozilla's Firefox, among others -- and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.
The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.
So check in again tomorrow to try Google Chrome for yourself. We'll post an update here as soon as it's ready.
Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director
Article source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html
Atlast google has entered the browser war, instead of supporting Mozilla it's good that google has started it's own browser.
I have already started using this browser. I feel the difference instantly (it gives high speed browsing). You too can try!
Yesterday while reading newspaper (The Hindu) one particular news in the last page caught my attention. It was titled "Elephants know their sums"
Below is the article from hindu:
Tokyo: Asian elephants can do mathematics, and have proved their skill at addition in an experiment with their favourite food, a Japanese researcher said on monday.
One elephant was 87 percent correct and the other was 69 percent right in months of addition exercises involving single digits, says Naoko Irie of the University of Tokyo.
In one test, researchers dropped three apples into one bucket and five into another bucket and then added two apples to each. Five times out of six, Ashya, a 30 - year old female elephant at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, chose the bucket with seven apples rather than five although see or feel the inside of the containers.
The other elephant, 38 - year - old Mito from Kyoto, was also right five times in a test involving oranges.
Ms. irie; a doctal candidate in cognition and behavioural science, said she was surprised at the elephants' mathematical skills. "I couldn't believe it at first," she said. "They could instantly compare numbers like six and five."
Each animal was tested using their favourite food. Elephants have roughly the same life span as humans.
Many animals are known to be able to choose te bigger of two numbers. Their perfomances, however, usually decline if the numbers are big or the gap between the two numbers is small.
I believe all animals know maths. Only human beings are proud of it because they have conventional methods in maths.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The following picture describes how software engineers jump from one job to another.
This is a really cool picture.
Monday, September 1, 2008
In literature, a red herring is a narrative element intended to distract the reader from a more important event in the plot, usually a twist ending.
The term "red herring" originates from the tradition whereby young hunting dogs in Britain were trained to follow a scent with the use of a "red" (salted and smoked) herring (see kipper). This pungent fish would be dragged across a trail until the puppy learned to follow the scent. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odor of a fox or a badger, the trainer would drag a red herring (which has a much stronger odor) across the animal's trail at right angles. The dog would eventually learn to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent.
In literature, the most commonplace use of a "red herring" is in mystery fiction. One particular character is described or emphasized in a way that seems to throw suspicion upon that character as the person who committed the crime: later, it develops that someone else is the guilty party.
This is used in cryptography as well!
In cryptography, a red herring is a second hidden message that is intended to be discovered more easily so that the real message remains hidden to anyone who might intercept the transmission and break the red herring code. Only the intended receiver would know the key to unlocking the real message.
It consists of a crtogram section which is very tough. I was able to solve only one puzzle there and I have posted it here!
The following cryptogram is a quote from a popular movie. It's a very short quote, so it makes the cryptogram a bit more difficult to decypher. It is possible to crack the code as long as you work at it.
81 12 81 415. 50626 39 41 527.
I didn't even work it out. I was able to figure it out.
Being an ardent lover of Starwars how could I forget the quote by Jedi Master Yoda!
Description:
Help the priests and devils to cross the river. Be careful though, they don't like each other. If the number of Devils is greater than the number of priests (on either side of the bank), then the Priests would be killed by the Devils.
Hope you enjoyed this puzzle game!
Try a similar kind of game which I have posted in my blog long back.
THE IQ GAME....TIME TO TEST YOUR IQ!!!!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Thanks to a translucent body, the design blends seamlessly with the nail while a selection of text color options and a glow feature activating on command make it supremely functional as well. Press the end of your thumbnail, and the watch will light up for you. A perfect blend of appearance, user interface, and technology, the nail watch passes most standards of modern design with flying colors thanks to its functional and minimalist appeal. The watch looks stylish and chic and has a touch of Geeky style as well. The downside of this watch is that it is disposable. So with so many stylish watched being available now, it will be hard for it to survive in the market. Though it is quite innovative with a minimalist design, but it won't last long on your finger.
