Why do birds stand on one leg ?

Have you ever seen birds standing on one leg. Of course yes. If you have not, well, time to look around you and see how beatiful and mysterious our nature is. Coming back to one leg striking pose, it vividly prompts us to compare them with Yoga poses (which most of us seldom do even in imagination).

Of course these avians looks perfectly balanced, serene and in tranquil state with an occasional professional glance, towards us. Their gaze seems to be speaking to us like "Can you do like this - stand on one leg for so much time". Jokes apart, lets get to the reason for this behaviour.

The reason for this adaptive pose is to regulate the heat loss of their bodies. Upper body is covered with feathers so its always warm from outside temperature variation. As their legs are bare, so they are prone to outside mercury changes and consequently, they become pretty cold. So, by bringing one leg up, the bird don't lose as much heat and they stay warm and comfortable for long.

TRP - What does it mean

We have all heard about TRP ratings of a program in news or papers or advertisements. Have you ever wondered what does it mean and how are the ratings calculated. Lets find out.

What exactly is TRP ?
TRP stands for Televison Rating Point is a tool to judge the viewership of any channel or programme for a period of 30 days. It gives an index of the choice of people and thus helps in recognizing the popularity quotient among different age groups.

How is it calculated ?
There are two methodologies used for TRP calculation :

A device called as People's Meter is attached to a TV set in a few thousand viewers houses across varied demographies. This device would store all relevant statistics about the viewership and sends the data to a central server periodically. After a month, an average is taken to judge the ratings score.

Another way of calculating the TRP is via picture monitoring technique where a specific signal is transmitted through satellite channels at particular intervals, which is then decoded at a central server station.

Who calculates TRP ?
In India it is calculated by INTAM (Indian Television Audience Measurement)

Shree Attukal Amma Devi Temple

The Attukal Bhagavathy Temple is a famous temple at Attukal in Trivandrum, Kerala. Goddess Bhadrakali is the main deity in this temple. Bhadra means good and Kali means goddess of time. So, she is often referred as Goddess of prosperity, time and salvation.

Attukal Pongala is the main festival of this temple. It is a 10 day festival (Feb - Mar) months, which begins on Karthika star with the deity adorned with Kappu (Bangles). Millions of women gather and prepare Pongala (rice cooked with Jaggery, Ghee, Coconut etc.) in the open in small pots to please the mighty Goddess - Sri Attukal Amma. This annual festival has figured in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest gathering of women for a religious activity.

Attukal Devi is often worshipped in 3 forms :

Maha Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge)
Maha Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth)
MahaKali/Durga/Parvathy (Goddess of Power)

Mythological Stories about Temple
The story of Kannagi, who was married to a wealthy merchant, Kovalan. After marriage, Kovalan spent all his riches on a dancer, forgetting his wife but later when we was penniless, he came back to his wife. Kannagi had 2 precious anklets, so they went to King of Madurai to sell one of the anklet. At the same time, the Queen's anklet was stolen, so when Kovalan tried to sell it to King, they mistook his for thief and killed him.

When Kannagi heard the news, she got very angry and went to King with the second anklet, and proved that the mistaken anklet was not of Queen. It is said that such was the anger of Kannagi that she burned the city of Madurai. It is said that Kannagi attained salvation later and resided on Attukal temple, as Goddess Kodungallooramma (bhadrakali/Kannagi).

Another story says that Sri Attukal Devi is Bhadrakali, born from the third eye of Lord Shiva to kill the demon king Daruka.

May Attukal Devi Amma bless all of us with her grace, divinity and ashirvadam, and help us conquer our inner demons so that we can always be blissful and righteous in our lives.

Mookambika Devi Temple

Mookambika Devi Temple is situated in Kollur village of Udupi of Karnataka state. The abode is situated in the foothills of Kodajadri Hills and surrounded by River Souparnika.

The mighty Goddess is revered by many Keralites and people of Tamil Nadu. She is called "Shree Adiparashakti" as she embodies powers of 3 Goddesses - MahaLakshmi, MahaSaraswati and MahaKali Devi. The ancient temple was built around 800 AD, which makes it one of the oldest temple.

Adi Shankaracharya, renowned spiritual guru, had done immense worship to Goddess Saraswati. When the Devi appeared, he asked her to come with him to Kerala, as there was no temple of her presence at that time. Goddess agreed on one condition and promised that he should take her to destination but while travelling, he should not look back.

While travelling, Shankaracharya was consistently hearing Devi's Padasaram (Anklet). Suddenly, the tingling sound stopped and out of confusion, he looked back, only to realise that the promise was broken. However, as Devi was very pleased with his worship, she agreed to come with him, as well.

