Wednesday 22 June 2011

#82 Google


Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through itsAdWords program. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the "Google Guys", while the two were attending Stanford University as PhD candidates. It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and itsinitial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for twenty years, until the year 2024. The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", and the company's unofficial slogan – coined by Google engineer Paul Buchheit – is "Don't be evil". In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California.

It has been estimated that Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world, and processes over one billion search requests and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day. Google's rapid growth since its incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine. The company offers online productivity software, such as its Gmail email service, and social networking tools, including Orkut and, more recently, Google Buzz. Google's products extend to the desktop as well, with applications such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organization and editing software, and the Google Talk instant messaging application. Notably, Google leads the development of the Android mobileoperating system, used on a number of phones such as the Nexus One and Motorola Droid, as well as Google Chrome OS, which is still under heavy development but is best known as the main operating system on the Cr-48 and is coming also to commercial Chromebooks on June 15. Alexa lists the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet's most visited website, and numerous international Google sites (google.co.in, google.co.uk etc.) are in the top hundred, as are several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Blogger, and Orkut.Google also ranks number one in the BrandZ brand equity database. The dominant market position of Google's services has led tocriticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.

#81 Youtube History

From left to right: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim
YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal. Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Hurley and Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early months of 2005, after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, while Hurley commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible."

YouTube began as a venture-funded technology startup, primarily from a $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006. YouTube's early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California. The domain name www.youtube.com was activated on February 14, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months.

The first YouTube video was entitled Me at the zoo, and shows founder Karim at the San Diego Zoo. The video was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and can still be viewed on the site.

YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005, six months before the official launch in November 2005. The site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day. According to data published by market researchcompany comScore, YouTube is the dominant provider of online video in the United States, with a market share of around 43 percent and more than 14 billion videos viewed in May 2010. YouTube says that over 48 hours of new videos are uploaded to the site every minute, and that around three quarters of the material comes from outside the US.[16][17] It is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000.[18] Alexa ranks YouTube as the third most visited website on the Internet, behind Googleand Facebook.[19]

The choice of the name www.youtube.com led to problems for a similarly named website, www.utube.com. The owner of the site, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being overloaded on a regular basis by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website towww.utubeonline.com. In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13, 2006. Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were noted as "not material" in a regulatory filing. In June 2008, aForbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales.

In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS, allowing the companies to post full-length films and television episodes on the site, accompanied by advertisements in a section for US viewers called "Shows". The move was intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC,Fox, and Disney. In November 2009, YouTube launched a version of "Shows" available to UK viewers, offering around 4,000 full-length shows from more than 60 partners. In January 2010, YouTube introduced an online film rentals service, which is currently available only to users in the US. The service offers over 6,000 films.

YouTube's current headquarters in San Bruno, California

In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, including 60 cricket matches of the Indian Premier League. According to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event.

On March 31, 2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface and increasing the time users spend on the site. Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented: "We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter. In May 2010, it was reported that YouTube was serving more than two billion videos a day, which it described as "nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major US television networks combined.In May 2011, YouTube reported in its company blog that the site was receiving more than three billion views per day.

In October 2010, Hurley announced that he would be stepping down as chief executive officer of YouTube to take an advisory role, and that Salar Kamangar would take over as head of the company.

In April 2011, James Zern, a YouTube software engineer, revealed that 30 percent of videos accounted for 99 percent of views on the site.

#80 Lunar Eclipse 2011







Spectators across the world were treated with an event of their lifetime on June 15. In what, astronomer’s term as a spectacular show, the white moon turned blood red as the longest lunar eclipse in a decade as unfolded on Wednesday night.

The eclipse lasted 100 minutes and the next such eclipse is forecast to take place only in 2141.

The eclipse also found a place in history as, according to astronomers, the June 15 eclipse was among the best three in terms of length and totality that took place in the last 100 years in history. The last lunar eclipse closer to the center of Earth's shadow was on July 16, 2000, when it lasted 107 minutes.

The Herald Sun quoted Martin Bush, curator of Melbourne Planetarium stating that "it would be the longest one since 2000 - which was one of the three longest since 1000 BC."