No details about the availability or the price of this watch has been released by Timex. But since it is tiny and disposable, I don't expect the price to be high.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
My Cat entrance classes have always been special! This weekend it was even more special. It was an RC (reading comprehension) class for me. I was wondering, 'How on earth would an RC class be taught for 2 hours?' and I assumed,'It must be boring...'. But my verbal instructor Srividya (mam) proved my assumption totally wrong. It was probably her best class for my batch till date. Whoa! what am I writing about? The post tiltle is 'Oxymoron-The word that caught my atttention!' And I am writing some blah...blah...blah... about my cat class? That's where I learnt this word.
One word that caught my attention during my school days was rendezvous and it's unique way of pronunciation. After that it was oxymoron.
Now what's an oxymoron?
Let's check what wikipedia says!
An oxymoron (plural oxymorons or, more rarely, oxymora) is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek oxy ("sharp" or "pointed") and moros ("dull"). Thus the word oxymoron is itself an oxymoron.
Oxymorons are a proper subset of the expressions called contradictions in terms. What distinguishes oxymorons from other paradoxes and contradictions is that they are used intentionally, for rhetorical effect, and the contradiction is only apparent, as the combination of terms provides a novel expression of some concept, such as "cruel to be kind".
Deliberate oxymorons
Deafening silence
Forward retreat
Accidentally on Purpose
Little Big Man
Living Dead
Uses in Drama
Oxymorons are used in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' when Romeo is describing to Benvolio how much he loves Rosaline:
Romeo. Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything of nothing first create,
A heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead...
Juliet also uses oxymorons after having found out about her cousin's death at the hands of Romeo she says:
O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical'
Dove-feathered raven, wolfish ravening lamb'
A damned saint, an honourable villain
Example from Srividya Mam:
Donald Duck - it refers to a male. But duck is a feminine term. It must have been Donald Drake. Still we are comfortable with Donald Duck because it sounds good. It's a well accepted oxymoron!
Oxymoron - a word to be noticed!
Friday, August 15, 2008
My friend Prabu told me that http://www.co.cc/?id=145451 is a site where one could register free domains! So I made a try, and registered http://www.sdeepak.co.cc/ for free. This domain is used to redirect the website to this blog! For those people who find it difficult to remember my blog URL can easily remember this new web address also you can register the domains you want for free!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Have a read....
In some computers, when we double click a drive we get the "open with" dialog box. This is because of an unwanted file residing in the computer. Its name is "autorun.inf". To delete the file and restore the old operation of a drive opeing in the same window do the following steps.
1. Select START --> RUN.
2. enter "cmd" and press enter.
3. Type the drive name in which you ve the problem and click enter.(say if the problem is in C drive enter "C:\")
4. Enter "attrib -s -h - r *.inf".
5. Enter "del *.inf".
Now try opening the drives.I had the problem in my computer. Now i deleted the autorun.inf file and now the problem is solved. Try it!!!
Article link: http://arun-kumaar.blogspot.com/2008/08/open-with-virus.html
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Then, what is a happy number?
A happy number is defined by the following process. Starting with any positive integer, replace the number by the sum of the squares of its digits, and repeat the process until the number equals 1 (where it will stay), or it loops endlessly in a cycle which does not include 1. Those numbers for which this process ends in 1 are happy numbers, while those that do not end in 1 are unhappy numbers.
More formally, given a number n = n0, define a sequence n1, n2, ... where ni + 1 is the sum of the squares of the digits of ni. Then n is happy if and only if there exists i such that ni = 1.
If a number is happy, then all members of its sequence are happy; if a number is unhappy, all members of its sequence are unhappy.
For example, 7 is happy, as the associated sequence is:
7^2 = 49
4^2 + 9^2 = 97
9^2 + 7^2 = 130
1^2 + 3^2 + 0^2 = 10
1^2 + 0^2 = 1.
