Lighting rod

A lightning rod is a metal narrow piece or rod, typically of copper or similar conductive material, used as part of lightning security to guard tall or isolated structures from lightning damage. Its formal name is lightning finial. Sometimes, the system is informally referred to as:

A lightning conductor,
A lightning arrester, or
A lightning discharger.
However, these terms really refer to lightning guard systems in general or specific mechanism within them.

Lightning rod dissipaters make a structure less nice-looking by which charges can flow to the air around it. This then reduces the voltage between the point and the storm cloud, making a strike less likely. The most common charge dissipaters appear as slightly-blunted metal spikes sticking out in all information from a metal ball. These are mounted on short metal arms at the very top of a radio antenna or tower, the area by far most likely to be struck. These devices diminish, but do not eradicate, the risk of lightning strikes.

Traffic calming

Traffic reassuring is a set of strategies used by urban planners and traffic engineers which aims to slow down traffic and improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, although some of these features can also be dangerous to cyclists. It is now relatively common in Europe, especially Northern Europe; less so in North America.
Traffic calming has traditionally been justified on the grounds of pedestrian security and reduction of noise and local air pollution which are side effects of the traffic. However, it has become increasingly apparent that streets have many social and recreational functions which are severely impaired by fast car traffic. For example, residents of streets with light traffic had, on average, three more friends and twice as many acquaintances as the people on streets with heavy traffic which were otherwise similar in dimensions, income, etc. For much of the twentieth century, streets were designed by engineers who were charged only with ensuring traffic flow and not with fostering the other functions of streets. The rationale for traffic calming is now broadening to include designing for these functions.
Displaced traffic is not fully pushed onto other routes, as some travelers may begin to walk or use other modes such as public transit and bicycles to get where they are going. Still, in most cases the affected motorists have few alternatives aside from either navigating the newly erected obstacles or finding a more palatable route. This happens because high traffic tends to be generated by motorists passing through the area and not by the local residents.

It should be noted the some of these measures have a tendency to irritate and annoy drivers rather than calm them and others can actually increase traffic throughput. Some drivers who slow down at calming points, however, accelerate and speed after passing them in order to "catch up for lost time". For this reason, more advanced methods integrated into the design of the street, which make slower speeds seem more natural to drivers and less of an artificial imposition, are now preferred - the goal is to slow down the driver through psychological, at least partly subconscious means instead of simply forcing him to do so.

One major side effect of traffic reassuring is the impedance to emergency services. A police car can easily navigate most traffic reassuring measures. The same cannot be said for fire trucks and ambulances, however. They often have to slow down to safely cross speed bumps or chicanes. In some locales, the law prohibits traffic calming measures along the routes used by the urgent situation services.
There are 3 "E"'s that traffic engineers refer to when discussing traffic reassuring: engineering, education, and enforcement. Because neighborhood traffic management studies have shown that often it is the residents themselves that are largely contributing to the perceived speeding problem within the neighborhood, it is strained that the most effective traffic calming plans will entail all three components, and that engineering measures alone will not produce satisfactory results.

Chair

A chair is a piece of furniture for sitting, consisting of a seat, a back, and sometimes arm rests, usually for use by one person. Chairs also often have legs to support the seat raised above the floor. Without back and arm rests it is called a stool. A chair for more than one person is a couch, sofa, settee, loveseat (two-seater without arm rest in between) or bench. A separate footrest for a chair is known as an ottoman, hassock or poof. A chair mounted in a vehicle or in a theatre is simply called a seat. Chairs as furniture are characteristically not attached to the floor and so can be moved.
The back often does not make bigger all the way to the seat to allow for ventilation. Likewise, the back and sometimes the seat are made of porous materials or have holes drilled in them for decoration and ventilation.
The back may expand above the height of the head. There may be separate headrests. Headrests for seats in vehicles are important for preventing whiplash injuries to the neck when the vehicle is concerned in a rear-end collision.

Wood

Wood is the xylem tissue of woody plants, especially trees but also shrubs. Wood from the latter is only formed in small sizes, reducing the diversity of uses. Wood is a hygroscopic, cellular and anisotropic material. Dry wood is composed of fibers of cellulose (40%–50%) and hemicellulose (20%–30%) held together by lignin (25%–30%).
Artists can use wood to make delicate sculptures.Wood has been used by man for millenia for lots of purposes, being many things to many people. One of its main uses is as fuel. It might also be used as a material, for making artworks, boats, buildings, furniture, ships, tools, weapons, etc. Wood has been an important construction material since humans began building shelters, and remains in plentiful use today. Construction wood is normally known as timber in International English, and lumber in American English. Wood can be broken down and be made into chipboard, engineered wood, hardboard, medium-density fibreboard, oriented strand board, paper or used to make other synthetic substances.

