Visa restrictions: Who has most freedom to travel?
Visa restrictions: Who has most freedom to travel?
Showing posts with label Information. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Information. Show all posts
Sunday, 6 February 2011
12 Regular Kids That Did Heroic Things Around The World
- Haruko Maruno, Japan (12 yrs old)
Invented a way to use an empty milk carton as a more environmentally-friendly doggy “poop scoop”. - Omar Castillo Gallegos, Mexico (8 yrs old)
Walked 800 miles to a rainforest in order to save it. - Henry Cilly, USA (3rd grader)
Got a construction company to care about turtles. - Harshit Agrawal, India (10 yrs old)
Made cloth bags out of old clothes and got people to use them instead of using plastic bags. - Amy Beal, Australia (12 yrs old)
Saved a dying river and its wildlife by educating and organizing other kids about water conservation. - Aika Tsubota, Japan (10 yrs old)
Created a comic book about the Earth and its environment that is now used as a text book in science classes. - Santosh Yadov, India (16 yrs old)
Started training herself and became the first Indian woman to climb Mt. Everest. - Farliz Calle, Columbia (15 yrs old)
Started the Children’s Peace Movement and despite death threats, mobilized 2.7 million young people to vote for “survival, peace, family, and freedom from abuse”. - Ivan Sekulovic & Petrit Selimi, Serbia (15 yrs old)
A Serbian and an Albanian boy formed a group of 600 kids to counter hatred. - Melika Sanders, USA (15 yrs old)
In 1996, Melika organized a peaceful sit-in to successfully stop Selma, Alabama schools from using color as a basis for separating students into remedial and advanced level classes. She then organized a campaign to get a corrupt mayor voted out of office. - Jean-Dominic Leversque-Rene, Canada (10 yrs old)
After getting cancer from a pesticide used to keep golf course lawns green, he convinced local government to get golf courses to significantly reduce their use of the pesticide. He extended his protest throughout Canada and the United States. Jean-Dominic won both his cause and his own fight over cancer. - Iqbal Masih, Pakistan (12 yrs old)
From the age of 4, Iqbal worked as slave labor in a carpet factory. After escaping at the age of 10, Iqbal told his story to help the world learn about the world’s 250 million child workers. He was shot and killed at the age of 12 in Pakistan.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Write your stress away
CHICAGO: Spending a few minutes before a test to write down their anxieties could help students perform better, researchers report in the journal Science.
Psychologists at the University of Chicago have discovered a quick and easy way for stressed-out students to avoid choking on a high-stakes test: Take a few minutes right before the exam to write about all those fears.
A study published online Thursday by the journal Science found that anxious students given 10 minutes to put their feelings down on paper performed significantly better than their peers who wrote about other topics or did nothing at all.
The idea that there are simple steps to improve test scores — outside of, say, private tutors or SAT prep courses — is sure to be welcome news for students, parents and educators who have long struggled to get students to perform their best on midterms, finals and college entrance exams.
"You don't have to wield these expensive or time-consuming tools," said psychology professor Sian L. Beilock, who conducted the study with graduate student Gerardo Ramirez.
Writing about emotional events had been shown to reduce rumination — which is when people devote mental energy to revisiting distressing ideas — in the clinically depressed, Beilock said. Perhaps writing about one's emotions before an exam would free up that brain power for the task at hand.
The pair performed a series of experiments to test their hypothesis. First, they asked 20 college students to take a math test just to get a base-line score, and simply told them to do their best. Next, to raise the stakes, they told the students that they could receive a monetary award if they got a good grade, and that they were being videotaped.
Before beginning the main test, the researchers asked one group of students to spend 10 minutes writing down their feelings about the test, and the other group sat quietly for that time. Everyone then took the same exam.
The researchers found that students who sat quietly did 12% worse than they had on the pre-test, and the ones who wrote about their anxieties improved their scores by 5%.
