did-you-know

Awards and Honours

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:34:28 +0100

The Dalai Lama declared Winner of One of World's Leading Religion Prizes, Templeton Prize for 2012

Tamil Writer A A Manavalan to be Awarded Saraswati Samman 2011 for his Book on Ramayana

Legendary Bengali Actor Soumitra Chatterjee selected for the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 2012

National Award for Sanitation & Water in name of Maharashtrian Saint, Sant Gadge Baba initiated

Bollywood Actress Vidya Balan named Best Actress at the 59th National Film Awards

The Artist & Hugo emerged Winners at 84th Academy Awards ceremony winning 5 Oscars Each

Meryl Streep was awarded the Best Actress for her role in the Iron Lady at the sixty-fifth annual British Academy Film awards, the BAFTA’s

Veteran Music Composer Rajesh Roshan honoured with Lata Manageshkar Award

Union Minister for Labour & Empployment Mallikarjun Kharge presented Pride of India Award

President Pratibha Patil conferred the Ashoka Chakra on Lt. Navdeep Singh on 63rd Republic Day

The Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences chose Steve Jobs to be posthumously honoured with Grammy award

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) won a green award for reducing emissions of polluting gases in the national capital

New Facts

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:18:52 +0100

Tiny Lizard called Brookesia mirca was found in Madagascar
Scientists found the Extinct Monkey, the Miller’s Grizzled Langur in Indonesia
Indian Black Eagle was Spotted after 90 Years in the Aravali Biodiversity Park
Asian Honeybees shake their Abdomen to Guard the Entrance to their Hive
The Ozone hole found by the scientists reached its maximum annual size on 14 September 2011, becoming the fifth largest on record
The Sunderbans forest plays an important ecological role by absorbing more than four crore tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

India's Oldest Sunken Garden

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:17:03 +0100

Restoration work on Isa Khan's tomb in New Delhi led to the discovery of the country's oldest sunken garden. Restorers at the Isa Khan's tomb in the precincts of the Humayun's Tomb World Heritage Site discovered that the Isa Khan's tomb stood within a hitherto unknown sunken garden. The sunken garden predates the famed gardens that the Mughals built and popularised. Pieces of underlying archaeology were also uncovered at the site.

History remembers Isa Khan finds as a brave and valiant noble under Sher Shah Suri, the Afghan ruler who had overthrown Humayun. His tomb built in 1547 is octagonal in shape and has exceptional decorative detailing.

The sunken garden Isa Khan's Tomb site predates the Humanyun's Tomb garden by two decades. Isa Khan's garden tomb is the earliest example of a sunken garden in India attached to a tomb. The concept of a sunken garden attached to a tomb was later found manifestation at Akbar's Tomb and at the Taj Mahal.

Largest and Farthest Reservoir of Water

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:11:40 +0100

Two teams of astronomers discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe.The water in the reservoir is equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world’s ocean. The water surrounds a huge feeding black hole, called a quasar more than 12 billion light years away.

A quasar is powered by an enormous black hole that consumes a surrounding disk of gas and dust. Astronomers studied a quasar called APM 08279+5255. This quasar harbors a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the sun and produces as much as energy as a thousand trillion suns. The water vapour was expected to be present in the early distant universe. There is water vapour in the Milky Way but 4000 times less than in the quasar. It is because most of the Milky Way’s water is frozen in ice.

DID YOU KNOW?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:29:43 +0100

The average person has 100,000 hairs on his/her head. Each hair grows about 5 inches (12.7 cm) every year.
There are 60,000 miles (97,000 km) in blood vessels in every human.
Healthy nails grow about 2 cm each year. Fingernails grow four times as fast as toenails.
Most people blink about 17,000 times a day.
Only humans sleep on their backs.
The human brain is 80% water.
Everyone's tongue print is different.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

MYTHS AND REALITY

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:30:29 +0100

The Myth:: Apple seeds contain cyanide.
True.Cyanide prohibits blood from carrying oxygen, causing death by asphyxiation. And, sadly, the pips inside the “fruit of life” do contain a cyanide-sugar compound. But hold on: It would take a large quantity of apple seeds to cause a fatality, since the body can detoxify cyanide in small doses. Additionally, the fatal compound stays safely contained within the tough outer shell of the pip, which is usually not ingested. Note: Cherry, peach and apricot pits also contain the same cyanide-sugar compound.

The Myth: Fat free food is calorie free

This is a very common myth – so common that food manufacturers market to it. The misconception that fat free is better is the reason that so many products are labelled “fat free,” “low in fat,” “fat reduced,” etc. So many people who want to lose weight will chow down on all of these “low fat” foods thinking they are going to lose weight – even worse, they often tend to eat more of the low fat food than they would have if it were full fat. What really matters when trying to reduce weight is calories – eat fewer calories than you burn and you will lose weight.

