Elevators

Day in, day out we have been using elevators. Nowadays it is difficult to imagine buildings without elevators. Do we know what makes this elevator work?

Have you ever faced a situation when the elevator door on the floor opens and there is no elevator car ? (like in a terror movie)

How do these elevators work? how are doors controlled automatically and what are the safety measures that are built in a elevator?

Check out here to know how elevators work... http://science.howstuffworks.com/elevator.htm

Walking on Water

An interesting forward from one of my friend....

Photography

Was just browsing and came across a blog with beautiful photographs and quotes on Photography. Few Samples here....

To the complaint, "There are no people in these photographs," I respond, "There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer." - ansel adams

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again -- since it is life. - william faulkner

Leo Tolstoy - What Men live by

Recently i happened to read some stories of Leo tolstoy. An extract from those stories....

What men live by...

God sent an angel to the world to learn three truths: Learn What dwells in man, What is not given to man,and What men live by. Here is what the angel learnt at the end of the story...

"I have learnt that all men live not by care for themselves but by love."

"It is not given to any man to know whether, when eveningcomes, he will need boots for his body or slippers for his corpse."

"All men live not by the thought they spend on their own welfare, but becauselove exists in man."

"I understood that God does not wish men to live apart, andtherefore he does not reveal to them what each one needs forhimself; but he wishes them to live united, and therefore reveals toeach of them what is necessary for all."

"I have now understood that though it seems to men that they live bycare for themselves, in truth it is love alone by which they live.He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love."


Three Questions

It once occurred to a certain king, that if he always knew the righttime to begin everything; if he knew who were the right people to listen to, and whom to avoid; and, above all, if he always knew what was the most important thing to do, he would never fail in anything he might undertake.

And the answer king got at the end of the story is....

There is only one time that is important--Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time whenwe have any power. The most necessary man is he with whom you are,for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any oneelse: and the most important affair is, to do him good, because for that purpose alone was man sent into this life!"

Erik Weihenmayer - Blind to Failure

As usual i am giving a reference to a old article. This one is 5 years old. This was a cover story about Erik Weihenmayer, sightless since he was 13, who climbed Mount Everest in 2001.

Erik Weihenmayer is the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001. He also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002. His story was covered in a Time article in June 2001 titled Blind Faith. Follow the link to read the article....

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1000120-1,00.html

This article is a very inspirational article and I interpreted this article as below:

Most of the people may have a goal (short term, long term, whatever may be) and different people may have different capabilities/resources. But if we stick to our goals, we would definitely achieve it irrespective of the capabilities/resources that we had when the goal actually came to our mind.

But the mistakes that we tend to do normally,

1) We think that it would be difficult/impossible for me to achieve this goal because i am not capable of achieveing it, which is proven totally wrong by Erik.

2) Every day in life we tend to criticise and compare everything and try to choose. But there will always be a difference because we think that this what we are capable of, and when we see others doing more than what we think we are capable of.... there comes jealousness and it results in suffering. Finally we cry to god........saying, oh god, why did you give me less while you have given the other person more(in terms of money,love,job,property etc....).

All we need is the courage to hold on to our goal without comparing ourselves with anyone. Everyone has the same capabilities, but its our duty to realise it and achieve it.

Sounds philosophical.....

In Erik's case, it took 13 hrs to climb 20000 ft, which normally can be climbed in 7 hrs (average).

The time taken to achieve the goal doesn't really matter, what really matters is that the fight that we went through all the way to reach the goal and the state of happiness or peace that is felt when the goal is achieved, be it small or big.

By the way What is time???????.

Why do we have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in a hour and 24 hours in a day. Its just the way our astronomers and scientists have divided it, which we follow. Check this post to understand the history

Dont let time control you... Keep thinking.......

Learn, Understand, Experience and Teach

One Life

I am back from my trip abroad and ready to post......

i came across a very interesting web page while i was searching about evolution process. This page talks about evolution of the universe including human evolution.

Its difficult to go through it completely at one stretch, but this is for people who are interested in science and philosophy......... very rare combination to see (Einstein's...)

I have seen many people who believe in science, but they do not believe in religion or philosophy and vice versa. anyways here it goes....

http://www.onelife.com/index.html

lets continue our quest

Jet Lag

Recently i had to travel abroad and experienced jet lag for the first time. Here is some information about jet lag...

What is jet lag?

Jet lag is a temporary disorder that causes fatigue, insomnia, and other symptoms as a result of air travel across time zones.

What are other symptoms of jet lag?