They repeated the experiment with three groups of college students: one that wrote about their test-related anxieties, one that sat quietly and a third that was asked to write about an unemotional event unrelated to the test. This time, the group that wrote about their fears improved their scores by 4%, and students in the other two groups saw their scores fall 7%. The results showed that it was writing about anxieties — not the mere act of writing — that made the difference.
Beilock and Ramirez then went to see 106 ninth-grade biology students at a Chicago-area private school six weeks before their final exam and asked the students to rate how anxious they became in testing situations. The researchers found that anxious students who spent 10 minutes writing about their feelings about the final exam earned an average grade of B-plus, compared with the B-minus received by anxious students who were told to write about a topic they thought would not be on the test.
But the coolheaded students didn't see the same bump. The researchers concluded that the writing exercise probably helped put anxious students on more equal footing with their less flappable peers.
"There's something about writing, just putting your vague thoughts and feelings into words, that seems to have a powerful influence," said Akira Miyake, a psychologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who was not involved in the study. "This opens up a lot of interesting issues."
But he cautioned against applying the findings too soon: "It's possible someone might start thinking about those negative thoughts over and over, so that might be another issue to be examined."
Psychologists at the University of Chicago have discovered a quick and easy way for stressed-out students to avoid choking on a high-stakes test: Take a few minutes right before the exam to write about all those fears.
A study published online Thursday by the journal Science found that anxious students given 10 minutes to put their feelings down on paper performed significantly better than their peers who wrote about other topics or did nothing at all.
The idea that there are simple steps to improve test scores — outside of, say, private tutors or SAT prep courses — is sure to be welcome news for students, parents and educators who have long struggled to get students to perform their best on midterms, finals and college entrance exams.
"You don't have to wield these expensive or time-consuming tools," said psychology professor Sian L. Beilock, who conducted the study with graduate student Gerardo Ramirez.
Writing about emotional events had been shown to reduce rumination — which is when people devote mental energy to revisiting distressing ideas — in the clinically depressed, Beilock said. Perhaps writing about one's emotions before an exam would free up that brain power for the task at hand.
The pair performed a series of experiments to test their hypothesis. First, they asked 20 college students to take a math test just to get a base-line score, and simply told them to do their best. Next, to raise the stakes, they told the students that they could receive a monetary award if they got a good grade, and that they were being videotaped.
Before beginning the main test, the researchers asked one group of students to spend 10 minutes writing down their feelings about the test, and the other group sat quietly for that time. Everyone then took the same exam.
The researchers found that students who sat quietly did 12% worse than they had on the pre-test, and the ones who wrote about their anxieties improved their scores by 5%.
They repeated the experiment with three groups of college students: one that wrote about their test-related anxieties, one that sat quietly and a third that was asked to write about an unemotional event unrelated to the test. This time, the group that wrote about their fears improved their scores by 4%, and students in the other two groups saw their scores fall 7%. The results showed that it was writing about anxieties — not the mere act of writing — that made the difference.
Beilock and Ramirez then went to see 106 ninth-grade biology students at a Chicago-area private school six weeks before their final exam and asked the students to rate how anxious they became in testing situations. The researchers found that anxious students who spent 10 minutes writing about their feelings about the final exam earned an average grade of B-plus, compared with the B-minus received by anxious students who were told to write about a topic they thought would not be on the test.
But the coolheaded students didn't see the same bump. The researchers concluded that the writing exercise probably helped put anxious students on more equal footing with their less flappable peers.
"There's something about writing, just putting your vague thoughts and feelings into words, that seems to have a powerful influence," said Akira Miyake, a psychologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who was not involved in the study. "This opens up a lot of interesting issues."
But he cautioned against applying the findings too soon: "It's possible someone might start thinking about those negative thoughts over and over, so that might be another issue to be examined."