The happy numbers below 500 are
1, 7, 10, 13, 19, 23, 28, 31, 32, 44, 49, 68, 70, 79, 82, 86, 91, 94, 97, 100, 103, 109, 129, 130, 133, 139, 167, 176, 188, 190, 192, 193, 203, 208, 219, 226, 230, 236, 239, 262, 263, 280, 291, 293, 301, 302, 310, 313, 319, 320, 326, 329, 331, 338, 356, 362, 365, 367, 368, 376, 379, 383, 386, 391, 392, 397, 404, 409, 440, 446, 464, 469, 478, 487, 490, 496.
If n is not happy, then its sequence does not go to 1. What happens instead is that it ends up in the cycle.
4, 16, 37, 58, 89, 145, 42, 20, 4, ...
To see this fact, first note that if n has m digits, then the sum of the squares of its digits is at most 81m. For m = 4 and above,so any number over 1000 gets smaller under this process. Once we are under 1000, the number for which the sum of squares of digits is largest is 999, and the result is 3 times 81, that is, 243.
In the range 100 to 243, the number 199 produces the largest next value, of 163.
In the range 100 to 163, the number 159 produces the largest next value, of 107.
In the range 100 to 107, the number 107 produces the largest next value, of 50.
Happy Primes
A happy prime is a happy number that is prime. The happy primes below 500 are
7, 13, 19, 23, 31, 79, 97, 103, 109, 139, 167, 193, 239, 263, 293, 313, 331, 367, 379, 383, 397, 409, 487.
All numbers, and therefore all primes, of the form 10n + 3 and 10n + 9 are happy. To see this, note that these numbers yield values of either 12 + 02 + 02 + ... + 02 + 02 + 32 = 10 → 12 + 02 = 1 or 12 + 02 + 02 + ... + 02 + 02 + 92 = 82 → 82 + 22 = 68 → 62 + 82 = 100 → 12 + 02 + 02 = 1.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Whenever I switch on the tv, in majority of the channels the debate on INDO_US nuclear deal is going on!
What does Indo-US nuclear deal mean?
On July 26 2007- The US House of Representatives voted to approve a landmark deal that will allow the United States to sell civilian nuclear technology to India.
Here is an overview of the deal and its implications:
WHAT IS THE PACT?
* The legislation amends Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. It lets the US make a one-time exception for India to keep its nuclear weapons without signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
* The amendment overturns a 30-year-old US ban on supplying India with nuclear fuel and technology, implemented after India's first nuclear test in 1974.
* Under the amendment, India must separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities, and submit civilian facilities to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
WHY IS IT CONTROVERSIAL?
* Critics say it undermines the NPT, which holds that only countries which renounce nuclear weapons qualify for civilian nuclear assistance.
* The accord sends the wrong message: it could undercut a US-led campaign to curtail Iran's nuclear program, and open the way for a potential arms race in South Asia.
* India says 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities are civilian. Critics say the pact could make bomb making at the other eight easier, as civilian nuclear fuel needs will be met by the US
WHAT DO THE DEAL'S SUPPORTERS SAY?
* US President George Bush calls the deal necessary to reflect the countries' improved relations. It strengthens international security by tightening US ties to ally India, the world's biggest democracy. It also ensures some of its nuclear industry will undergo international inspection.
* New Delhi, which relies on imported oil for some 70 per cent of its energy needs, says nuclear power will help feed its rapidly expanding economy.
* France, which signed a similar deal with India in February 2006, says the move will help fight climate change and aid non-proliferation efforts.
HOW IS PAKISTAN INVOLVED?
* Pakistan sought a similar civilian technology deal with the US but was refused last in March. It is the only other confirmed nuclear power not to have signed the NPT - saying it will join after India does.
* Pakistan's own expanding nuclear program could fan the rivalry between India and Pakistan.
INTERNATIONAL RIVALRIES?
* China is said to have supported Pakistan's nuclear weapons program since the 1980s. Some analysts see the Indo-US deal as part of attempts by larger powers, the US and China, to shore up influence in South Asia by building up rival arsenals.