Besides fatigue and insomnia, a jet lag sufferer may experience anxiety, constipation, diarrhea, confusion, dehydration, headache, irritability, nausea, sweating, coordination problems, and even memory loss. Some individuals may report additional symptoms, such as heartbeat irregularities and an increased susceptibility to illness.

Why does jet lag occur?

Jet lag occurs because the body of a traveler cannot immediately adjust to the time in a different zone. Thus, when a New Yorker arrives in Paris at midnight Paris time, his or her body continues to operate on New York time. It is ready to eat, not sleep. As the body struggles to cope with the new schedule, temporary insomnia, fatigue, irritability, and an impaired ability to concentrate may set in. Meanwhile, the bowels may malfunction in reaction to the changed bathroom schedule, and the brain may become confused and disoriented as it attempts to juggle schedules.

How does the body keep time?

A tiny part of the brain called the hypothalamus acts as a kind of alarm clock to activate various body functions such as hunger, thirst, and sleep. It also regulates body temperature, blood pressure, and the level of hormones and glucose in the bloodstream. To help the body tell the time of day, fibers in the optic nerve of the eye transmit perceptions of light and darkness to a time-keeping center within the hypothalamus. Thus, when the eye of an air traveler perceives dawn or dusk many hours earlier or later than usual, the hypothalamus may trigger activities that the rest of the body is not ready for, and jet lag occurs.

Snail world

Rains just started here and i came across a snail at home. I was curious to know about this little creature. Interesting thing is that a snail may have 3 eye stalks also. It has a heart too!.

Explore more about snails at http://www.freewebs.com/worldofsnails/

Here is a picture of a snail and its parts.

This adds one more question which does not have a answer. Is there a living creature in this world/universe/galaxy (whatever it is) without heart?.

Life that Matters

An inspirational story from inspirationpeak.com

Michael Josephson says...

What matters in life?.Where you are born, where you lived, how much money you made, how beautiful you are, how brilliant you are??????. NO, so what matters...

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Dreams

While we talk about sleep we cannot avoid dreams.

I am reading one of the most popular book on dreams by Sigmund Freud. Try it out to read it online if you are a dreamer too.....

Here is the link to the book: Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

Sleep

Ever wondered why do we sleep?
Can we live without sleeping?
Does animals sleep?. How long?

Nowadays i am sleeping for a quite longer time. No work......... :-).
Anyway here is what i found about sleep (Source: Wikipedia-Sleep )....
Sleep more learn more!!

Theories regarding the function of sleep

1) Restorative theories of sleep describe sleep as a dynamic time of healing and growth for organisms. During sleep growth hormone levels increase, and changes in immune function occur.

2) One process known to be highly dependent on sleep is memory. REM sleep appears to help with the consolidation of spatial and procedural memory, while slow-wave sleep helps with the consolidation of declarative memories. When experimental subjects are given academic material to learn, especially if it involves organized, systematic thought, their retention is markedly increased after a night's sleep. Mere rote memorization is retained similarly well with or without an intervening period of sleep.

3)Another view is that the function of sleep is for memory processing. This theory argues that saving memory directly into the long-term memory is a slow and error prone process, and, thus, proposes that the memory formed during waking time is not saved directly into the long-term memory; instead it is saved into a temporary memory store first. The function of sleep is to process, encode and transfer the data from the temporary memory store to the long-term memory store.

(This is more easily understandable .... RAM/ROM process........Hahaa)

Animal Sleep

Animals vary widely in their amounts of sleep, from two hours a day for giraffes to 20 hours for bats. Generally, required sleeping time decreases as body size increases. Cats are one of the few animals that do not have most of their sleep consolidated into one session, preferring instead to spread their sleep fairly evenly throughout the day.

Water mammals "sleep" with alternate hemispheres of their brains asleep and the other awake. They need to do this so they can breathe above water while sleeping. Migratory birds also seem to sleep this way.

Even fish and fruit flies appear to have a "sleeplike" state. This alternation of the sleeplike state and its absence is referred to as a "Basic Rest and Activity Cycle", or BRAC. Since the modern definition of sleep is defined using EEG criteria, and such tiny brains preclude the recording of EEG's, this may not technically be described as sleep. However, if fruit flies are repeatedly disturbed so that they can not rest, they have what is referred to as a "rest rebound". This behavior is strikingly similar to that exhibited by mammals and birds in similar conditions.

Many animals hibernate in a deep sleeplike state during winter to conserve body heat and energy. Estivation is a similar state in which other animals hibernate to escape the heat of summer.