Monday, 17 January 2011
The 10 Oldest Churches in the World
The 10 Oldest Churches in the World
1. Dura-Europos church
The Dura-Europos church is the earliest identified Christian house church. It is located in Dura-Europos in Syria and dates from 235 AD. The site of Dura-Europos, a former city and walled fortification, was excavated largely in the 1920s and 1930s by French and American teams. Within the archaeological site, the house church is located by the 17th tower and preserved by the same defensive fill that saved the nearby Dura-Europos synagogue.
The designation of the oldest church in the world requires careful use of definitions, and must be divided into two parts, the oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, and the oldest in the sense of oldest Christian church congregation. Even here, there is the distinction between old church buildings that have been in continuous use as churches, and those that have been converted to other purposes; and between buildings that have been in continuous use as churches and those that were shuttered for many decades. In terms of congregations, they are distinguished between early established congregations that have been in continuous existence, and early congregations that ceased to exist.
2. Megiddo church
Megiddo church in Tel Megiddo, Israel is one of the oldest church buildings ever discovered by archaeologists, dating to the 3rd century AD. In 2005, Israeli archaeologist Yotam Tepper of Tel-Aviv University discovered the remains of a church, believed to be from the third century, a time when Christians were still persecuted by the Roman Empire. The remains were found at the Megiddo Prison, which is located a few hundred meters south of the Tel. Among the finds is an approx. 54-square-metre (580 sq ft) large mosaic with a Greek inscription stating that the church is consecrated to “the God Jesus Christ.” The mosaic is very well preserved and features geometrical figures and images of fish, an early Christian symbol.
3. Monastery of Saint Anthony
The Monastery of Saint Anthony is a Coptic Orthodox monastery standing in an oasis in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Hidden deep in the Red Sea mountains, it is located 334 km (207 miles) southeast of Cairo. It is one of the oldest monasteries in the world, and was established by the followers of Saint Anthony, who is considered to be the first ascetic monk. The Monastery of St. Anthony is one of the most prominent monasteries in Egypt and has strongly influenced the formation of several Coptic institutions, and has promoted monasticism in general. Several patriarchs have been pulled from the monastery, and several hundred pilgrims visit it eachday.
4. Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains basilica
Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains basilica is a historic church building in Metz, France that was built in 380 AD and is one of the oldest churches in Europe. The building was originally built to be part of a Roman spa complex, but the structure was converted into use as a church in the 7th century becoming the chapel of Benedictine monastery. A new nave was constructed in the 1000s with further interior renovations. In the 16th century the building became a warehouse and remained so until the 1970s when it was restored and opened for concerts and exhibitions.
5. Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion
Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the most important church in Ethiopia. The original church is believed to have been built during the reign of Ezana, the first Christian emperor of Ethiopia, during the 4th century AD, and has been rebuilt several times since then. The church is in the town of Axum in the Tigray Province. Its first putative destruction occurred at the hands of Queen Gudit during the 10th century. Its second, confirmed, destruction occurred in the 16th century at the hands of Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi, after which it was rebuilt by the Emperor Gelawdewos, then further rebuilt and enlarged by Fasilides during the 17th century.
6. Cathedral of Trier
Cathedral of Trier is a church in Trier, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is the oldest cathedral in the country. The edifice is notable for its extremely long life span under multiple different eras each contributing some elements to its design, including the center of the main chapel being made of Roman brick laid under the direction of Saint Helen, resulting in a cathedral added on to gradually rather than rebuilt in different eras. Its dimensions, 112.5 by 41 m, make it the largest church structure in Trier. Since 1986 it has been on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
7. Church of Saint Simeon Stylites
The Church of Saint Simeon Stylites is a well preserved church that dates back to the 5th century, located about 30 km northwest of Aleppo, Syria. It is built on the site of the pillar of St. Simeon Stylites, a famed hermit monk. It is popularly known as Qalat Seman the ‘Fortress of Simeon’.
8. Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the cathedral of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople of the Western Crusader established Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1934, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.
9. Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai
Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinaiies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai in Saint Katherine city in Egypt. The monastery is Orthodox and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to the UNESCO report (60100 ha / Ref: 954), this monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world together with the Monastery of Saint Anthony, situated across the Red Sea in the desert south of Cairo, also lays claim to that title.
10. Church of the Nativity
The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is one of the oldest continuously operating churches in the world. The structure is built over the cave that tradition marks as the birthplace of Jesus of Nazareth, and thus it is considered sacred by Christians. The site is also revered by followers of Islam.
Src: Wikipedia
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Facts about Banana , You Didn't Know Before ...
- A banana contains Vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber.
- Bananas do not contain sodium, fat or cholesterol.
- The Vitamin C, which is found in bananas, helps the body to defend and heal against infections. This vitamin also proves valuable in the synthesis of the connective tissue, absorption of iron and the formation of blood.
- Not only are bananas rich in vitamin C, they also contain potassium. Potassium is a mineral that helps in the building of muscles and protein synthesis. This is done as potassium stimulates nerve impulses for muscle contraction.
- A diet rich in potassium is said to reduce the risk of hypertension and stroke. As bananas are free from sodium and very rich in potassium, they can be included in the diet to reduce the risk of high blood pressure.
- Bananas contain three natural sugars, sucrose, fructose and glucose along with fiber. A banana thus gives an instant and substantial boost of energy.
- A banana contains Vitamin B6, which helps in the synthesis of antibodies in the immune system apart from red blood formation, protein metabolism and functioning of the central nervous system.
- No other fruit contain more digestible carbohydrates than bananas. This is advantageous because, the body burns off calories from carbohydrate more easily and quickly than calories from fat or protein.
- Interesting Facts About Bananas
- The word banana is derived from the Arab word "banan," which means finger.
- Bananas are harvested green because they keep ripening even after they are picked.
- Unlike most other fruits that grow on trees, bananas grow on plants.
- An average American is said to consume more than 28 pounds of bananas every year.
- Brisbane holds the world record for the longest banana split, which measured 7.3 kilometers.
- 3 medium bananas would weigh about a pound.
- Despite that fact that bananas love a tropical climate, they are grown in Iceland too, by heating the soil with geysers.
Friday, 7 January 2011
How the Heart Works
How the Heart Works
I know what you’re thinking; I hope by the end of this article I can find out if it really is true that I can MacGyver an electrical cord together and shock my heart into restarting should it stop! Quick answer….. maybe, if you’re an electrical engineer with all the appropriate gear, or go buy an automatic external defibrillator (they’re really not that expensive). Before you budding electricians all rush on out to RadioShack for all the equipment, let’s find out how this beast of an organ works.
The heart is a two part pump, one part mechanical and one part electrical. The mechanical function of the heart is governed by the electrical system within the heart. That electrical system, in turn, can be affected by neurotransmitters from the brain (or fancy pacemakers created by the Dr. Frankenstein-like minds of the world). But since we’re only talking about the heart today, we will only focus on the ability of the electrical system of the heart. Should you want to know how the brain governs it, I direct you to the many medical schools around the country!
THE MECHNICAL
The heart is a four chambered pump. The top two chambers are called Atria, the bottom two are called Ventricles. They are separated from top to bottom by valves; the right and left sides are separated by a septum. So what makes the pump squeeze? Well the heart is a muscle, and like all muscles, when it gets shocked by electricity, it contracts. If you don’t believe me, just stick a fork in the nearest electrical socket and see if anything tenses up! (DISCLAIMER: Due to our lawyers incessant need to justify themselves, they advised us to say, “Don’t do that. It could cause you harm”). When the hearts muscle gets “shocked”, they contract and force the blood down its path. The valves I just spoke of are one way, and will not allow blood to flow back through the system. If it does, see your nearest physician cause death could be imminent!The blood’s path through the heart starts in a vein called the Superior Vena Cava. Then it enters the right atrium, flows through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. From there it travels through the pulmonic valve into pulmonary arteries, then the lungs. Take a deep breath. Awe…… the sweet feeling of oxygen entering the blood! Now let it out, OOUU….. the halitosis laden Co2 leaving the body! Now back to the heart and into the left atrium, through the mitral valve and Walla! The blood is now in the “strongest” chamber of the heart, the left ventricle. From there it gets pumped through the aortic valve and into the aorta and out to the rest of the body!