The Myth: Fresh fruit is better than dried fruit

This myth is true in only one regard: if you are looking for vitamin ‘c’, then fresh fruit is best, but other than that, dried fruit contains just as many nutrients and sugar for energy as fresh fruit. If you subscribe to the notion that you should eat 5 fruits a day, then you only need one tablespoon of dried fruit per portion – so five tablespoons of dried fruit fulfills your daily need. The same is true of canned or frozen fruit. Fruit juice is also able to be used as a daily fruit portion but only one per day should be made up of juice only.

The Myth: It is better to eat six small meals during the day instead of three larger meals

First off, this can be okay – but only if you are extremely good at controlling your portion sizes; it is all too easy to turn six small meals into six large meals. This myth again comes down to the whole “calories per day” rule. If your three large meals contain as many calories as your six small meals, there is no difference at all. For the majority of people it is easier to put the time aside for three meals – so this is still the best choice for most

MYTH:Mayonnaise is often the cause of food-borne illness.

REALITY: Mayonnaise does not cause food poisoning, bacteria do. And bacteria grow best on foods that contain protein and are at temperatures between 40-140 degrees F. Commercially prepared mayonnaise is safe to use. At greater risk for developing bacteria are the foods mayonnaise is commonly mixed with for picnics and potlucks, such as pasta, potatoes, eggs, chicken, or tuna. But even these will be safe if you keep your cooler below 40 degrees F.

MYTH:Cold substances ingested quickly can literally freeze your brain.

It is not true.Brain freeze, also known as sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, is a form of headache commonly associated with the speedy consumption of cold beverages or food. According to Wikipedia.com, the discomfort experienced is “the direct result of the rapid cooling and rewarming of the blood vessels on the roof of the mouth,” and is described as referred pain—a phenomenon that occurs when pain is perceived adjacent to the injury’s source.

The Myth: Eating too many carrots will cause one’s skin to turn orange.
True.Though fatality due to excessive carotene (the pigment that gives carrots their cheery color) consumption is rare, it may cause your skin to take on a yellow, jaundice-like pallor—a condition called carotenosis. According to Wikipedia.com, once your digestive system can no longer convert the plant-produced pigment to retinal (which is then converted into metabolic energy), it is stored in superficial connective tissue, or fat, thus altering skin color.

Ketchup bottle problems solved

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:18:35 +0100

Scientists have created a super-slippery material based on a carnivorous plant that, among many applications, could make it easier to get sauce out of ketchup bottles.
The researchers behind the substance were inspired by the Nepenthes pitcher plants, which has a highly slippery surface at the top of its flute-shaped leaves so that insects tumble down into the digestive juices contained inside.
They found that the plant's leaves have a sponge-like texture that are infused with water, which prevent the oils produced on insects’ feet from sticking..

The scientists copied the plant by immobilising a “lubricating film” inside the pores of a sponge-like layer of Teflon to produce a smooth and highly slippery surface.

They hope it could not result in self-cleaning coating that can be put on anything from car windscreens, inside oil pipes and on aircraft wings to prevent icing.

The material has chemical properties that allow it to repel both oil and water based liquids, meaning they slide off without leaving any residue.

World's first night-flowering orchid discovered on island

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 14:35:17 +0100

Bulbophyllum nocturnum, which is the world's first known night-flowering orchid, which has been discovered on New Britain island, near Papua New Guinea.
Flowers that open only at night are seen in a relatively small number of plant species, such as the queen of the night cactus, the midnight horror tree and night blooming jasmine. The new species belongs to a group of plants which are known for their bizarre flowers.

But experts say it has never been documented in the 25,000 species of orchids and described the discovery as "remarkable".

Many orchids are pollinated by moths, but have flowers which remain open during the day even though they are mainly pollinated after dark.

Further observation of other buds confirmed that they opened at the same time and then closed the 12 hours later the next morning, a few hours after sunrise, lasting for just one night.

They variously resemble leggy insects, small hairy spiders to intricate sea creatures and often have thin filaments which make them move erratically in the breeze - possibly to attract insects.

The experts speculate that Bulbophyllum nocturnum is pollinated by nocturnal insects, most likely small flies such as midges.

Amazing Pictures

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:20:30 +0100

T-shirts made out of cigarette butts

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 10:25:44 +0100

A group of Japanese students has invented a way of turning cigarette butts into T-shirts.
The unusual recycling project involves the students collecting old cigarette butts from local parlours and gas stations.

After employing a technique developed by scientists to reduce harmful toxins, the threads are then woven into a fabric before being used to make T-shirts, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported.

The idea was the brainchild of Shinji Sawai, 21, a student at College of Economics of Ritsumeikan University, who was inspired by the quantities of butts he saw every day at his local station while commuting. Sawai subsequently formed a group called AOI with other university students devoted to recycling the cigarette butts obtained from overflowing ashtrays in local outlets.

The technology required to eliminate toxins from the butts came about as a result of a collaboration
with a professor at the Kyoto Institute of Technology.

A number of companies in Osaka and Wakayama regions have also become involved in spinning and weaving the threads into a fabric, of which around 30 per cent is directly from the butts.