Saturday 15 September 2012

Believe in beliefs



      Generations have either believed or lived with the so called 'superstitious beliefs' and the "Elizabethan era" is one that is marked by plenty of such unbelievable and awful beliefs and since then, they have evolved through the sands of time. I India like every other country have a lot of followers of irrational beliefs and there ignorance to reality is a certain and primary cause; and the fear of getting a bad or rather undesired result is the other.
          'Not' buying iron made products on Saturdays or to shave on Mondays etc. are very common, regardless the follower or his family is educated or uneducated. Recently watching a television episode broadcasted on National Geographic Channel I was taken aback to see a person is almost beaten to death, so that the common masses surrounding him may attain some good luck by passing over the bad luck to him.
         I some way or the other everyone is surrounded by these beliefs and to be honest I am no exception.

Sunday 26 August 2012

Space Pioneering: One must know...

Yesterday will surfing the web I came across thousands of questions and queries on different blogs and forums on Space and its past. Some of the questions were definitely very hard to answer and even to think of. I here will be trying to answer the question to the best of my knowledge. Then let me start with the first one.

Question1. How the moon forms different structures?

This question may look like very simple but if you think it is so simple and first try to examine the moon from with all its formation. This still is not a big deal but after seeing the structures try to explain the structure to you. For example you will come across a formation where The moon bulges out from both the sides. Its a little typical to answer this but here how all this goes.

Phases of the moon as seen in the Southern Hemisphere

 The images below show the different phases of the moon in one Lunar month for the Northern Hemisphere
Ss
u
n
 Waning crescent
Last quarter 
(Half Moon) 
  Waning gibbous
Day 25
Day 21
Day 17


The Moon is 90 degrees west of the sun
The Sun
New Moon 
Day 0 

  
The angular distance of the sun and moon is small, less than a few degrees.


Full Moon
Day 14

The moon is 180 degrees from the sun.
The Earth
1

 

 

 
Day 3
Day 7
Day 10
Waxing crescent
First quarter
or Half Moon
Waxing gibbous
The Moon is 90 degrees east of the Sun

When the bright part is getting biggerthe Moon is waxing.
When it is getting smallerthe Moon is waning.
When the Moon is more than half-lit, it is called a gibbous Moon.
When the moon is less than half-lit, it is called a crescent Moon.

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year. Here is the Farmers Almanac’s list of the full Moon names.
• Full Wolf Moon – January Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
• Full Snow Moon – February Since the heaviest snow usually falls during this month, native tribes of the north and east most often called February’s full Moon the Full Snow Moon. Some tribes also referred to this Moon as the Full Hunger Moon, since harsh weather conditions in their areas made hunting very difficult.
• Full Worm Moon – March As the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was also known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
• Full Pink Moon – April This name came from the herb moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names for this month’s celestial body include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.
• Full Flower Moon – May In most areas, flowers are abundant everywhere during this time. Thus, the name of this Moon. Other names include the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon.
• Full Strawberry Moon – June This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!
• The Full Buck Moon – July July is normally the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.
• Full Sturgeon Moon – August The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.
• Full Corn Moon or Full Harvest Moon – September This full moon’s name is attributed to Native Americans because it marked when corn was supposed to be harvested. Most often, the September full moon is actually the Harvest Moon, which is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night: just 25 to 30 minutes later across the U.S., and only 10 to 20 minutes later for much of Canada and Europe. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice the chief Indian staples are now ready for gathering.
• Full Hunter’s Moon or Full Harvest Moon – October This full Moon is often referred to as the Full Hunter’s Moon, Blood Moon, or Sanguine Moon. Many moons ago, Native Americans named this bright moon for obvious reasons. The leaves are falling from trees, the deer are fattened, and it’s time to begin storing up meat for the long winter ahead. Because the fields were traditionally reaped in late September or early October, hunters could easily see fox and other animals that come out to glean from the fallen grains. Probably because of the threat of winter looming close, the Hunter’s Moon is generally accorded with special honor, historically serving as an important feast day in both Western Europe and among many Native American tribes.
• Full Beaver Moon – November This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.
 The Full Cold Moon; or the Full Long Nights Moon – December During this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and nights are at their longest and darkest. It is also sometimes called the Moon before Yule. The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long, and because the Moon is above the horizon for a long time. The midwinter full Moon has a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite a low Sun. 

I hope you now can answer every question about the moon and its different structures.

Please stay connected to get answers to other intriguing questions.
See ye!!!

Friday 10 August 2012

A must read!!!

