random thoughts

Fun Facts!!!

2010-07-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

here are some fun facts I found...

1. MOPED is the short term for 'Motorized Pedaling'.

2. POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.

3. BUS is the short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.

4. FORTNIGHT comes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).

5. DRAWING ROOM was actually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after dinner. Later the prefix 'with' was dropped.

6. NEWS refers to information from four directions North, East, West and South.

7. AG-MARK, which some products bear, stems from 'Agricultural Marketing'.

8. JOURNAL is a diary that tells about 'Journey for a day' during each day's business.

9. QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people as waiting to see the Queen. Someone made the comment Queen's Quest.

10. TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to get prompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used to drop coins in a box on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise to the custom of Tips.

11. JEEP is a vehicle with unique gear system. It was invented during World War II(1939-1945). It was named 'General Purpose Vehicle (GP)'. GP was changed into JEEP later.

12. Coca-Cola was originally green.

13. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

14. The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with except NA & SA .

15. The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

16. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

17. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

18. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

19. It is impossible to lick your elbow.

20. People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

21. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

22. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

23. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from the history:
Spades - King David
Clubs - Alexander the Great
Hearts - Charlemagne
Diamonds - Julius Caesar

24. Horse statue in a park:
- If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
- If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in a battle.
- If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

25. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common?
Ans. All invented by women.

26. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

27. A snail can sleep for three years.

28. All polar bears are left handed.

29. Butterflies taste with their feet.

30. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

31. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

32. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

33. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

34. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

35. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

36. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

37. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

38. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

39. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

40. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

41. The cigarette lighter was invented before the matchbox.

42. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Sleep

2010-07-16T12:19:00.000-07:00

well... Hi all...

I am writing into my blog after a really really long time.
I kinda thought that the reason that I stopped writing in my blog is that I dont have anythign interesting to write about... so i figured that why not make the blog an informative one as well. from now on, I am going to put up informative links which I feel are really interesting and also would make our lives better atleast a little bit.

So... I was reading an article in a really informative site... its about a problem which we all face as students... its about irregular SLEEP and whether our body is able to cope up with it...
I felt the article was really good and true and does tell us about how we feel tired sometimes even though we get a good nights sleep...

I thought about posting the link.. but I thought it would be easier for you readers if I just copied the contents in this post..

The article goes on like this

"It’s a time-honored practice among medical residents, cramming undergrads, and anyone else burning the candle at both ends: get very little sleep for days, maybe even pull an all-nighter, and then crash for an extra-long night of shut-eye to catch up.

Ten hours of sleep at once may indeed recharge us, and allow us to perform well for several hours after waking, according to research recently published in Science Translational Medicine. But “the brain literally keeps track of how long we’ve been asleep and awake—for weeks,” says Harvard Medical School (HMS) neurology instructor Daniel A. Cohen, M.D., lead author of the study. And that means that the bigger our aggregate sleep deficit, the faster our performance deteriorates, even after a good night’s rest.

Cohen and his coauthors monitored nine young men and women who spent three weeks on a challenging schedule: awake for 33 hours, asleep for 10—the equivalent of 5.6 hours of sleep a day. (This approximates the schedule of a medical resident, but many of us live under similar conditions; the National Sleep Foundation reports that 16 percent of Americans sleep six or fewer hours a night.) When the study participants were awake, they took a computer-based test of reaction time and sustained attention every four hours.

The researchers were surprised to discover just how much an extended rest boosted test performance. “Even though people were staying awake for almost 33 hours, when they had the opportunity to sleep for 10 hours, their performance shortly after waking was back to normal,” Cohen says. “The really interesting finding here is that there’s a short-term aspect of sleep loss that can be made up relatively quickly, within a long night.”

But the days and weeks of lost sleep eventually took their toll. The investigators knew from previous research that people awake for 24 hours straight display reaction times comparable to those of people who are legally drunk. Cohen’s new study reveals that those who pull an all-nighter on top of two or three weeks of chronic sleep loss reach that level of severe impairment faster—after just 18 hours awake.

