World Trade Center

The building of the World Trade Center started as a post-World War II urban renewal project, spearheaded by David Rockefeller, to help revitalize Lower Manhattan. The project was developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which hired architect Minoru Yamasaki who came up with the specific idea for twin towers. The towers were designed as framed tube structures, which provided tenants with open floor plans, uninterrupted by columns or walls. This was accomplished using numerous, closely-spaced perimeter columns to provide much of the strength to the structure, along with gravity load shared with the core columns. The elevator system, which made use of sky lobbies and a system of express and local elevators, allowed substantial floor space to be freed up for use as office space by making the structural core smaller. The design and construction of the World Trade Center twin towers involved many other innovative techniques, such as the slurry wall for digging the foundation, and wind tunnel experiments. Construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower began in August 1968, and the South Tower in 1969. Extensive use of prefabricated components helped to speed up the construction process. The first tenants moved into the North Tower in December 1970 and into the South Tower in January 1972. Four other, low-level buildings were constructed as part of the World Trade Center in the 1970s, and a seventh building was constructed in the mid-1980s. (more...)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

On this day...July 12

Independence Day in the Philippines (1898) and the Russian Federation (1990), Dia dos Namorados in Brazil.

1864 - Union General Ulysses S. Grant pulled his troops out of the Battle of Cold Harbor.
1889 - The Armagh rail disaster killed 88 people near Armagh, Northern Ireland.
1942 - Anne Frank began keeping her diary during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
1964 - Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison by the Pretoria Supreme Court.
1979 - A human-powered aircraft named Gossamer Albatross flew across the English Channel.

The Turk was a hoax that purported to be a chess-playing machine. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by the Hungarian baron Wolfgang von Kempelen, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once. Publicly promoted as an automaton and given its common name based on its appearance, the Turk was a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master to hide inside and operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played. The apparatus was demonstrated around Europe and the United States of America for over 80 years until its destruction in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. (more...)

Tornado

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air which is in contact with both a cumulonimbus cloud base and the surface of the earth. Tornadoes can come in many sizes, but are typically in the form of a visible condensation funnel, with the narrow end touching the earth. Often, a cloud of debris encircles the lower portion of the funnel. Most tornadoes have winds of 110 mph (175 km/h) or less, are approximately 250 feet (75 meters) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. However, some tornadoes can have winds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), be more than a mile (1.6 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 kilometers). Tornadoes have been observed on every continent except Antarctica; however, most of the world's tornadoes occur in the United States. Other areas which commonly experience tornadoes include New Zealand, western and southeastern Australia, south-central Canada, northwestern and central Europe, Italy, south-central and eastern Asia, east-central South America, and Southern Africa. (more...)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is Israel's capital, seat of government, and largest city, both in terms of population and area, with 732,100 residents in an area of 126 sq. km (49 sq. mi.). Located in the Judean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea, the city has a history that goes back as far as the 4th millennium BCE. The walled area of Jerusalem, which constituted the entire city until the 1860s, is now called the Old City, and was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1982. The Old City is home to several sites of key religious importance: the Temple Mount and its Western Wall for Jews, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Christians, and the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque for Muslims. Modern Jerusalem has grown up around the Old City, with its civic and cultural hub extending westward toward the country's urban center in Gush Dan. Today, Jerusalem remains a bone of contention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem (captured in the 1967 Six-Day War) has been particularly controversial, as there are Palestinians who view this part of the city as the capital of a future Palestinian state. Thus, the status of a united Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal capital" has not been recognized by the United Nations and much of the international community. (more...)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

Mayan Languages

Mayan languages are a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. The Mayan language family is one of the best documented and most studied in the Americas. Modern Mayan languages descend from Proto-Mayan, a language thought to have been spoken at least 5000 years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method. Mayan languages form part of the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, an area of linguistic convergence developed throughout millennia of interaction between the peoples of Mesoamerica. All Mayan languages display the basic diagnostic traits of this linguistic area. During the pre-Columbian era of Mesoamerican history, some Mayan languages were written in the Maya hieroglyphic script. Its use was particularly widespread during the Classic period of Maya civilization. The surviving corpus of over 10,000 known individual Maya inscriptions on buildings, monuments, pottery and bark-paper codices, combined with the rich postcolonial literature in Mayan languages written in the Latin alphabet, provides a basis for the modern understanding of pre-Columbian history unparalleled in the Americas. (more...)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