Camera phone

A camera phone is a cellphone which has a camera built in. The world's first camera phone was the J-SH04 made by Sharp Corporation and put on market from J-Phone (Vodafone) in Japan in November 2000. The cameras characteristically use CMOS image sensors. This is due mainly to reduced power consumption compared to CCD type cameras, which are also used. The lower power consumption prevents the camera from quickly depleting the phone's battery. Major manufacturers include Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and LG Electronics. As of 2004, the resolution in Japan is classically in the megapixel range such as 2 megapixels, while in North America and Europe 0.3 megapixels (VGA) is most common. In 2004, 60% percent of mobile phones in Japan have built-in cameras, and this is predictable to rise in 2005. Previously, the highest resolution available was 7 megapixels on the Samsung SCH-V770. This has since been replaced as Samsung Electronics unveiled the world's first 8.0 megapixel camera phone, the WCDMA SPH-V8200.
As a network-connected device, megapixel camera phones are initial to play significant roles such as crime prevention, journalism and business applications as well as individual uses. On the other hand, they are prone to abuse such as voyeurism and invasion of privacy.

Multitrack recording

Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the recording of multiple sound sources, whether at the same time or at different times. This is probably the most common technique of recording popular music: Musicians or singers can be recorded independently, then these performances can be edited together to create a cohesive result. It is also called 'multitracking' or just 'tracking' for short.Multitrack recording devices are available with varying capacities. When recording a segment of audio, which is also known as a track, audio engineers and musicians may select which track or tracks on the device will be used.

Irish pound coin

The Irish pound coin was introduced on June 20, 1990 using the design of a red deer, by the Irish artist Tom Ryan. The 2000 Millennium was used to subject a commemorative coin, the design was based on the "Broighter Boat" in the National Museum of Ireland; the coins design was by Alan Ardiff and Garrett Stokes and were issued on November 29, 1999. The coin featured a milled edge - unique in Irish coinage.
The "Broighter Boat" issue for 2000.The Irish pound coin, which was introduced in 1990, remains the largest Irish coin introduced since decimalisation at 3.11 centimetres diameter and was 10 grams weight. The coin was almost the same in dimensions to the old penny coin that circulated before 1971, and was quite similar in diameter to, but thinner, than the half-crown coin.
During the early circulation of the coin, many payphone and vending machines which had been changed to accept the pound coin also accepted the old penny because of the similar size, the latter coin which was no longer legal tender and had little value to collectors. As a result losses accrued to vending machine operators due to the substitution of the penny coin and further costs were associated with updating the machines so they would no longer accept the penny.

White Sands

The White Sands National Monument is a U.S. National Monument situated about 25km (15 miles) southwest of Alamogordo in the state of New Mexico. The area is in the mountain-ringed Tularosa Basin valley area and comprises the southern part of a 710km² (275-square mile) field of white sand dunes composed of gypsum crystals.
Gypsum is rarely found in the shape of sand because it is water soluble. generally, rain would dissolve the gypsum and carry it to the sea. Since the Tularosa Basin has no outlet to the sea, rain that dissolves gypsum from the surrounding San Andres and Sacramento Mountains is trapped within the basin and either sinks into the ground or forms shallow pools that next dry out and leave gypsum in a crystalline form called selenite on the surface. During the last ice age a lake called Lake Otero enclosed much of the basin. When it dried out it left a large flat area of selenite crystals which is now the Alkali Flat. Lake Lucero, at the south-west corner of the park, is a dry lake bed at one of the lowest points of the basin that infrequently fills with water.
The ground in the Alkali Flat and along Lake Lucero's shore is covered with selenite crystals which reach lengths of up to three feet. Weather erosion ultimately breaks the crystals into sand-size grains that are carried away by the prevailing winds from the south-west, forming white dunes.

Personal computer

A personal computer or PC is usually a microcomputer intended to be used by one person at a time, and suitable for general purpose tasks such as word processing, programming, sending messages or digital documents (comprising text, images, audio or video) to other computers on the network (E-mail), multimedia editing or game play, usually used to run software not written by the user. Unlike minicomputers, a personal computer is often owned by the person using it, representing a low cost of purchase and simplicity of operation. The user of a modern personal computer may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs, but is not necessarily interested in programming nor even able to write programs for the computer.
In modern usage PC nearly always refers to an IBM PC compatible and the term may even be used for machines that are in no way personal computers but still use the basic architecture of the IBM PC.

