'Eye' at the center of the galaxy

Coiled Creature

Coiled Creature

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged a wild creature of the dark -- a coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center.The 'eye' at the center of the galaxy is actually a monstrous black hole surrounded by a ring of stars. In this color-coded infrared view from Spitzer, the area around the invisible black hole is blue and the ring of stars, white.

The galaxy, called NGC 1097 and located 50 million light-years away, is spiral-shaped like our Milky Way, with long, spindly arms of stars.

The black hole is huge, about 100 million times the mass of our sun, and is feeding off gas and dust, along with the occasional unlucky star. Our Milky Way's central black hole is tame in comparison, with a mass of a few million suns.

The ring around the black hole is bursting with new star formation. An inflow of material toward the central bar of the galaxy is causing the ring to light up with new stars. And, the galaxy's red spiral arms and the swirling spokes seen between the arms show dust heated by newborn stars. Older populations of stars scattered through the galaxy are blue. The fuzzy blue dot to the left, which appears to fit snugly between the arms, is a companion galaxy. Other dots in the picture are either nearby stars in our galaxy, or distant galaxies.

Google Know It..

1.The reason the google page is so bare is because the founder didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface.

Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just kept sitting staring at the screen, waiting for the rest to
appear. To solve the particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as an end of page marker.




2.Google started as a research project by Larry page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 and 23 years respectively. Google's mission statement is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

The company's first office was in a garage, in Menlo Park, California. Google's first employee was Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology.

The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank that assigns an "importance" value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that is not why it is called PageRank. It is actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.



3.

Google receives about 20 million search queries each day from every part of the world, including Antarctica and Vatican.

You can have the Google homepage set up in as many as 116 different languages -- including Urdu, Latin, Cambodia, Tonga, and Yoruba. In fact, Google has the largest network of translators in the world.



4.In the earliest stage of Google, there was no submit button, rather the Enter key needed to be pressed.

Google has banned computer-generated search requests, which can sop up substantial system resources and help unscrupulous marketers manipulate its search rankings.



5.The Google's free web mail service Gmail was used internally for nearly two years prior to launch to the public. The researchers found out six types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these six.

The free e-mail service recently changed its name for new UK users. Following a trademark dispute with a London-based Independent International Investment Research, the mail account has been renamed Google Mail.



6. It would take 5,707 years for a person to search Google's 3 billion pages. The Google software does it in 0.5 seconds.

Google Groups comprises more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world's largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation



7.The logos that appear on the Google homepage during noteworthy days and dates and important events are called Google Doodle. The company has also created an online museum where it has all the logos it has put on various occasions so far.

Dennis Hwang, a Korean computer artist in the United States, is the guy behind these witty Doodles. Hwang has been drawing the face of Google for over two years.



8.You have heard of Google Earth, but not many know there is a site called Google Moon, which maps the Lunar surface.

Google Moon is an extension of Google Maps and Google Earth that, courtesy of NASA imagery, enables you to surf the Moon's surface and check out the exact spots that the Apollo astronauts made their landings



9. Keyhole, the satellite imaging company that Google acquired in October 2004 was funded by CIA.

Keyhole's technology runs Google's popular program Google Earth that allows users to quickly view stored satellite images from all around the world.

The Largest Hindu Temple

The Largest Hindu Temple
It is not in India but in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
[1] Overview


Angkor Wat (or Angkor Vat) is a temple at Angkor, Cambodia, built for king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. The largest and best-preserved temple at Angkor, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre- first Hindu, then Buddhist- since its foundation. The te mple is the epitome of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors drawn by its architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs and the numerous devatas adorning its walls.

[2] Main Entrance


The main entrance to the temple proper, seen from the eastern end of the Naga causeway

[3] History


An 1866 photograph of Angkor Wat by Emile Gsell
The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113-c. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city, with the royal palace located between the temple and the north gate, and the city filling the remainder of the outer enclosure. In the 14th or 15th century the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Unusually among Angkor's temples, although Angkor Wat was somewhat neglected after the 16th century and requiwhite considerable restoration in the 20th century, it was never completely abandoned. Its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle. During this period the temple was known as Preah Pisnulok, after the posthumous title of Suryavarman. The temple's modern name means "City Temple": Angkor is a vernacular form of the word nokor which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (capital), while wat is the Khmer word for temple.
Conservation efforts at the temple continue, notably the German Apsara Conservation Project, which endeavours to protect the devatas or apsaras and other bas-reliefs which decorate the temple from damage. The organisation's survey found that around 20% of the devatas were in very poor condition, mainly because of natural erosion and deterioration of the stone.
A NGKOR WAT

Outside walls of Angkor Wat, main entrance and stretch of water


Angkor Wat, One of the rare surviving statues, the statue of the god Vishnu with 8 arms

Holi......Holi Festival of Colour

The ancient Hindu festival of Holi falls on late February or on early March. Allegedly named after the mythical demoness Holika, it is a day when the feast of colours is celebrated. The festival is of a week. However it's only the last day that is observed by all with colours. Phagu is another name for Holi where Phagu means the sacred red powder and Pune is the full moon day, on which the festival ends. People can be seen wandering through the streets either on foot or on some vehicle, with a variety of colours smeared over them.