"Built to Last" by James C. Collins & Jerry I. Porras is amazingly and comprehensively written best seller featuring some of the words biggest and most importantly most revenue seeking companies. While reading the book I came across the rigourous research that took place before launching this book in market. I would rathet call it a reasearch work not just simply a book. The masterpiece is basically for entrepreneurs and for people in the business sector but I would recommend everyone to read this book because it possess so much of general information about the products of those companies we daily use from HP to Norton to 3M. The book consist of visionary companies established before 1950 and they are compared with some other companies which started very well but can not convert there start in to big success as visinary companies were able to do. While reading you will through many unknown and unbelievable fact about some of the very successful companies today. To conclude I would rate this as 4.5 out of 5  not just because it is written by some of the best people of America but also because of the way the book is written and also because of the clearity in the facts that it clearly show. Thank you very much for reading my post and I expect you back on my bog to know some other more interesting things.

Monday 21 May 2012

Facebook facts


Facebook Facts:
facebookFacebook was originally named TheFaceBook and it was developed by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg or Tyler Winklevoss. The first use of the FaceBook was on the Harvard campus and it was limited only to Harvard students. Soon the FaceBook spread like wild fire around the other major U.S. Universities. Mark Zuckerberg dropped the Harvard and pursued his facebook dream to become one of the 4th most-trafficked websites in the world with more than 90 million active users. The FaceBook website is built on PHP-MySQL technology and it is probably the most popular PHP website ever built. Interesting fact is that the facebook.com domain was purchased for $200,000 and FaceBook has more than 24 million photos uploaded daily.

Some Facebook Highlights:
400 million active users.
50% check in daily.
Average user spends 55 minutes per day.
35 million update status every day.
3 billion photos uploaded each month.
5 billion pieces of content shared every day.
70% of users are outside the United States.

Credit and Debit Cards need to be known...


Amazing facts about Credit Card Debt : Credit card is a very interesting topic to read about.The growing trend in personal debt is quite unbelievable. So i have gathered few interesting facts and statistics about debt and credit that will make you think about your finances.
amazing facts about credit cards debt
1.Diners Club issued that first card to only two hundred customers and it could only be used at twenty seven restaurants in New York City.
2.Late library fines and unpaid parking tickets can hurt your credit score. You can even check your credit score online using checkmycreditscore.us. every time you apply for any loan ( secured / unsecured ), your credit history and credit score is checked.
3.In 2006, the credit card industry took in $55 billion in credit card fees and $90 billion in finance charges. Makes you want to pay your credit card bills on time.
4.National debt of countries In order of debt:
United States 10 Trillion
United Kingdom 8 Trillion
Germany 4 Trillion
France 3 Trillion
Italy 2 Trillion
5.United states consumers racked up an estimated $51 billion worth of fast food on their personal credit and debit cards. That is equal to 10.2 Billion Big Mac meals, 3 billion pounds of fries and 1.7 billion gallons of coke.
6.At least one in 10 consumers would carry more than 10 credit cards. That is approximately equal to 304 tons of plastic or 61 Elephants.
7.51 percent of the US population has at least two credit cards. That is 305,000,000 plastic cards which would span 16,223 miles, 65% around the world. You could create a wide enough path to walk over the Atlantic Ocean.
8.It took the city of Montreal 30 years to pay off its Olympic debt of $2 billion, held in 1976!
9.A $1,000 charge on an average credit card will take almost 22 years to pay, and will cost more than $2,300 in interest ($3,300 total), assuming only 2 percent minimum payment (zero late fees) is made at every billing cycle.
10.All though the first credit cards were merchant specific cards starting in 1900 with several hotels, the first true credit card was invented in 1950 by Ralph Schneider and Frank X. McNamara. The Diners Club charged participating restaurants 7% interest on each purchase and charged a $3 fee a year to the card holder. This was the first card that could be used at different locations. Chase and Bank of America (Visa) came out with their first credit cards in 1958. They became most popular when the magnetic strip became available in 1970.
11.Americans owe approximately $850 billion in revolving credit card debt.
12.Closing a credit card account in full will have a negative affect on your credit score. Length of history on an account is 15% of your FICO score.
13.Average Household Credit Card Debt is $8,400.00
14.The total amount of credit made available by issuers in 2007 was about $5 trillion, or $43,007 per household.
Sources: Bankrate.com, FTC.gov, fool.com , delraycc.com etc.