Tamil Nadu

The history of Tamil Nadu and the civilisation of the Tamil people are among the oldest in the world. Throughout its history, spanning from the early Palaeolithic age to the modern time, this region has coexisted with various external cultures. Except for relatively short periods in its history, the Tamil region has remained independent of external occupation. The three Tamil dynasties of Chera, Chola and Pandya were of ancient origins. With the decline of the three ancient dynasties during the fourteenth century, the Tamil country became part of the Vijayanagara Empire. Under this empire the Telugu speaking Nayak governors ruled the Tamil land. The brief appearance of the Marathas gave way to the European trading companies, who began to appear during the seventeenth century and eventually assumed greater sway over the indigenous rulers of the land. The Madras Presidency comprising of most of southern India was created in the eighteenth century and was ruled directly by the British East India Company. After the independence of India, the Tamil Nadu state was created based on linguistic boundaries. (more...)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

35 mm Film

35 mm film is the basic film gauge most commonly used for both still photography and motion pictures, and remains relatively unchanged since its introduction in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, using film stock supplied by George Eastman. The photographic film is cut into strips 1 3/8 inches or 35 mm wide — hence the name. The standard negative pulldown is four perforations per frame along both edges, which makes for exactly 16 frames per foot. A wide variety of largely proprietary gauges were used by the numerous different camera and projection systems independently invented around the late 19th century and early 20th century, ranging from 13 mm to 75 mm. 35 mm was eventually recognized as the international standard gauge in 1909, and has by far remained the dominant film gauge for both image origination and projection. Despite threats both from smaller and larger gauges, and novel formats, its longevity is largely because its size allows for a relatively good tradeoff between the cost of the film stock and the quality of the images captured. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the manufacturing of 35 mm motion picture film has been a duopoly between Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm. (more...)

Courtesy:Wikipedia.org

Gilberto Silva

Gilberto Silva is a Brazilian football player. He has played most of his club football for the English club, Arsenal, as a defensive midfielder. Gilberto was raised in a poor family, and as a child he balanced playing football with various labouring jobs. He began his football career in 1997 with América Mineiro, where good form earned him a move to Atlético Mineiro in 2000. He became a star player for Atlético, playing for three years in the Brazilian Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. He came to particular prominence when he helped the Brazilian national team win the 2002 FIFA World Cup, playing in all seven of Brazil's matches. In August of 2002 he joined Arsenal for £4.5 million, with whom he has won the 2004 FA Premier League, and two FA Cup trophies. In his first five seasons with the club he played 208 games and scored 23 goals. On 19 August 2006 he scored Arsenal's first ever competitive goal at the newly built Emirates Stadium. He was made vice-captain of Arsenal in 2006 and is contracted to the club until June 2009, after which he is expected to move back to Brazil. (more...)

Courtesy:Wikipedia.org

The Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to represent their country in the international competition.

The contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. It is also one of the most-watched non-sporting events in the world,[1] with audience figures having been quoted in recent years as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally. Eurovision has also been broadcast outside Europe to such places as Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States, despite the fact that these countries do not compete. Since the year 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet, with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online.

The Contest is historically known for often showcasing formulaic, orchestrated pop music. However, it has featured a vast, diverse array of songs, including such musical genres as Arab, Armenian, Balkan, Celtic music, Dance, Folk, Israeli, Greek, Latin, Nordic, Pop-rap, Rock, and Turkish. (More...)