Cattle, horses, and sheep are unique in that they can sleep while standing, though for cattle and sheep, REM sleep will not occur in such a position. For REM sleep to take place, the animals must lie down. Sleeping while standing is thus only partial sleep. However, birds may have periods of REM sleep while perched. Some breeds of dogs usually sleep throughout the day like cats, while other breeds have only one daily sleep session. While dreaming, dogs sometimes make a quiet barking sound.

Home Page

Thanks to google i finally have my home page in the internet. Here we go...........

Swami's Home

The Carpenter's House

Here is a short story....

The Carpenter's House
Author Unknown

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife enjoying his extended family.

He would miss the paycheck, but he needed to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter finished his work and the builder came to inspect the house, the contractor handed the front-door key to the carpenter. "This is your house," he said, "my gift to you.

"What a shock! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. Now he had to live in the home he had built none too well.

So it is with us. We build our lives in a distracted way, reacting rather than acting, willing to put up less than the best. At important points we do not give the job our best effort. Then with a shock we look at the situation we have created and find that we are now living in the house we have built. If we had realized that we would have done it differently.

Think of yourself as the carpenter. Think about your house. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build. Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity. The plaque on the wall says, "Life is a do-it-yourself project." Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today.

Warrior of the Light

Find more Inspirations at : www.inspirationpeak.com and get inspired.....

"Every Warrior of the Light
has felt afraid of going into battle.

Every Warrior of the Light
has, at some time in the past, lied or betrayed someone.

Every Warrior of the Light
has trodden a path that was not his.

Every Warrior of the Light
has suffered for the most trivial of reasons.

Every Warrior of the Light
has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.

Every Warrior of the Light
has failed in his spiritual duties.

Every Warrior of the Light
has said 'yes' when he wanted to say 'no.'

Every Warrior of the Light
has hurt someone he loved.

That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, Because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is."

- Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Author From his book: 'Warrior Of The Light'

Touching story - We all need help

A forwarded touching story. Here it goes....

I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car.

I had just come from the car wash and was waiting for my wife to get out of work.Coming my way from across the parking lot was what society would consider a bum. From the looks of him, he had no car, no home, no clean clothes, and no money. There are times when you feel generous but there are other times that you just don't want to be bothered. This was one of those "don't want to be bothered times."

"I hope he doesn't ask me for any money," I thought. He didn't. He came and sat on the curb in front of the bus stop but he didn't look like he could have enough money to even ride the bus.

After a few minutes he spoke. "That's a very pretty car," he said. He was ragged but he had an air of dignity around him. His scraggly blond beard keep more than his face warm.

I said, "thanks," and continued wiping off my car.

He sat there quietly as I worked. The expected plea for money never came.As the silence between us widened something inside said, "ask him if he needs any help." I was sure that he would say "yes" but I held true to the inner voice.

"Do you need any help?" I asked. He answered in three simple but profound words that I shall never forget.

We often look for wisdom in great men and women. We expect it from those of higher learning and accomplishments. I expected nothing but an outstretched grimy hand. He spoke the three words that shook me. "Don't we all?" he said.

I was feeling high and mighty, successful and important, above a bum in the street, until those three words hit me like a twelve gauge shotgun.

Don't we all?

I needed help. Maybe not for bus fare or a place to sleep, but I needed help. I reached in my wallet and gave him not only enough for bus fare, but enough to get a warm meal and shelter for the day. Those three little words still ring true. No matter how much you have, no matter how much you have accomplished, you need help too. No matter how little you have, no matter how loaded you are with problems, even without money or a place to sleep, you can give help.

Even if it's just a compliment, you can give that. You never know when you may see someone that appears to have it all. They are waiting on you to give them what they don't have. A different perspective on life, a glimpse at something beautiful, a respite from daily chaos, that only you through a torn world can see.

Maybe the man was just a homeless stranger wandering the streets. Maybe he was more than that. Maybe he was sent by a power that is great and wise, to minister to a soul too comfortable in themselves.

Maybe God looked down, called an Angel, dressed him like a bum, then said, "go minister to that man cleaning the car, that man needs help."

Don't we all?

Babies Do the Math on Voices and Faces

Scientific American: Babies Do the Math on Voices and Faces

Ozone Hole and its Recovery

Check out this Nasa's Earth Observatory website about Ozone Hole and its recovery.

An excerpt:

Ozone is a highly reactive colorless gas that contains three oxygen atoms. Near the surface of the Earth, ozone is hazardous to human health, causing problems like lung irritation, but high in the atmosphere, ozone acts as a crucial shield that absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17116