* The IAEA said in 2004 that Libya and Iran's nuclear programs were based on Chinese technology provided by Pakistan.
Article idea: http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=71625
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Lightning Rod
Tower of the Srirangam Temple
Being born in an orthodox hindu family, I sound a rebel whenever I query about the
scientific point of the religious rituals. One day a strange uncle (he resembled my real
uncle) gave a great explanation on the tall towers (gopurams) in the temples and the
scientific aspect of temples. I want to share it with you! Have a read.
Me: Hello uncle.
Strange Uncle: Hello Deepu. How are you?
Me: I am fine uncle. How are you?
Strange Uncle: I am fine Deepu. I heard that you are posing lot of questions
regarding the rituals in our religion.
Me: Yes uncle.
Strange Uncle: What's your doubt?
Me: I have many doubts uncle.
Strange Uncle: Ask your primary doubt.
Me: What's the point in going to the temples to worship God?
Strange Uncle: That's a good question Deepak. You should first understand that
temples are not just a place of worship. Before explaining the need of temples, I
must ask you a simple question. Do you know what a 'lightning conductor is?'
Me: Yes Uncle.
Strange Uncle: Can you explain how it works?
Me: Ya sure. It was in my class 12. I still rememeber it. It is a simple device used
to protect tall buildings from lightning.
It consists of long thick copper rod passing through the building to the ground. The
lower end of the rod is connected to a copper plate burried deeply into the ground.
You know, it has a metal plate with number of spikes to the top end of the copper
rod and kept at the top of the building to be protected.
Strange Unlce: Deepak. This is the construction part, I asked how it works!
Me: Ya, ya, I am coming to that part. Wait uncle. When a negatively charged cloud
passes over the building, you know, positive charge will be induced on the pointed
conductor.
Strange Uncle: That's enough Deepu.
Me: I didn't finish uncle.
Strange Uncle: That's enough Deepu. Now explain me how a Gopuram or tower of the
temple looks.
Me: It is in pyramid shape with a kalasam made of some metal placed on the top of
it.
Strange Uncle: Exactly, you yourself had told me the concept involved in temples.
Me: I don't get you uncle.
Strange Uncle: The kalasam in the tower is filled with cereals (the dhaniyangal in
tamil) which are insulators. And in olden days, the height of the temple tower would
be taller than all other buildings in a village. So that the whole village is
protected from lightning.
Me: So you mean that temple is just a lightning arrestor.
Strange Uncle: No, not just that. It is much more. The kalasam is full of positive
energy due to the induction. So when you visit a temple, the positive charge is
passed on to you. You become fresh. The positive charge is also passed to the other
metal statues in the temple and during car festival it is transmitted through out
the locality. Also, the reason to go and pray the God is that, positive energy is
maximum at that place!
Me: Whoa! This is totally amazing. Where did you learn all this?
Strange Uncle: Deepak! Deepak! Wake up Deepak!
Me: What?
Strange Uncle: Deepak it's late for college.
I opened my eyes to see my dad trying to wake me up (shouting at me that it's late
for college). What a weird dream? Is the scientific aspect of temples told by the
strange uncle uncle true? I couldn't think much beyond that because it was very late
for my college. I will ask this to the strange uncle when I meet him (again) :-)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
This online tool can do anything to make your image into a perfect cartoon and its pretty simple to use. Here are the following features which you would find in it:
- Cartoonizer
- Uvtar ( The image is the out come of uvtar)
- Video Cartoonizer.
Normal Photo
Cartoonised Pic
Another thing which can be done is SKETCH. There are various levels, so you can select the amount of sketch or amount of cartoonising the pic according to your wish. Another good option is GOODIES. Here various tools are available to make the image look more appealing.You will be able to download the picture after you have Cartoonized it enough and you are happy about it. So what are you waiting for?