Courtesy:Wikipedia.org

Cell Nucleus

The cell nucleus is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. It contains most of the cell's genetic material, organized as multiple long linear DNA molecules in complex with a large variety of proteins such as histones to form chromosomes. The genes within these chromosomes make up the cell's nuclear genome. The function of the nucleus is to maintain the integrity of these genes and to control the activities of the cell by regulating gene expression. The main structural elements of the nucleus are the nuclear envelope, a double membrane that encloses the entire organelle and keeps its contents separated from the cellular cytoplasm, and the nuclear lamina, a meshwork within the nucleus that adds mechanical support much like the cytoskeleton supports the cell as a whole. Because the nuclear membrane is impermeable to most molecules, nuclear pores are required to allow movement of molecules across the envelope. Although the interior of the nucleus does not contain any membrane-delineated bodies, its contents are not uniform, and a number of sub nuclear bodies exist, made up of unique proteins, RNA molecules, and DNA conglomerates. The best known of these is the nucleolus, which is mainly involved in assembly of ribosomes. After being produced in the nucleolus, ribosomes are exported to the cytoplasm where they translate mRNA. The nucleus was the first organelle to be discovered, and was first described by Franz Bauer in 1802. It was later described in more detail by Scottish botanist Robert Brown in 1831. (more...)

Courtesy:Widipedia.org

Baby Gender Mentor

The Baby Gender Mentor test is a blood test designed to determine if a pregnant mother is carrying a boy or a girl. The test is made by Acu-Gen Biolab, Inc., an American biotech company in Lowell, Massachusetts, and is marketed to detect the gender of a fetus as early as five weeks after conception. According to Acu-Gen, the accuracy of the test exceeds that of conventional methods, such as ultrasonography, amniocentesis, or chorionic villus sampling techniques, and that the test offers "unsurpassed accuracy, unrivaled earliness, and uncompromised promptness". The company has so far chosen not to release details of how the test works or proof of its accuracy, as they consider this information proprietary. Since the test made a prominent media debut on 17 June 2005 on the Today Show, it has been the center of several controversies. Customers and scientists question the accuracy of the test; and legal action is being pursued against Acu-Gen as well as a major supplier of the test kit. Concerns have also been raised by bioethicists that use of the test could lead to practices such as gender selection and Acu-Gen has allegedly used the test to illegally offer medical diagnoses. (more...)

Courtesy: Wikipedia.org

Quizzing

Give your answers in the comments tab.

See English, Talk English, Think English

The main purpose of language is communication, and here we shall look at English language, ways to improve its usage, and also the pitfalls which prevent us from learning it adequately.

As the story goes, once upon a time in British India one of the English officers had a difficult time communicating with his Hindi-speaking peon. If he wanted the door of his office shut, the
peon used to open it and vice versa. Another English friend offered this advice to help him communicate. He advised the officer to speak out rapidly the sentence "There was a cold day." if he wanted the peon to open the door. He also advised him to speak rapidly another sentence "There was a brown crow" if he wanted the door closed. These roughly translated phonetically into "Darwaza Kol Dhey" and "Darwaza Bandh Karo" which the Hindi-speaking peon was able to grasp. Thus, communication eased.

This story brings out the common problem of language usage. If it is difficult for a native English speaker to communicate and understand Hindi, it is also equally difficult for Indians to communicate and understand English. There are many reasons for this, and I shall dwell on two of the most important reasons here.

The first and most obvious one is our limited exposure to English. We Indians rarely get exposure to English from an early age. We are first exposed to the mother tongue or the vernacular and then later to English. (I don't mean to say that our mother tongue hampers us entirely from speaking English but no one can argue the fact that it does prevent us from speaking English well.) This prevents us from getting a head start in learning English early in our life. This problem, however, is easily remedied. The effective ways to get good and proper English exposure are by reading books and watching English movies and English TV shows. Books help us get a grasp of sentence construction and grammar usage whereas movies and English TV shows help our listening and increase our understanding of spoken English. If done regularly, one can grasp the nuances in both written and spoken English thereby leading to better and more effective English communication.

Since we all start out speaking in our vernacular or mother tongue and rarely use English at our homes, we tend to think too in the vernacular. This leads to translation of thoughts from the
vernacular to English and then into spoken or written English. This is one of the foremost reasons which leads to our poor form of English. Some English phrases we Indians use are exact translations from the vernacular and are sometimes hilarious. They make perfect sense in our vernacular languages but the meanings are lost upon translation to English. This is admittedly a difficult thing to conquer as few of us ever speak English at home. The best way to go about this problem would be to start by writing on any subject in English all the while forcing the mind to think in English and then bring out the thoughts into words through pen and paper. The writing done need not be an essay or a poem or anything that requires a lot of thought. It could be as simple as keeping a diary in English which one updates on daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Also, one can write letters to newspapers with their opinions on the burning issues of the day. When we start writing in English it forces us to think in English and hence in due course will make us better users of English.