Sleep researchers sometimes use the analogy of an hourglass to illustrate how we lose our ability to function as the day wears on. A good night’s sleep gives us a full ration of sand at the top of the glass; the grains begin to fall when we wake up, and “with each grain that drops, there’s an increasing level of impairment,” Cohen explains. The new study’s findings led its senior author, associate professor of medicine Elizabeth Klerman, to refine the analogy: “She says chronic sleep loss essentially enlarges the hole between the halves of the hourglass, so the sand falls a lot faster. That means you can be fully restored [by a long night’s sleep], but you peter out very quickly.”

Cohen’s study also revealed valuable information about how circadian rhythms influence our responses to sleep deprivation. The researchers determined that hitting the body’s circadian high (from about 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. for most people, when levels of the hormone melatonin are lowest in the bloodstream) can effectively mask the effects of sleep loss on performance—suggesting why chronically sleep-deprived individuals may not feel very sleepy for much of the day and think they’re sufficiently rested. To make matters worse, Cohen says, “Prior research shows that people start to overrate how they perform when they’re chronically sleep deprived.” But the inevitable circadian low (roughly 3 a.m. to 7 a.m., when melatonin levels are highest) magnifies the effects of sleep loss, slowing reaction times by a factor of 10—one reason overnight drivers, for example, are especially prone to errors.

Scientists don’t yet know how long it takes to overcome a long-term sleep debt. “It certainly takes longer than three days,” Cohen says. “It could even take up to a couple of weeks of a normal sleep schedule before people are fully caught up”—an important fact for people with safety-sensitive jobs to know, so they can make adequate sleep a priority. He admits some trouble with this himself, especially during his medical training. “But since I’ve been in the sleep field,” he says, “I’ve tried to shoot for closer to eight hours per night.” "

Hope it is informative for you all also!!!

Home Away From Home!!!

2008-08-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

I have read many books and novels in which the phrase “home away from home” has come. I had always thought that I have never experienced that feeling and was wondering whether I will ever get that feeling.

For the past 5 days, I have got that feeling.

I am at the US right now studying at North Carolina State University. I had come down from India on august 20th itself to go to my aunts place at Atlanta. There they are a typical Indian tamil family. There all the time they speak tamil and every day its Indian food. This gave me the atmosphere of being at home. I was thinking all this will go off once I go to my apartments at my university.

I came to Raleigh (where my university is located) 5 days back. I was thinking I am going to feel lonely. To my surprise near my apartments itself there were many Indians who were very friendly. However there were two main reasons why I did not feel lonely.

One reason was that my roommates (3 of them) are such great guys to hang out with. Most of the time we are laughing our heads off at something or the other or cracking jokes and things like that. The 3 of them are so much fun that will not feel the time going.

Another reason is that there are 2 seniors who have helped us a lot once we got down at Raleigh-Arun and Srinath. They treated us almost like brothers and more than just some fellow Indian. In this time of the world where at times even friends think twice about helping friends, we were really amazed at the way those 2 guys helped us out and are still helping us out. Both of them advise us so much, help us out. Arun is one amazing guy though. He takes not only us but any fresher out for shopping for groceries or clothes or laptops. He lives near my house and it is his open invitation that anyone can come into his house at any time. Most of the time, excepting after 11 pm, there are atleast 6 to 10 guys in his house, either playing the PS2 or accessing his net or just sit there for chatting with the others. More than that he is such a lively person that most of the time he is cracking jokes and making other people laugh. We realized that there is no method from our side to pay them back for all their kindness they have done for us.
And as usual, there are some other benefits like staying up as much time as you want, having all the freedom in the house etc which I generally have at home are some of the other few factors.

So I realize that only because of people who are as great and kind hearted like Arun and Srinath, that people who come so very far away from their homes to study or work, feel that they are at a “home away from home” which is the exact feeling which I am having right now!!!

The day before the rise of petrol/diesel price!!

2008-06-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

Aaah!!Yes.This is something I never seem to understand. I will take the example of what happens in my city-"Singara" Chennai.