The decade’s darkest and longest eclipse was observed over the evening skies in Serbia and other parts of Central and Southeast Europe. The eclipse occurred past midnight in Asia and Indian sub-continents, whereas the western tip of Australia and the Pacific got the eclipsed view of blood-red moon during early hours on Thursday, June 16.

However, the North Americans have missed the rare spectacle as the eclipse ended shortly before 7 p.m EST.

Still thousands watched the stunning lunar eclipse live online. Google and the skywatching website Slooh teamed up to offer live views of the eclipse from Dubai, South Africa and Cyprus, with Google modifying its homepage logo for the cosmic event.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes behind Earth so that the earth blocks the sun's rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with Earth in the middle.

The type and length of an eclipse depend upon the Moon's location relative to its orbital nodes. The June 15 eclipse was a central eclipse, visible over Europe and south America after sunset, over Africa and most of Asia, and Australia before sunrise. The previous total lunar eclipse occurred on December 21, 2010, at 08:17 UTC.

The next total lunar eclipse will fall on Dec. 10, 2011, which will be visible from all of Asia and Australia and parts of the U.S. including Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest, while rest of the continental U.S. will have to wait until April 15, 2014 to witness a total lunar eclipse.

#79 Great Inventors & Invensions

Thomas Edison
Marie Curie Alexander Graham Bell



Alexander Graham Bell

Invented the telephone

George Washington Carver

Invented many uses for peanuts

Marie Curie

Discovered Radium

John Deere

Invented the plow

George Eastman

Invented film

Thomas Edison

Invented light bulb & much more

Enrico Fermi

Controlled nuclear fission

Henry Ford

Invented assembly line and car

Benjamin Franklin

Discovered electricity, invented Franklin stove and more

Elisha Graves Otis

Invented the elevator brake

Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak

Invented the personal computer

Wright Brothers

Invented the airplane










#78 An Overview of the Solar System

Orbits

The solar system consists of the Sun; the eight official planets, at least three "dwarf planets", more than 130 satellites of the planets, a large number of small bodies (the comets and asteroids), and the interplanetary medium. (There are probably also many more planetary satellites that have not yet been discovered.)

The inner solar system contains the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars

The main asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The planets of the outer solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet)

The first thing to notice is that the solar system is mostly empty space. The planets are very small compared to the space between them. Even the dots on the diagrams above are too big to be in proper scale with respect to the sizes of the orbits.

The orbits of the planets are ellipses with the Sun at one focus, though all except Mercury are very nearly circular. The orbits of the planets are all more or less in the same plane (called the ecliptic and defined by the plane of the Earth's orbit). The ecliptic is inclined only 7 degrees from the plane of the Sun's equator. The above diagrams show the relative sizes of the orbits of the eight planets (plus Pluto) from a perspective somewhat above the ecliptic (hence their non-circular appearance). They all orbit in the same direction (counter-clockwise looking down from above the Sun's north pole); all but Venus, Uranus and Pluto also rotate in that same sense.


Sizes

The above composite shows the eight planets and Pluto with approximately correct relative sizes (see another similar composite and a comparison of the terrestrial planets or Appendix 2 for more).

One way to help visualize the relative sizes in the solar system is to imagine a model in which everything is reduced in size by a factor of a billion. Then the model Earth would be about 1.3 cm in diameter (the size of a grape). The Moon would be about 30 cm (about a foot) from the Earth. The Sun would be 1.5 meters in diameter (about the height of a man) and 150 meters (about a city block) from the Earth. Jupiter would be 15 cm in diameter (the size of a large grapefruit) and 5 blocks away from the Sun. Saturn (the size of an orange) would be 10 blocks away; Uranus and Neptune (lemons) 20 and 30 blocks away. A human on this scale would be the size of an atom but the nearest star would be over 40000 km away.

Not shown in the above illustrations are the numerous smaller bodies that inhabit the solar system: the satellites of the planets; the large number of asteroids (small rocky bodies) orbiting the Sun, mostly between Mars and Jupiter but also elsewhere; the comets (small icy bodies) which come and go from the inner parts of the solar system in highly elongated orbits and at random orientations to the ecliptic; and the many small icy bodies beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt. With a few exceptions, the planetary satellites orbit in the same sense as the planets and approximately in the plane of the ecliptic but this is not generally true for comets and asteroids.