THE ELECTRICAL
So what causes that infamous electric shock the heart receives, approximately 60-100 times a minute? Short answer: chemistry. Long answer: The exchange of electrolytes across specialized cells within the heart build up a differing electrical potential on either side of the cell. When this electrical potential reaches a certain amount, it discharges and sends a shock down another unique set of cells within the heart, causing a shock and thus the contraction.
The specific set of cells that regulates the heart rate (in most people) are called the Sinoatrial node or SA node for short. The SA node (pacemaker of the heart) sits in the upper portion of the R atria near the entrance of the superior vena cava.
When the SA node sends out and electrical shock, it immediately shocks the atria. The pulse then gets “held up” in another set of cells called the Atrioventricular node, or AV node for short. This then transmits the impulse down to the bundle of His (no, not the bundle of hers, sorry ladies) and then to two pathways called the right and left bundle branches. Then it’s transmitted to the rest of the Ventricles through what are called Purkinje fibers. All together this “shock” causes the atria to contract, then the ventricles. The wonder of a pulse!!
So what and how do these electrolytes cause this shock? In an attempt not to give a physiology lecture of ungodly like proportion, I will simply say; the main two electrolytes involved are sodium and potassium. Potassium normally sits inside the cell, and sodium outside. Potassium slowly leaks outside of the cell and sodium then goes inside the cell. This creates the differing electrical potential that builds up until the point of discharge. Other electrolytes also help in creating this differential, and they are calcium and magnesium. For how exactly all these electrolytes actually cross the cells membrane I will only say that it would take way too long to explain in this article, so trust me, they do. All together the harmony created by this yin and yang system of electrical and mechanical systems come together to make that wonderfully thumping thing inside your chest!
Shocking
So let’s talk about this infamous “shocking” business. When the SA node becomes damaged, or simply isn’t working properly, other parts of the heart start to take over to create the heart beat. There are millions of foci in the heart that can make this beat happen. The reason why they normally don’t is that the SA node “overrides” them and they accept the impulse from it, instead of trying to create one on their own.When these foci start to beat on their own, they can create an electrical impulse that simply doesn’t create the mechanical squeeze necessary for blood flow, thus no pulse. When this happens if you “shock”, known as defibrillation, all of these foci, you get them all to depolarize at the same time. Then the hope is that the SA node, or some other foci, will take over and create a pulse producing rhythm on its own.
So should there be no electrical impulse at all, like say when someone is “flat-lined”, called asystole, then shocking is pointless, since you would need an electrical impulse to create a beat. So when you see those heroes on the television shocking someone with a flat-line, be assured that their license to practice medicine will be reviewed after the taping of their show. Unless of course, they just say it looked like a fine V-fib! (don’t ask, electrical physiologists go to school for a long time, and this article shouldn’t go that in depth)
Bonus Factoids
- The pulmonary arteries are the only arteries in the body that carry de-oxygenated blood. Conversely, the pulmonary veins are the only veins in the body that carry oxygenated blood.
- The most common rhythm in sudden cardiac death (no pulse) is Ventricular Fibrillation. This rhythm is one in which all the foci in the heart are sending out impulses at the same time causing the heart to quiver like a seizure laden steak.
- Like most of the body, the heart does not receive blood flow when it contracts, called systole. The heart receives its blood flow when it relaxes, called diastole. This is why when someone has an extremely fast heart rate, like say 180-?, the person could feel light headed due to the fact that their blood pressure will be low. This is because there isn’t enough time between contractions for the heart to receive enough oxygenated blood.