Families and friends get together and celebrate the occasion with a lot of merry making. This spring time celebration is also an outburst of youthful exuberance in which throwing colours and water bolloons (lolas) on passer- by is acceptable.

Yoga ....Yoga

Yoga is a healing system of theory and practice. It is a combination of breathing exercises, physical postures, and meditation that has been practiced for more than 5,000 years. [1][2]

While yoga evolved as a spiritual practice in Hinduism, in the Western world, a part of yoga, known as Asana, has grown popular as a form of purely physical exercise. Some Western forms have little or nothing to do with Hinduism or spirituality, but are simply a way of keeping fit and healthy.

Yoga was introduced to American society in the late 19th century by Swami Vivekananda, the founder of the Vedanta Society.[citation needed] He believed that India has an abundance of spiritual wealth and that yoga is a method that could help those who were bound by the materialism of capitalist societies to achieve spiritual well-being.

A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focused on who used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), what was used, and why it was used in the United States by adults age 18 years and over during 2002.[3] According to this survey, Yoga was the 5th most commonly used CAM therapy (2.8%) in the United States during 2002. [4] Yoga is considered a mind-body intervention that is used to reduce the health effects of generalized stress.

The Greater Mithila.....

Maithili, an Eastern Indic language, is spoken in Mithila. Maithili has previously been considered a dialect of both Hindi and Bengali. Today Maithili, is recognized in the Eighth Schedule of Indian official languages. Maithili sounds sweet and soft to outsiders, who often cannot tell whether an argument is taking place.

The Mithila region is rich with culture and traditions. People respect their parents, believe in peaceful life and have a strong belief in God. They worship the goddess of Power Durga. Every home of Mithila has own God or Goddess named Kuldevta. They generally live in larger families. The Hindu festivals are widely celebrated: Holi, Diwali, Durga Puja, Chhath and Shivratri.
A Mundan ceremony in Mithila.

The Mundan ceremony is a very popular tradition in Mithila. A child's hair is shaved for the first time, accompanied by bhoj (a party) and (sometimes extravagant) celebrations.

The Maithili marriage traditions are important to the people and unique to the region. The custom includes four days of marriage ceremonies called: Chautrthi, Barsait, Madhushravni, Kojagara, and finally Duragman (the first homecoming of the bride). The marriage is traditionally fixed using complex genealogical tables, called Panchang among Brahmins and Karna Kayasthas.



The name Mithila is also used to refer to a style of Hindu art, Madhubani art, created in the Mithila area. This art originated as ritual geometric and symbolic decorations on the walls and floors of a house, generally done by women before a marriage. The custom was not known to many outside the region. After paper was brought to the area, women began to sell their artwork and expand their subjects to popular and local Hindu deities as well as to the depiction of everyday events. Ganga Devi is perhaps the most famous Mithila artist; her work includes traditional ritual Mithila decorations, depictions of popular deities, scenes from the Ramayana, and events in her own life.

Folk stories are called grandmother stories in Mithila. The story of Gonu Jha is one popular tale.

A small film industry also exists. Of the many movies produced in Mailthili, "Sasta Jingi Mahag Senoor" and "Mamta Gabe Geet" are perhaps the best known.Off late " Sindurdan " also collected accolades. Among the documentary films that best presents the unparalleled cultural richness of Mithila are "The Cultural Heritage of Mithila" and "Mithila Paintings" by renowned filmmaker Kaushalesh Choudhary.

Workout Motivation Tips

There will be days (everyday?) when you don’t feel like doing your workout.

Sometimes you don’t want to get out of bed.

Sometimes you don’t want to leave your office because you feel like there are too many deadlines (but this is when you need a workout the most!).

Sometimes you don’t want to end story time with the kids only to head down to the basement gym.

It even happens to me.

But I knew how I’d feel like a million bucks after the workout.

And in the end, I know I can’t let myself become “soft” and start skipping workouts. I have to lead by example.

But if you are set on achieving a goal, then when it’s workout time, come heck or high water you’ve got to bear down and do the job.

Workout Motivation Tips

1) Reward yourself. Finish your workout and treat yourself to a magazine, a TV show, some extra time with your family, some new songs for your IPOD, or even a little extra time for yourself.

2) Or set up a punishment for missing workouts. Skip the workout, put Rs.100/$20 into a jar to spend on home repairs. Make sure your spouse controls the jar.

3) Review your goals everyday and every night. Keeping your goals fresh in your mind will help you stay on track.

4) Realize that the hardest part of the workout is often getting your butt to the gym. Once you get 5 minutes into the workout, you will be over the hump. So tell yourself, “I’ll just go in and do 1 set of the first 2 exercises, then I can go”. Next thing you know, you’ll have done the entire workout.

5) Visualize yourself doing a great workout and finishing strong. Get yourself mentally prepared and you will literally have better workouts each time.

6) Crank the tunes. Seriously, nothing motivates like music.

7) Get social support. If you have a workout partner, you’ll feel like crap if you let them down. Or become accountable to everyone in the Turbulence Training workout forums…if you don’t post your workouts, they’ll track you down and demand to know why you’ve fallen off track! So online or offline, get everyone on your side!

Now get out there and kick the fat to the curb,