The classification of these objects is a matter of minor controversy. Traditionally, the solar system has been divided into planets (the big bodies orbiting the Sun), their satellites (a.k.a. moons, variously sized objects orbiting the planets), asteroids (small dense objects orbiting the Sun) and comets (small icy objects with highly eccentric orbits). Unfortunately, the solar system has been found to be more complicated than this would suggest:

  • there are several moons larger than Pluto and two larger than Mercury;
  • there are many small moons that are probably started out as asteroids and were only later captured by a planet;
  • comets sometimes fizzle out and become indistinguishable from asteroids;
  • the Kuiper Belt objects (including Pluto) and others like Chiron don't fit this scheme well
  • The Earth/Moon and Pluto/Charon systems are sometimes considered "double planets".
Other classifications based on chemical composition and/or point of origin can be proposed which attempt to be more physically valid. But they usually end up with either too many classes or too many exceptions. The bottom line is that many of the bodies are unique; the actual situation is too complicated for simple categorization. In the pages that follow, I will use the conventional categorizations.

The eight bodies officially categorized as planets are often further classified in several ways:

  • by composition:
    • terrestrial or rocky planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars:
      • The terrestrial planets are composed primarily of rock and metal and have relatively high densities, slow rotation, solid surfaces, no rings and few satellites.
    • jovian or gas planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune:
      • The gas planets are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium and generally have low densities, rapid rotation, deep atmospheres, rings and lots of satellites.
  • by size:
    • small planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars.
      • The small planets have diameters less than 13000 km.
    • giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
      • The giant planets have diameters greater than 48000 km.
    • The giant planets are sometimes also referred to as gas giants.
  • by position relative to the Sun:
    • inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
    • outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
    • The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter forms the boundary between the inner solar system and the outer solar system.
  • by position relative to Earth:
    • inferior planets: Mercury and Venus.
      • closer to the Sun than Earth.
      • The inferior planets show phases like the Moon's when viewed from Earth.
    • Earth.
    • superior planets: Mars thru Neptune.
      • farther from the Sun than Earth.
      • The superior planets always appear full or nearly so.
  • by history:
    • classical planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
      • known since prehistorical times
      • visible to the unaided eye
      • in ancient times this term also refered to the Sun and the Moon; the order was usually specificied as: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and Moon, based on the time for them to go "all the way round" the sphere of the "fixed" stars).
    • modern planets: Uranus, Neptune.
      • discovered in modern times
      • visible only with optical aid
    • Earth.
    • The IAU has recently decided that "classical" should refer to all eight planets (Mercury thru Neptune, including Earth but not Pluto). This is contrary to historical usage but makes some sense from a 21st century perspective.



#77 Happy Fathers Day






TODAY, good fathers around the world will be feted by their families for their contribution to good parenting and a happy family life. Some of them are married, some are divorced, some are single, some are actually grandfathers; some are biologically related to their families and some are not. But what they will all most likely have in common with all the men who will be celebrating Fathers Day today is that they are loved. They will be feted with hugs and kisses (or perhaps respectful bows in conservative cultures), with humble yet lovingly home-cooked meals, or lavish restaurant spreads, or picnics, and special attempts by the whole family to get together for this special day.

But, although in paternalistic societies fathers are seen as the leader of the household, mostly, fathers don't get nearly as much accolades for parenting as do mothers. Even in this 21st century, gender stereotypes still exist. If one were to mention the adage "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world" (originally from the poem by William Ross Wallace), the hand that would immediately come to mind is that of the mother. And, in the old days, like when Wallace wrote the poem, that was true. In the old days, when fathers were the only ones who worked, it was excusable for them to be absent from the home, relegating the responsibility of bringing up the children to the mother. But these days, with mothers working as many hours as fathers and pitching in with the income, it no longer becomes tenable for fathers not to pitch in with the housework and child-rearing.