- The highest heart rate I have personally seen was 302. Yes the person was conscious, and yes I did keep the “rhythm strip” to prove it! And yes the person did eventually receive a pacemaker after several surgical attempts to “rewire” their heart. No I have not just broken any HIPPA laws by telling you that! (note the very non-identifiable way I wrote that factoid)
- The slowest heart rate I have seen, in a conscious person, was 28. And yes, they also received a pacemaker.
- A person can have a completely normal looking electrical rhythm on a monitor and still have no pulse and be declared dead. Known as pulseless electrical activity or PEA, it is treated, medically, the same as someone who has no electrical impulse, “flat-lined”.
- Mechanically, should the heart stop contracting, the only way to move blood through the body is with CPR compressions.
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Web Browsers From 90′s.
Web Browsers From 90′s.
Twenty years ago this month (December) , Tim Berners-Lee created and tested the very first Web browser, WorldWideWeb. To commemorate this anniversary, let’s take a look back through the main Web browser launched from 1990 to 2008 .
WorldWideWeb (1990)
This is the world’s first Web browser. The earliest versions ran only on NeXTSTEP
ViolaWWW (1992)
ViolaWWW was the first Web browser for the Unix-based X Windowing System.
Cello (1993)
Cello was the first Web browser for Microsoft Windows (version 3.1, in fact).
Lynx 2.0 (1993)
CERN created the world’s second Web browser–the text-only “Line Mode Browser”–in 1990 so that the Web would be accessible across all platforms via Telnet.
NCSA Mosaic 1.0 (1993)
NCSA Mosaic brought the WWW to the general public’s attention, thanks to its ease of use, its presence on Windows and Macintosh platforms (Unix XWindows version shown here), and its ability to display images inline with text.
IBM WebExplorer (1994)
IBM broke into the Web browser field relatively early with the Mosaic-based WebExplorer, designed for the company’s OS/2 Warp 3 operating system. Critics hailed IBM’s browser.
Netscape Navigator 1.0 (1994)
After finding success with Mosaic, that browser’s creators left NCSA to form Netscape Communications, which developed Netscape Navigator 1.0.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.0 (1995)
Seeing Netscape’s success, Microsoft decided to jump into the browser business.
Netscape Navigator 3.0 (1996)
Here’s Netscape at the height of its popularity and influence–the period just before Internet Explorer stole the wind from its sails.
Opera 2.0 (1996)
Norwegian company Opera Software released the first public version of Opera browser, version 2.0, for Windows in 1996.
KDE Konqueror (2000)
Konqueror, both a Web browser and a file manager, debuted with the KDE 2 desktop environment for Unix-like systems in 2000. Its open-source rendering engine, KHTML, later became the basis for Apple’s Safari Web browser.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 for Mac (2001)
With the coming of the Mac OS X operating system, Apple needed a new Web browser.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 (2001)
The era of IE 6 marked the height of Microsoft’s browser dominance–as well as the height of its sloth and sloppiness in browser design.
Netscape 7 (2002)
Facing dwindling market share, Netscape released much of its code as open source in 1998.
Mozilla Phoenix 0.1 (2002)
From the ashes of the bloated Netscape and Mozilla Communications suites rose the lean and mean Mozilla Phoenix project.
Apple Safari Public Beta (2003)
Internet Explorer 5 for Mac–the Mac OS’s default browser up to 2003–was a buggy, slow embarrassment compared with learner alternatives arriving at the time.
Mozilla Firefox 1.0 (2004)
After enjoying years of popularity in its beta incarnations, Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser finally released as version 1.0 to great fanfare and impressive download numbers in 2004.
Google Chrome Beta (2008)
As if Google didn’t control enough of the Web already, in 2008 the search behemoth decided to release its own Web browser.
Which Web Browser From 90′s, you like most to use?