It is said that Devi would come to Chottanikara Temple in Kerala every mornings and would return back to Kollur Mookambika Temple by midday.

Another story is Goddess Parvathy had killed a demon called Mookasura (Mooka means dumb - one who cannot speak) and hence, Devi attained the name Mookambika Devi.

May Goddess Mookambika Devi Amme bless us all with positivity and contentment in our mind, body and soul and assist us or make us adept in conquering our internal demons.

How to visit the temple ?

If you are coming from Kerala, you can take Intercity Express which goes till Mangalore Central. Then take Matsyagandha Express and get down on Mookambika Road Byndoor station. Take taxi to temple which costs approx 700rs as it is only 28 km from here.

What does ATM means for our watches ?

ATM, unlike Automatic Teller Machine, stands for Atmospheres. It is a rating used to determine the water resistance measure for a watch. This universal ratings have been decided by ISO (International Standard Organisation for Standardisation). All watches carry these ratings either on top or bottom side of the dial.

Following are the ratings and sea level depth comparison, which has been defined  :

3 ATM= 30 meters (100ft) depth

5 ATM= 50 meters (160ft) depth

10 ATM= 100 meters (330ft) depth

20 ATM= 200 meters (650ft) depth

Wait a minute - there's an important fact which people misunderstand. And that is the above ratings does not mean that for a 5 ATM resistant, if you deep dive 50 metres down sea level, your beautiful watch will not become a paper weight, for rest of your life.

In fact, the environment in which these ratings are defined, are in still water. However, in real life, when we move in water, the pressure levels increase multifold and there are ample chances of water seeping inside.

So, considering the practical scenarios, here are some of actions that can be safely recommended :

3 ATM— can be used for walking in rain, very light shower

5 ATM— can be used for Shower/bath

10 ATM—can be used for Water sports, swimming in the sea

20 ATM—can be used for Snorkeling

Milestones - What does it represent ?

At a point of time, we have all done long road journeys - via car, bus, train etc. I remember, in my childhood, going on a road journey would be a thrilling experience - watching people across the street, vehicles whooshing in opposite direction - noting down the names of the places, stopping every now and then for a cup of tea or breakfast/lunch/dinner, looking at the speedometer - one for speed and second for number of kilometers traveled from source. I know many of us would second that feeling, even now.

This is about one of the things that appear during those road journeys - an integral part of any road - milestones.

One thing in a milestone is the color code on the top crescent. Well, it does have a meaning and a representation.

Yellow strip on a milestone indicates that we are on a National Highway.

Green strip on a milestone indicates that we are on a State Highway.

Black, Blue or White strip on a milestone indicates we have entered in a big city or district.

Orange color on milestone indicates that we have entered in a village.

What does train numbers imply?

Have you ever wondered whether there is any pattern of Indian Train numbers - well, there is indeed one !!

All the train numbers is a 5 digit numeric and each digit signifies a pattern. Here are more details :

First Digit : The first digit always represent the train type
0 --> Special trains like summer, holiday
1 or 2 --> Long distance trains like superfast or express trains
5 --> Passenger trains with conventional coaches
6 --> Memu service
8 --> Premium Express Trains

Second Digit:The second digit represents the railway zone.

Third Digit: If the first digit is 0, 1 or 2, the second digit is 2. The third digit identifies the railway zone where the train is maintained

Fourth and Fifth Digits : Are random numbers

How to Password Protect MS Word Document

Today I will let you know how to create your own password for opening or modifying an
MS Word document.

Please follow the below mentioned steps :

Step 1 - Click on Windows icon on bottom left hand side of your screen. Type “winword” (shortcut for opening MSWord document) and hit Enter Key on Keyboard.

Step 2 - A new instance of MSWord document would be opened and a blank document would be displayed.
Now, on top right hand side of the blank document, click on “Save” icon.




Step 3 - “Save As” window would get opened. Enter the File name as you wish. Notice at bottom center of the window, there is a Tools option. Click on it and select “General Options...”.

Step 4 - A new window, called “General Options” would get displayed.



We have 2 options here : Password to open and Password to modify.

Whatever values or characters you put in Password to open field, Windows would prompt you to enter the same when you open the Word document next time.

Whatever values or characters you put in Password to modify field, Windows would prompt you to enter the same when you try to modify/edit the Word document next time.

Let me give a random value for both and click OK.

Step 5 - Another window, Confirm Password, would be displayed which would prompt us to confirm our password to open and password to modify again. Enter the same values which you had entered earlier (in Step 4 above) and click OK.