Well,as usual the days keep going on normally for the people here. Then suddenly the papers start telling news about the apparent price rise for petrol/diesel. The people here keep seeing the TV for any hint or idea as to when the price rise will happen.Then suddenly in the news it says "price rise is going to be effective from tomorrow!!!".Thats it!! people just drop what ever work they are doing and rush to the nearest gas station.

For example, take the example of the recent price rise. The price of petrol per litre increased by 5 Rs. The people just immedietly rushed to the petrol bunks!!
Well, I agree for those people who drive cars.They generally put around 30 litres and hence saving around approx 150 Rs.
However, what about in the case of the people driving scooter? After all they will put maximum 3 to 5 litres and hence save only around 15 to 25 Rs. For this they leave all their work and go stand in the queue at the petrol bunk for hours together.At most times, the attendants at the petrol bunk put over scene and tell that " I can only put 1 or 2 litres max cause others are standing in the queue( most of the times they tell it roughly- i wonder what happened to "service with a smile").

Here comes my doubt!! lol.
What I want to know is why they want to do that? To save that 15 to 25 Rs? I dont think they are that poor to waste their precious time to save that 25 Rs.Especially at times when the petrol bunk attendants put only 1 or 2 litres, people waste hours together to save 5 to 10 Rs. Anyway they will surely fill petrol next time(i.e atleast in 2 weeks for sure) and they are gonna pay.So y take so much effort and waste so much time for saving tht 10 RS.
(P.S. Alas!!Though how much ever i searched I could not find any pictures which showed the rush at the petrol bunks so that u could have a better Idea but I think u must also have seen the mad rush)

I have been thinking of this thing for a long long time and have been wondering whether the way I am thinking is right or not.So you will have to tell me whether I am right or not!! As always I expect the great comments u give!!

OH! To be a football player!!

2008-06-20T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hi!! This is my first ever Blog entry. I never thought I would of all people start writing blogs, but here i am writing my first one.
For the past 4 years, I have this interest and passion to play football. The last I played football when I was in the 11th std i.e, almost 5 years back.That too I was just a backup defender even in ordinary matches during games period.At that time, I was not that keen or passionate about playing football.
Well the reason I started to become so interested in playing football might sound really dumb.However each and every person is different and the way the draw inspiration also differs.
I actually got interested in playing football after watching 'Hungry Heart' and 'Captain Tsubasa'.If you are wondering what they are, they are cartoon shows which is show in a popular cartoon channel called 'Animax'.
In both of the shows, the main character is portrayed as an ordinary person who is so much passionate about playing football.They at the beginning do not have that much skill in playing football but the unending passion which they have in their hearts make them play with so much talent that people think it its an inborn talent in them.
I too am a normal person. Well, a little big for my age, not having that much stamina or any sorta skill in football. So its no great thing that I was but a defender when we played for fun at school.
Seeing those 2 shows, for some reason, made me grow really passionate about that gr8 game. It made me think that I too want to be a player, have fun on the field, hit goals and what not! How I want to play in the International Field with the players like Ballack,Ronaldo,Ronaldinho,Robben and so many others.Well If not with them at least against them :) How I wish I could score against great goalies like lehmann and Buffon.
What pains me so much is that my country is not that gr8 in the game. In the world rankings, India is currently at 153. The highest ever FIFA ranking for India was 54 (in February 1996). Only once we have qualified for the World cup and that too it was because of the result of the withdrawal of all their scheduled opponents.After that we have not even come close to qualifying.
Well I do not and will not ever blame my country. I feel its the selectors who are the problem. I am sure in my country, there are thousands of ppl who share the passion I have i.e., to play football for India, they might even have the skills to play. However, I do not think much importance is given to the game in India and hence either not many people are coming forward to play for the country or they are just not scouted properly.I do hope in the coming years, people here start taking more interest in football also and bring up the standards by which v play in order to make India also a great Football playing country.

Well I hope all this does not be only my dream. I do hope my country will one day come to such great heights in Football, so that if not playing for the country I love so much, I at least want to cheer from the stands and see it winning the world cup some day!!!

I hope I have not bored you too much.This is my first entry and I hopefully will start to write more interesting things.However, I need your comments to know how my first entry is so I hope you take some time out write some comments!!!