Light Pollution

In urban areas light pollution can hide the stars and get in the way with astronomy. In settings near astronomical telescopes and observatories, low pressure sodium lamps may be used. These lamps are beneficial over other lamps such as mercury and halogen lamps because low pressure sodium lamps emit lower intensity, monochromatic light. Observatories can filter the sodium wavelength out of their observations and almost eliminate the interference from nearby urban lighting.The light pollution also disrupts the natural increasing cycle of plants.

Bournemouth

Bournemouth is a seaside resort in the county of Dorset on the south coast of England. It is situated about 107 miles southwest of London, at latitude 50.43N and longitude 1.54W. The town overlooks Poole Bay.
It was initially part of Hampshire but was ceded to Dorset in a 1974 local government reform. proof of this can be found at a roundabout at the end of the Wessex Way called "County gates" where the gate marking the divide between Hampshire and Dorset once stood, and which now marks the border between Poole and Bournemouth. On April 1, 1997 Bournemouth became an independent unitary authority.
Bournemouth is one of the most popular tourist destinations on the English south coast, as of its fine long beach, the wide range of accommodation and entertainment, the mild climate, and easy access to the New Forest, Jurassic Coast, Devon, and the Dorset and Hampshire countryside. This section of the English coast enjoys some of the warmest, driest, and sunniest weather in Britain.

Ice travel

Ice can also be an obstacle; for harbors near the poles, being ice-free is an significant advantage, ideally all-year round. Examples are Murmansk (Russia), Petsamo (Russia, formerly Finland) and Vardø (Norway). Harbors that are not ice-free are opened up using icebreakers.
Ice forming on roads is a unsafe winter hazard. Black ice is very difficult to see because it lacks the predictable glossy surface. Whenever there is freezing rain or snow that occurs at a temperature near the melting point, it is common for ice to build up on the windows of vehicles. Driving safely requires the removal of the ice build-up. Ice scrapers are tools designed to break the ice free and clear the windows, while removing the ice can be a long and labor-intensive process.
Far enough below the freezing point, a thin layer of ice crystals can form on the inside surface of windows. This frequently happens when a vehicle has been left alone after being driven for a while, but can happen while driving if the outside temperature is low enough. Moisture from the driver's breath is the source of water for the crystals. It is troublesome to take away this form of ice, so people often open their windows somewhat when the vehicle is parked in order to let the moisture dissipate, and it is now common for cars to have rear-window defrosters to combat the problem. A similar problem can happen in homes, which is one reason why many colder regions require double-pane windows for insulation.
When the outdoor temperature stays below freezing for comprehensive periods, very thick layers of ice can form on lakes and other bodies of water (although places with flowing water require much colder temperatures). The ice can become thick enough to drive onto with automobiles and trucks. Doing this safely requires a thickness of at least 30 centimeters (one foot).

Piano

A piano or pianoforte is a musical instrument classified as a keyboard, percussion, or string instrument, depending on the system of categorization used. The piano produces sound by striking steel strings with felt hammers that at once rebound allowing the string to continue vibrating at its resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through the bridges to the soundboard, which amplifies them.
The piano is generally used in western music for solo performance, chamber music, and accompaniment. It is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Even though not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity has made it among the most familiar of musical instruments.
The word piano is a shortened form of the word pianoforte, which is seldom used except in formal language and resultant from the original Italian name for the instrument, gravicèmbalo col piano e forte (literally harpsichord with soft and loud). This refers to the capability of the piano to produce notes at different volumes depending on the amount of force used to press the keys.

Coconut water

Coconut water is the liquid endosperm inside young coconuts. As the coconut matures this liquid mostly becomes absorbed into the flesh found in grown-up coconuts. Coconut water has long been a popular drink in the tropics. It is logically fat-free and low in food energy (16.7 calories or 70 kJ per 100 g). Due to its sterility, pH, mineral, and sugar content, coconut water had been effectively used as liquid in intravenous therapy in crisis situations.
Coconuts for drinking are packaged and sold in many places. These are typically Thai coconuts whose outer green husk has been removed, and the rest wrapped in plastic. Coconut water can also be found in regular cans or tetra paks, and is also marketed as a sports drink because of its high potassium and mineral content which helps the body recover from rigorous exercise.
It can also be used as intravenous fluid resuscitation of patients with dehydration or hypovolemia, because it is isotonic and sterile.