Go to: http://www.befunky.com/
Article Idea: http://system-hacks.blogspot.com/2008/06/convert-images-videos-into-cartoon.html
If you work on windows, you know that shutting it down can be really a hassle and time taking, especially when a lot of programs are running. Most of us tend to avoid shut down due to this reason but we know that shut down is always safer and also considered good for the pc.
There are a lot of shut down tricks and tools available, which help you to achieve a smooth and fast shut down of windows without negatively affecting your pc. However this trick, is probably the simplest one and also the fastest way to shut down your pc.
Here are the steps:
1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to go to the Task Manager .
2. Click on Shut Down on the Top .
3. Highlight ‘ Turn Off ‘ and while holding down the Ctrl key, click on it .
And thats it!
Just count 1, 2, 3…5 and there you go…your pc is off !
I have tried this trick on my XP system and it has worked everytime and hasn’t negatively affected my pc. I haven’t tried this on any other version of Windows but I think it’ll work.
However I advise you to use this trick only when you are in a rush and you need a speedy shut down of your pc.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
The story describes the attempts of Rudran, an attorney in Chennai High court , to solve the murder of his father DD and to lift the ban on the book "Religion, an encyclopedia of superstitions?" penned by his dad. The story also includes Detective officer James who identifies that DD was only the start to a series of murders. Whether the murderer was identified and what was the reason behind the murders has been told in a gripping fashion in a two track story line.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
[Spoiler ~~~~ Contains the plot of the story. Those who have not watched the movie or intend to do so, don’t read further]
Kamal has performed ten roles in the movie.
The roles are as follows:
1. Govind Ramasamy(a scientist in USA)
2. Rangarajan Nambi (a 12th Century Vaishnavite Youngster)
3. George Bush (American President)
4. Christian Fletcher (ex CIA Agent)
5. Balram Naidu (Telugu speaking RAW officer)
6.Avtar Singh (Punjabi Pop Singer)
7. Shingen Narahasi (Japanese Karate Master)
8. Krishnaveni (a 95 year old mentally retarded lady in a Vaishnavite Math)
9. Khalifulla Khan(an eight feet tall Muslim youngster)
10. Vincent Poovaraghan (A Dalit youngster who fights against Sand Mafia)
I have given the order of roles as they appear in the film(with importance).
The film starts with Govind (played by Kamal) narrating us the story of Rangarajan Nambi in a meeting attended by George Bush, Kalaignar Karunanidhi and Dr.Manmohan Singh. The main plot of the story starts on 20th December 2004 and ends on 26th December 2004.
Kulothunga Kulasekara Chozha-II (played by Napolean) was a Shiva Devotee. He orders the removal of statue of Lord Govindaraja Permuaal from the temple and throw it into the sea. Rangarajan Nambi tries to save the statue but only in vain. Kulothunga tells to Nambi “If you praise Lord Shiva and say ‘Om Nama Shivaya’ I would leave you or else you have to reach vaikundam (place where Lord Narayanan lives)”. Nambi closes his eyes and starts saying, “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM”. The suspense prevails for some time. He finally finishes “Om Namo Narayana!”. The song Kallai Mattum starts, the song has been beautifully picturised showing the pain of a Vaishnavite. At the end of the song both the statue of Lord Govindaraja Permuaal and Rangarajan Nambi tied to it are thrown into the sea. All this happened in the 12th century.
Immediately the story shifts to USA (21st century). It shows Govind working in a research lab. The two wheeled mini scooter-like vehicle (as shown in the above image) used by the scientists of that lab is awesome. Govind places a vial inside a dry cold storage unit and leaves to watch the announcement of George Bush (played by Kamal again) regarding synthetic bio weapons. Anu, a monkey escapes from its cage and eats the semi-solid substance present inside a vial. The monkey dies with blood splashing out from it. They pour enormous amount of NaCl (Sodium Chloride) and arrest the virus. The semi-solid substance is a bio synthetic virus developed by Govind. It is capable of mass killing if it is let free inside a city. So Govind wants to destroy it. But he finds that his superior officer wants to sell the virus to terrorists. Govind takes the vial (containing the virus) out and escapes to his friend Suresh’s home. Suresh too works for the terrorists.