Since English is the worlds second most spoken language it is worthwhile to purse a certain amount of time daily towards improving our skills in spoken and written English. English is a steadily growing language and is starting to show its influence everywhere and the right knowledge of English is going to make a lot of difference tomorrow's world.

So let's all push back our difficulties and let's refine our English.

Know Your Word

We often say the word F**K you. Actually it has a long history related to it. In the Medieval era in England, child bearing and giving birth wasrestricted by the king. So those who wanted to have children should geta proper consent from the king. They would be given consent and a messageboard saying "Fornication Under the Consent of the King" will be hangedin their doors outside the house. So that became to be shortly called asFUCK, and the Americans who settled from over Europe took there and madeit a complulsory part of their slang.

We usually call rouges in Tamil especially, as kedi. When the British ruled India, habitual crime doers and local bandits who frequently are jailed for petty offences were called as Known Depredators. So evenafter the British left us, we still use the short form KD. Also the same case with OC which was used by the British posts for mails without proper stamps on it and the current day usage is well known.

Answer These Questions Plz

Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of its bottle?

Why are there flotation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes?

Why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?

Why do you need a driver's license to buy liquor when you can't drink and drive?

Why is lemon juice mostly artificial ingredients but dishwashing liquidcontains real lemons?

If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks onthe doors?

If nothing ever sticks to TEFLON, how do they make TEFLON stick to the pan?

If you tied buttered toast to the back of a cat and dropped it from a height, what would happen?

If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?

Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?

You know how most packages say "Open here," what is the protocol if thepackage says, "Open somewhere else"?

You know that little indestructible black box that is used on planes, why can't they make the whole plane out of the same substance?

What do you plant to grow a seedless watermelon?

When sign makers go on strike, is anything written on their signs?

Idioms For You - Take the Ball and Run With It

Here are some idioms on "Take"

'Take something with a grain of salt' - means to listen to something without completely believing it.

'Take the bull by the horns' - to accomplish a difficult task in a determined and correct manner.'Take the path of least resistance' - to follow an easy way out, where obstacles can be avoided.

'It does not take a rocket Scientist'- means something is clear and easily understood; it is obvious.

'Take a trip down memory lane'- remembering some of the good deeds you have performed in the past.

'Take Pot luck' - without knowing the end result you accept what is available.

'To take somebody for a ride' - means to cheat someone wilfully.

'Take to something like a duck to water' - means to easily acquire the method of doing a thing and finding pleasure in performing the same.

'Take umbrage' - to lose temper on something someone has said or done.

'Take a pew'- (Humourous) means to ask someone to be seated.

'Take each day as it comes' - to face things as it comes on a day to day basis and not to draw a master plan for one's lifetime.

'Take the ball and run with it' - to take an idea or plan and develop it further.

'(Let) the devil take the hindmost'- means to think about yourself and your prosperity and not to mind about others.

'I take my hat off to somebody' - to adore and respect someone for their excellent accomplishment/ for something they have done.

'Take something as gospel (truth)' - to believe that some news or information provided is very true.

'Take centre stage' - an object or a person most noticed in a gathering.

'To take the brunt of something' - means to face and suffer the worst part of something harmful such as an attack.

'To take the lid off something' - to make public a scandal etc.

'Take matters into your own hands' - to tackle a problem by yourself .

'Take up the cudgels for somebody or something' - to furnish evidence and argue in support of someone or something .

'Take somebody's name in vain' - to quote someone's name in their absence.

'Take your life into your hands' - encounter something very fatal; to do something dangerous.

'Take the wraps off something' - to publicise a thing after guarding a secret for long.

SmartMT

Did u check out the search engine. If yes give ur comments about it. Exclusively for MTs.