Step 5 - Close the Word document. Go back to the file location where our document was saved and open it. We would be prompted to enter a password to open. Enter the correct password to open. Now, it asks for password to modify. Enter the correct password to modify.

And there you go – friends !! Our password protected document is in front of us, accessible only to us !!

Moviemaker Who Continued His Passion

He was born in Ohio, USA with a great passion for film making. At 10, he started shooting with his father's movie camera. But things at school weren't going well for him as he did poorly with grades. He was bullied and treated poorly at school because of his inability to read properly.

By the time he was 18, he had already made long films independently but all his dreams turned to ashes when he got rejected for film making from university of south California.

He was heartbroken & depressed because getting into that University was his dream but he kept on pursuing his passion. So he went to the theaters and saw every film that he could. He walked past the guards at "Universal Studios" & watched major projects being filmed. Soon he was offered a small unpaid intern job at Universal Studio.

And later with movies like 'Indiana Jones' and 'Jurassic Park', he eventually rose to fame. One day he was invited to get an honorary Degree from a university. It was the same university that rejected him years ago.

Yes, you guessed it right - Steven Spielberg

There is a fine line between pursuing your passion, despite hurdles and giving up on situational resistances. Its all about giving your best and joyfully living your passion.

Paid in full with one glass of milk

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a glass of water at the next house.

The lady who opened the door, thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it so slowly, and then asked, How much do I owe you?”

You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.”

He said … “Then I thank you from my heart.”

Many year’s later that same young woman became critically ill. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes.Dressed in his doctor’s gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once.

He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. After a long struggle, the battle was won.

Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words …

“Paid in full with one glass of milk”

(Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

Dr. Howard Kelly was an exemplary doctor who was one of the founding doctors of John Hopkins University, the first US medical research university.

The Stalwart - Engineers Day Remembrance

It was well beyond midnight, during the British era in India. A train was travelling to its destination with a howl in the silence of the night. A man was sleeping with his head on the side window of the train. Suddenly, he woke up from his sleep.

He jumped from his seat an pulled the chain hanging just over his head. The train stopped immediately. The employees and other passengers in the train rushed to the compartment to know what had happened.

They were angry on this man. All surrounded the man and asked the reason behind chain pulling. The man told them that there was a crack in the railway tracks, a few metres ahead. The people did not believe him. The man asked them to go and check for themselves.The railway workers got down to the track to examine it. And yes, they found a crack in the track.

The man told them that he heard the sound from the track while sleeping and it changed at some place. The vibrating sound changed too heavily which the man recognized that it was due to the crack in the railway line.

Do you know who was the man who saved many lives on that day ? It was none other than the best engineer that India ever produced, Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvervaraya. This man is responsible for the building of India's irrigation structure and was instrumental in taming Hyderabad floods of 1908 for decades.

15 September is celebrated as Engineer's day in his memory.

“Remember, your work may be only to sweep a railway crossing, but it is your duty to keep it so clean that no other crossing in the world is as clean as yours.”

How to Restrict Applications To Load On Start Up

Have you ever been in a situation that you want to do an important task and when you start your laptop, you end up waiting for a long time for the system to be in a workable state.

Well, chances are that some of your resource eating applications or services takes their own sweet time to get loaded during the waiting time.And yes, you are right - its very annoying !!

Good news is that we can easily restrict the by-default loading of applications on the start up. Here's how we can do it :

1.   Type (Windows + R) in your Keyboard to bring the Run window. Enter "msconfig".

     2.   System Configuration window would be opened. Go to “Startup” menu. This is the place where all Startup Items would be listed. Uncheck the ones which you don’t want to start on system start.

Click on Apply button and the configuration changes would be saved. Again click on OK button.

    3.     There would be a popup prompting us to restart the system, so that the latest configurations  are set. Click on Restart button.

            And that’s all. After your system gets restarted, you would see it load faster as unwanted applications or services would not load on start up.

Kryptos

In the language of Cryptography, Cipher is a secret or disguised way of writing. It can also be considered as a code, developed by its creator.

Kryptos is a sculpture made by an American artist, Jim Sanborn on the grounds of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia, USA. It was dedicated in the year 1990 and had 4 encrypted messages. Cryptoanalysts around the world have delved into it and only 3 of the messages have been solved so far. The 4th one is yet to be solved, till date, and has already become one of the famous unsolved codes in the world, to reckon with.

Jim had confirmed that should he die before the 4th message is deciphered, the answer would be there with someone, safe, to affirm the solution.

Plastics Numerals - What Do They Say

Seldom can you find a place on this planet, where you would be hardly distant from Plastics. It would be ideal to say that plastics have become a part and parcel of our daily chores of life. But the thing which had always intrigued me was the numeral which would be written below a plastic bottle.