Fletcher (played by Kamal again), an ex-CIA agent comes in the helicopter to the home of Suresh. He shoots Suresh. But Suresh’s wife a Japanese girl (sister of Japanese martial arts teacher Shingen Narahasi, played by kamal) trained in karate helps Govind escape but dies in her attempt. Govind finds another friend in the car park. Along with him Govind escapes in his car. Still Fletcher chases him in the helicopter. ‘How does Fletcher trace them?’ Govind thinks and finds that it is with his cell phone. He throws the cell phone out of his friend's car into another car.
The vial was sent as a parcel to India by Govind’s friend by mistake. Govind tries to stop the Cargo Flight and goes to the airport. Fletcher follows him there too. Govind tries to escape and falls into the cargo luggage and is board into the flight.
Govind is arrested in Chennai by Balram Naidu (played by Kamal again), a RAW officer who has fondness for telugu people. Meanwhile Fletcher finds a Tamil speaking ex-CIA agent in Mallika Sherwath. He marries her and soon leaves to India. At the same time Avtar Singh (played by Kamal again) arrives at the airport for a concert. Avtar vomits blood in the airport. It attracts everyone in the airport. Making use of this, Fletcher takes custody of Govind and a police officer.
But before Fletcher takes him to custody, Govind had cleverly sent the vial to Chidambaram. Govind also escapes from Fletcher and reaches Chidambaram. In Chidambaram Govind meets Aandaal (played by Asin) in a math. The vial parcel was sent by Govind to Krishnaveni (played by Kamal again) in the math. She is mentally retarded and ninety five years old. Krishnaveni doesn’t return the vial back to Govind. Govind says that the vial contains a bio bomb, a virus. Krishnaveni runs out of the math and throws the vial into the Statue of Lord Permuaal, saying that Lord would save all from the virus. Fletcher follows Govind to Chidambaram.
Govind tries to escape with the statue and Aandaal follows Govind because it was the statue that she had been worshipping for long. On their way they are caught by a sand mafia gang and they escape from the gang while Poovaraghan (played by Kamal again) fights against sand mafia. Govind and Aandaal meet with an accident. There they meet an eight feet tall Muslim (Khalifulla played by Kamal again).
After this, what happened to the vial? Was the city saved? What is the connection to all this with the 12th century episode? All these questions are answered in an eventful manner with the Tsunami playing an important role.
Either the eight feet tall Khalifulla or the Japanese martial arts master, Kamal Hassan has proved that he is the Universal Hero. His dialogues especially in the climax when Fletcher asks the Japanese Martial arts master 'Remember Hiroshima?' to which the the Master counters him with another question , 'Do you remember Pearl Harbor?' was a treat. Michael Westmore (the make-up designer) needs a lot of appreciation for his work on Kamal’s face and body, without him Dasavatharam would not have been possible. Special words of appreciation must be given to Ravi Varman for his excellent cinematography and Devi Sri Prasad for a great BGM. Though the stunts of Fletcher (Kamal’s villain role) are super human it is enjoyable. This movie is the best (techinically) in the career of Kamal Hassan and director K.S.RaviKumar.
One doubt solved….
What is the connection between 12th century episode and Tsunami?
There are two connections
1. Butterfly effect – A small event like a butterfly flapping its wing is responsible for a tornado in some other part of the world.
2. Because the statue was thrown into the sea, it resulted in movement of tectonic plates and caused tsunami.
Kamal had not explained it in a detailed manner. In addition to the ten roles he has played on-screen he has played another off-screen role of a script writer also. He has performed all the roles perfectly. The movie runs for three hours. As a true Cinema fan I still like Anbe Sivam, but this movie is of a different genre, a scientific thriller. There may be many logical flaws.Still, it is definitely worth a watch.
Rating: ********* / 10
Bottomline: Fantastic entertainer,Defintely worth a watch!