If not click here

AsiaMedia :: INDIA: AXN banned for 'indecent' programme

AsiaMedia :: INDIA: AXN banned for 'indecent' programme

Depress Your Depression

The following contents help you for Depression Treatment. I suggest you to have an overview of depression treatment and if the depression patient is clinical do consult a doctor or a professional. Depression is a condition that affects majority of adults and children and teens. Depression doesn't discriminate and affects people of all races, ages and groups. It is said that women are twice more likely to suffer from depression than men.


Symptoms of depression include, but are not limited to:

• Feelings of guilt and worthlessness

• Feelings of negativity, pessimism and hopelessness

• Persistent sad, anxious or empty mood

• Difficulty concentrating and staying focused on a specific task

• Avoidance of family members and friends

• Sleep Difficulty

• Difficulty managing mood swings

Non clinical depression can be treated by understanding the above symptoms. Below is the description of the above mentioned points.

Feeling of guilt and worthlessness:

In a lay man language this is inferiority complex also. You may not be as beautiful as others are but this does not indicate that you are inferior. Your memory may not be as good as other’s but how can you be inferior. It does not mean you are inferior, it means you are not perfect yet. But you may be good in other areas. Know your talent and ability. Each individual has his own strength. Recognize that and capitalize that. If you are not having million dollars to start a restaurant, start a road side fast food kiosk. At the end of the day you may have good profits. Start saving and collecting the resources and the day will come you may trade for a five star restaurant or a chain of restaurants.

Feelings of negativity, pessimism and hopelessness:

All of us are born to succeed but our environment and experiences condition us to fail. God wants us to achieve success and happiness. Every cloud has a silver lining. After every flood there is prosperity. It is all in your mind. If you cannot control the wind you can adjust the sail. Every failure teaches us. Failure does not mean you are failure it means you are yet to succeed. If you are not able to achieve today it does not mean you will never achieve it, it means it can take more time.

Persistent sad, anxious or empty mood:

After every failure one feels sad. A feeling that you have accomplished nothing gives us an empty mood. But every failure teaches us something. It means you have learnt something and that may be used in any of new areas. If a big tree is fallen, new tree does not take much time to grow because all the roots of fallen tree are already there in the soil. So the tree starts from that point and grow.

Difficulty concentrating and staying focused on a specific task:

Our brain is a thought producing factory. Whenever at the time of failures it thinks of wastage of life. It stops concentrating on a specified task because of fear of failure again. It does not mean you have wasted your life, it means you can start a fresh. Every ‘NO’ in life is ‘New Opportunity’

Avoidance of family members and friends:

Family members and friends are never against us. They are in love with us and not with our success and achievements. If they are so how can they be our family members and friends? Stop worrying what they are thinking of you. They do not have reason to think negative of you. Like in a human body, a sprain in a leg does not mean that other leg will start complaining or the heart refuses to pump fast to meet the growing demand of oxygen. Even arms get widened to save any fall. How this happens, the injury’s message is received by our brain which immediately orderes every part of body to share responsibility of sprained leg. Help them, speak positive in their moments of distress or failure and in return you will always get a positive cooperation.

Sleep Difficulty:

Can you change the circumstances beyond your control? You can’t change the seasons, direction of wind, effects of moon, sea tides, sun rising etc. You can not even control the health of your fellow human beings. All you can do is adjust with the conditions and circumstances. This is all your attitude; a day between two nights or a night between two days. God has not abandoned you; He may be having a better idea. Have faith in yourself, have faith in God. Sleep well. If sickness is unavoidable, relax and enjoy it.

Difficulty managing mood swings:

Life is not a restaurant; no body will come to you to ask for choice. It is a cafeteria – self service only. Go to counter, read the menu, pay the price, have the food, consume it and throw the trash. You have a large menu of choices in the life too. The only thing is to choose the right items. You can choose to smoke or not to smoke. You can choose to drink or not to drink. Similarly your mood swings are also there in the menu. Choose positivity or negativity, good mood or spoiled one. Keep in mind – people are not interested in your sorrows. You laugh and the whole world laughs with you. But if you cry you have to cry alone.

Thanks to my friend for sharing this.