It stands out that these numbers indeed have a numeral significance and has been there to showcase the quality of plastic and whether they are relatively safer or needs to be avoided at all costs.

Have a glance at each of the numeral and what they really say about the plastic you are holding in your hands :

NO : 1 [POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE (PET OR PETE)]
Verdict : AVOID re-using them

NO : 2 [High density polyethylene (HDPE)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 3 [Polyvinyl chloride (V or Vinyl or PVC)]
Verdict : AVOID re-using them

NO : 4 [Low density polyethylene (LDPE)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 5 [Polypropylene (PP)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 6 [Polystyrene (PS)]
Verdict : Relatively Safe

NO : 7 [Other (O) - all other plastics]
Verdict : AVOID re-using them

In the end, however, no plastics can be said to be safe for-ever.

English Language Trivia - Part 2

“Forty” is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order.

SWIMS & NOON are words that can be flipped backwards and upside down and be spelled the same way! It is an example of an Ambigram which is a word, art form or other symbolic representation whose elements retain meaning when viewed or interpreted from a different direction, perspective, or orientation.

The only letter that doesn't appear on the Periodic Table is the letter 'J'. The periodic table is a tabular arrangement of the chemical elements, ordered by their atomic number (number of protons), electron configurations, and recurring chemical properties.

The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used. The letter E is over 56 times more common than Q in forming individual English words.

Typographical symbols such as '@#*&', that are used to replace swear words are called 'Grawlix'. It is a sequence of typographical symbols used to represent a non-specific, profane word or phrase.

'Q' is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the 50 American states.

English Language Trivia - Part 1

As per Guiness World Records, the English word with the most meanings is the verb 'set', with 430 senses listed in the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, published in 1989. The word commands the longest entry in the dictionary at 60,000 words, or 326,000 characters.

*********************************************************************************

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence. It is unpunctuated and uses 3 distinct readings of the word "buffalo" :

1) City of Buffalo, New York, United States
2) The noun buffalo (American bison), an animal
3) The verb "buffalo" meaning to outwit, confuse, deceive, intimidate or baffle.

Now read the below sentence, keeping the above words in mind :
The buffalo from Buffalo who are buffaloed by buffalo from Buffalo, buffalo (verb) other buffalo from Buffalo.

*********************************************************************************

The sentence " Are you as bored as I am? " can be read backwards and still make sense.

Longest English word without any vowel is "twyndyllyngs", which means "twins"

The division sign "÷" is technically called an Obelus.

Troubleshoot 1 -- Skype Connectivity Issue

While launching Skype, I suddenly came across this message, which was quite surprising :
"Sorry,we couldn't connect to Skype. Please check your internet connection and try again"

Going by the look of it,I thought there must be a problem with the internet connection but then
when I confirmed that there was nothing wrong with connectivity, then I was intrigued.

Finally, after Googling for some time, I came across this simple troubleshooting method :

1. Go to Control Panel of your system.
2. Click on Internet Options link. An Internet Properties popup would appear.
3. Click on Advanced menu tab.
4. Click on Restore advanced settings button. And click OK.
5. Launch your Skype instance again.

And Voila !!! You are ready to launch your Skype instance and talk or chat to your near and dear ones.

Challenger Deep - Oblivion Expedition

Our world is full of surprises and eye popping or brain tickling facts and figures are quite galore everywhere around us. I had always been intrigued by one quite famous general knowledge factoid about the deepest part of the world's oceans. It is called Mariana Trench and is located in the Western Pacific Ocean. It has been named Mariana because of its proximity to Mariana Islands.

The Mariana Trench is said to be about 2550 kms long and has a width of only 69 kms. However, the lowest recorded depth point recorded here is at 10.994 kms below the surface and is named as Challenger Deep.

We can compare the distance by many comparison factors. It is said that if we can somehow put the Mount Everest inside it, we would still have some good half a mile empty space. Also, it is said that the pressure of any material thing reaching this deepest point would be like sustaining the pressure of being squeezed from all sides by around 50 jumbo jets.

Challenger Deep got its name from the British survey ship Challenger II which pinpointed the location first. On January 23, 1960, US Navy sent a submersible, called Trieste, to touch down the deepest part with 2 people on it, Don Walsh (a US Navy Lieutenant) and Jacques Piccard (son of the boat's designer).

The whole descent took around 4 hours 47 minutes at a speed of 3 feet/sec. After passing 30000 feet, one of the outer window panes cracked which shook the whole boat. However, there was another inner protective layer of window pane which was still intact. The two men decided to descend further and spent almost 20 minutes in the ocean floor. The temperature in the cabin was recorded as 7º C at the lowest point.