Most awaited LUMIA 800 VS OMNIA W


NOKIA LUMIA
800
 vs. SAMSUNG
Omnia W

Nokia Lumia 800
6,2
3 640 krNokia Lumia 800
Telefonshoppen

Reasons to buy the Nokia Lumia 800

Browser benchmark
Fast web browser performance
1 544 ms
Upload speed
Fast upload speed
2,03 mbps
Camera resolution
High resolution
8 MP
Download speed
Average download speed
3,74 mbps
Internal storage
Average amount of internal storage
16 GB
Talk time
Long talk time
9,5 hours
Network latency
Average latency
97 ms
Samsung Omnia W
5,8
Runner-upWindows Phone

SAMSUNGOmnia W

2 303 krSamsung Omnia W
InWarehouse

Reasons to buy the Samsung Omnia W

Wifi hotspot
Wifi hotspot
Share your phone's Internet connection with wifi devices
Screen type
Vivid screen
Super AMOLED
Weight
Light-weight
115 g
Standby time
Average standby time
20,4 days
Thickness
Thin
11 mm
Size
Really small
58x116x10 mm
Battery capacity
Average battery capacity
1 500 mAh

Web browsing

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
browser benchmark1 544 msvs25 851 msThe Lumia 800 has a fairly fast web browser, but the Omnia W is slow
Help
adobe flash supportNovsNoNeither supports Adobe Flash

Sensors

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
gpsAssisted GPSvsAssisted GPSHave assisted GPS
Help
accelerometerYesvsYesBoth include an accelerometer
Help
compassYesvsYesBoth have integrated compasses
Help
gyroscopeNovsYes

Storage

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
memory cardNonevsNoneNeither has a memory card slot
Help
internal storage16 GBvs7,8 GBThe Lumia 800's has an average amount of internal storage for storing music, photos and movies, but the Omnia W is below average

Size

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
weight142 gvs115 gThe Omnia W is quite light, but the Lumia 800 is heavier
Help
thickness12 mmvs11 mmThe Omnia W is thin, while the Lumia 800 is just average thickness
Help
size61x116x12 mmvs58x116x10 mmThe Omnia W is fairly small, but the Lumia 800 is not far behind
Help
waterproofNovsNoNeither are waterproof

Screen

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
screen size3,7"vs3,7"Average sized screens
Help
screen resolution800x480vs800x480Average screen resolution
Help
screen ppi252 PPIvs251 PPIAverage display of text, images and video
Help
screen typeAMOLEDvsSuper AMOLEDThe Omnia W has a Super AMOLED screen which is even more vivid, the Lumia 800 doesn't
Help
touchscreen typeCapacitivevsCapacitiveTouchscreen

Network

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
networkHSDPA (7,2 mbps)vsHSDPA (7,2 mbps)Average data speeds
Help
generation3.5Gvs3.5GStandard network technology
Help
download speed3,74 mbpsvs0,96 mbpsThe Lumia 800 has average actual download speeds, but the Omnia W's is slow
Help
upload speed2,03 mbpsvs0,34 mbpsThe Lumia 800 has fast actual upload speeds, but the Omnia W is slow
Help
network latency97 msvs185 msAverage network latencies
Help
wifi802.11n (150 mbps)vs802.11n (150 mbps)Average wifi speed
Help
wifi hotspotNovsYesThe Omnia W has a wifi hotspot to share it's Internet connection with other wifi devices
Help
nfcNovsNoNeither support NFC for wireless transactions
Help
bluetooth2,1vs2,1Average bluetooth support

Photo & Video

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
camera8 MPvs5 MPThey both have cameras
Help
flashYesvsYesBoth have camera flashes
Help
secondary cameraUnknownvs0,3 MP
Help
movie format720p @ 30fpsvs720p @ 30fpsBoth shoot high resolution HD movies
Help
video outNonevsNoneNeither have video output to connect to TVs etc

Processing power

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
frequency1,4 GHzvs1,4 GHzPowerful processors, very snappy and responsive
Help
number of coresSingle corevsSingle coreBoth have single core cpus which is about the average
Help
ram512 MBvs512 MBAverage amount of RAM for running apps

Battery

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
talk time9,5 hoursvs7 hoursThe Lumia 800 has good talk time, but the Omnia W is average
Help
standby time14 daysvs20,4 daysAverage standby time
Help
battery capacity1 450 mAhvs1 500 mAhAverage capacity batteries
Help
technologyLithium IonvsLithium Ion

Keyboard & keypad

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
numeric keypadNonevsNoneNeither has a numeric keypad
Help
keyboardNonevsNoneNeither has a physical keyboard

Music

NOKIA
LUMIA 800
Nokia Lumia 800
Samsung Omnia WSAMSUNG
OMNIA W
Help
fm radioYesvsYesBoth have built in FM radios to listen to news and music from FM stations
Help
fm transmitterNovsNoNeither have built-in FM transmitters
Help
headphone jack3.5 mmvs3.5 mmBoth have a headphone jack