Fathers are very important to the family, in taking the lead in setting the example of a good family life that will be referenced by their children in the future. Fathers have to set a good example for their sons to be good, faithful husbands; and for their daughters to know that there are good men in the world so that little girls don't have to grow up thinking that they have to be prostitutes to have a happy married life.


And if one were to compare the sacrifices that some single fathers have had to make in order to bring up their children well, it would be obvious to all that there is very little difference between that and what single mothers have had to do. And that is why some men and women are feted on Fathers Day and Mothers Day, and some aren't. Fathers, like mothers, are "parents" because they care for their children. Otherwise, they're just "people".

Fathers Day presents have to be earned. To all good fathers out there, Happy Fathers Day. With love.


#76 Symptoms of Diabetes.


symptoms of diabetes


What are the Primary Symptoms of Diabetes?

The most consistent symptom of diabetes mellitus (Type I and II) is elevated blood sugar levels. In Type I (insulin dependent / early onset) diabetes, this is caused by the body not producing enough insulin to properly regulate blood sugar. In Type II (non insulin dependent/adult onset) diabetes, it is caused by the body developing resistance to insulin, so it cannot properly use what it produces.

However, high blood sugar is not something you can see in the mirror at home, so it is useful to know the side-effects of high blood sugar, which are commonly recognized as the noticeable symptoms of diabetes.

If you find yourself experiencing many of these diabetes symptoms on a consistent, long term basis, you should visit a doctor to be tested for diabetes. Ignoring (or not recognizing) the symptoms of diabetes can lead to long-term serious health risks and complications from untreated diabetes.

Some of the common 'early warning' signs of diabetes are:

Excessive thirst
The first symptom of diabetes is often excessive thirst that is unrelated to exercise, hot weather, or short-term illness.
Excessive hunger
You are still hungry all the time even though you've eaten.
Frequent urination
Frequent urination is often noticed because you must wake up repeatedly during the night.
Fatigue
Tiredness and fatigue, possibly severe enough to make you fall asleep unexpectedly after meals, is one of the most common symptoms of diabetes.
Sudden weight loss
Rapid and/or sudden weight loss (any dramatic change in weight is a sign to visit a doctor)

Get tested if you are concerned

While many of the signs and symptoms of diabetes can also be related to other causes, testing for diabetes is very easy, and the constant/regular presence of one or more of these symptoms over an extended period of time should be cause for a visit to the doctor.

If diabetes is suspected, tested for, and diagnosed when those symptoms first start appearing, other more serious symptoms of advanced diabetes can often be prevented or have their onset significantly delayed through diet, exercise and proper blood sugar management.

Minor, less recognizable symptoms

Often the 'minor' symptoms of diabetes go unrecognized, and physical and neurological problems may arise.

Blurry vision
Blurred vision may occur because diabetes can lead to macular degeneration and eventual blindness.
Numbness
Numbness and/or tingling in the hands and feet may occur due to peripheral neuropathy, a symptom of diabetes, causes nerve damage in the extremities)
Slow-healing wounds
Slow healing of minor scratches and wounds may be the result of diabetes-related impaired immune system function.
Recurrent yeast infections
Recurrent or hard-to-treat yeast infections in women are another sign of impaired immune function.
Dry skin
Dry or itchy skin may result from peripheral neuropathy which affects circulation and proper sweat gland function.

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms on a regular basis, or you recognize these symptoms in a child or relative, they may be signs of untreated diabetes. A doctor's appointment should be made as soon as possible, so the individual experiencing the symptoms can -- if diabetes is diagnosed -- take the steps needed to prevent more serious health problems.



#75 Carrot Nutrition facts




The carrot is:

  • Low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol
  • High in Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Potassium, Thiamin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate and Manganese

The nutritional value and health benefits of carrots make them ideal for:

  • Maintaining optimum health
  • Weight loss

Don't include too many carrots in your diet if you're interested in:

  • Weight gain


Nutritional Values

PreparationServing SizeCarbsFiber (g)Fat (g)Energy (kj)
Carrot - peeled, boiled1/2 cup (70g)42080
Babby Carrot - peeled, raw50g32055
Carrot - canned100g43085
Carrot Juice125ml850165