The two men further recorded that they could view fishes swimming beside the submersible which brought forth the theory that there are aquatic life which could withstand and survive immense pressure at such depths of oceans. The ascent took 3 hours 15 min.

Excel Tips And Tricks - Transpose And Worksheet Navigation Shortcut

Most of our job profiles require us to use Excel features in the most comprehensive ways which would give us meaningful yet effective results as soon as possible.

I had many such situations which required me to find out the easiest and the most effective ways to do our tasks in Excel 2007. I would be henceforth giving a step by step approach for few such features :

Requirement : How to change columns cell values into row cell values ? (It is called transpose)

How to Do ?

Select the full range of column cell values.

 

Right click and select Copy menu option.

Place the focus on any blank cell where you want the range of cell values to be pasted in the form of row cell values.

Right click and choose “Paste Special” menu option. In the Paste Special dialog box that appears, select the checkbox, Transpose, and click on OK button.

Note that the column cell values has been pasted into row cell values

Requirement : To traverse through the Excel worksheets tabs via Keyboard shortcut key ?

How to do ?

Most of us would use the mouse for traversing through the Excel Worksheets tabs. Keep focus on any of the Excel worksheet cell and then use the following keyboard shortcuts :

Ctrl + PageUp (Key) - Move left of the Excel Worksheets tabs from the current active worksheet
Ctrl + PageDown (Key) - Move right of the Excel Worksheets tabs from the current active worksheet

Sachin Tendulkar - The Name Says It All

 

The man who has engulfed the whole nations sports lovers life and who is no where less than an enigma, in himself. Sachin Tendulkar, the No. 10 jersey guy, who has shouldered one billion people's hopes and aspirations every single instance he went out to play in the middle.

Words are quite less and few to say about his achievements. I have collected some of the quotes told by the sports celebrities spanning different countries and eras which speaks volumes about him but alas still fall short to explain his greatness and magnanimity.

“Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don't know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives."

                                                                -British broadcasting corporation (BBC)

"He can play that leg glance with a walking stick also."

 -Waqar Younis

"On a train from Shimla to Delhi, there was a halt in one of the stations. The train stopped by for few minutes as usual. Sachin was nearing century, batting on 98. The passengers, railway officials, everyone on the train waited for Sachin to complete the century. This Genius can stop time in India!"

                                                                  -Peter Rebouck, Australian journalist.

"To Sachin, the man we all want to be."

                  -Andrew Symonds signing a T shirt specially for Sachin.

"Sachin is a genius. I'm a mere mortal."

-Brian Lara.

"The number of innings of his (Tendulkar's) I have been able to sit back and watch, I think he is an amazing player. Look at his stats and records and it's quite incredible for someone to have stayed in the game for more than 20 years.. He has set benchmarks for guys like me to chase him and get as close as we can. If I had to last 20 years, I would probably be batting in a wheelchair!!"

-Ricky Ponting

I'll see god when I die but till then I'll see Sachin.

                                                           -A banner during a match in Sharjah.

"I have seen god. he bats at no.4 for India."

-Mathew Hayden

"Commit all your sins when Sachin is batting. They will go unnoticed because even the lord is watching!"

-A banner in UK.

"The joy he brings to the millions of his countrymen, the grace with which he handles all the adulation and the expectations and his innate humility - all make for a one-in-a-billion individual".

-Glenn McGrath

There was a big party where stars from bollywood and cricketers were invited. Suddenly, there was a big noise, all wanted to see approaching Amitabh Bachhan. Then Sachin entered the hall and Amitabh was leading the queue to get a grab of the genius!!

-Shahrukh Khan

Sachin was so focused. He never looked like getting out. He was batting with single-minded devotion. It was truly remarkable. It was a lesson."

                                      -Martina Navratilova after watching Tendulkar bat at Sydney.

He is 99.5% Perfect...I think he is marvellous. He can play in any era and at any level.

- Viv Richards

I was fielding in the covers Tendulkar came out to bat in his debut test at Karachi. I still remember Waqar Younis was at his peak form at that time. Tendulkar tried to drive Waqar through the covers off his very first ball in Test cricket but was beaten all ends up. But I walked to captain Imran Khan and told him that this kid looks very good and Imran agreed with me.

- Abdul Qadir

During one Bangalore Test, Michael Kasprowicz frustrated went to Dennis Lillee and asked, "Mate, do you see any weaknesses ?". Lilee replied, "No Michael, as long as you walk off with your pride that's all you can do".