Philips

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. generally known as Philips, is one of the major electronics companies in the world. In 2004, its sales were € 30.3 billion and it employed 159,709 people in more than 60 countries. Philips is organized in a number of divisions: Philips Consumer Electronics, Philips Semiconductors, Philips Lighting, Philips Medical Systems and Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care.
As a chip maker, Philips Semiconductors is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.
The company was founded in 1891 by Gerard Philips in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Its first products were light bulbs 'and other electro technical equipment'. Its first factory remains as a museum. In the 1920s, the company started to manufacture other products, and in 1939 its first electric razor, the Philishave, was introduced. Philips markets its shavers in the USA using the Norelco name. Philips introduced the compact audio cassette tape, which was wildly successful, though its attempt to set a standard for video cassette recorders, the V2000, was unsuccessful in the face of competition from the Betamax and especially VHS standards.

Child carrier

A child carrier (also called a baby carrier) is a device used to take an infant or small child. This can be on the body of an adult, or individually. On-the-body carriers are considered in various forms such as slings, backpack carriers, and soft front or hip carriers, with varying materials and degrees of rigidity, decoration, support and confinement of the child. Slings, soft front carriers, and "carrycots" are naturally used for infants who lack the ability to sit or to hold their head up. Frame backpack carriers (a change of the frame backpack) and hip carriers, as well as certain styles of slings, are used for older children.

Cooking apple

A cooking apple is an apple that is used mainly for cooking rather than eating fresh. They are normally a lot less sweet and more sour than eating varieties, and have a firm flesh that doesn't break down too much when cooked. Apples can be seared in an oven and served with custard or put into an apple pie or apple crush. In the UK apples are boiled and mashed and served as apple paste with roast pork. A baked apple is one that has been baked in an oven awaiting it has become soft. The core is generally removed and often stuffed with fruits, brown sugar, raisins, or cinnamon.

Infrared

Infrared (IR) emission is electromagnetic emission of a wavelength longer than that of noticeable light, but shorter than that of radio waves. The name means "below red" (from the Latin infra, "below"), red being the color of detectable light of longest wavelength. Infrared radiation spans three instructions of magnitude and has wavelengths between about 750 nm and 1 mm.
These divisions are suitable by the different human response to this radiation: near infrared is the area closest in wavelength to the radiation detectable by the human eye, mid and far infrared are gradually further from the visible regime. Other definitions follow different physical mechanisms (emission peaks, vs. bands, water absorption) and the newest follow technical reasons (The common silicon detectors are sensitive to about 1,050 nm, while Inga As sensitivity starts around 950 nm and ends between 1,700 and 2,600 nm, depending on the specific configuration). Unfortunately the international standards for these specifications are not currently obtainable.
The boundary between visible and infrared light is not precisely defined. The human eye is markedly less responsive to light above 700 nm wavelength, so longer frequencies make irrelevant contributions to scenes illuminated by common light sources. But particularly strong light (e.g., from lasers, or from bright daylight with the visible light removed by colored gels [1]) can be detected up to approximately 780 nm, and will be apparent as red light. The onset of infrared is defined (according to different standards) at different values typically between 700 nm and 780 nm.

The Real Miracle

As far as Miracles is concern, turning salty seawater in to sweet water is quite amazing. Regardless of the scientific clarification being doled out—surplus freshwater flowing from the Mahim River into the sea—the thousand mass to Mahim Creek near the beachfront in Mumbai will pretty see the ‘transubstantiation’ as the deed of the late Haji Maqdoom Baba, whose shrine is in the area. Mass hysteria, of course, is only a term to clarify the hordes of believers filling plastic bottles and drinking the water. But the real miracle would be if those glugging the ‘miraculous’ water manages to flee succumbing to serious gastric illness.
The water of Mahim Creek, sweetened or otherwise, is dirty and would scandalize not only the likes of Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and officials of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai have already request to people not to drink the water. Industrial waste is not the finest ingredient for a miracle. But telling this to goggle-eyed people facing even more goggle-eyed TV cameras is as worthwhile as persuasive people that a Ganesh idol sipping milk is caused by suction and not godly lactose tolerance.
Fortunately, rumors of the sweetened water turning back to its original brackish form might stop a future surge. Now we only wait for the real miracle of no one complaining of sickness.

Journalism Basics

Journalism is a concrete, professionally oriented major that involves gathering, interpreting, distilling, and other reporting information to the general audiences through a variety of media means. Journalism majors learn about every possible kind of Journalism (including magazine, newspaper, online journalism, photojournalism, broadcast journalism, and public relations).
That's not all, though. In addition to dedicated training in writing, editing, and reporting, Journalism wants a working knowledge of history, culture, and current events. You'll more than likely be required to take up a broad range of courses that runs the range from statistics to the hard sciences to economics to history. There would also be a lot of haughty talk about professional ethics and civic responsibility too - and you'll be tested on it. To top it all off, you'll perhaps work on the university newspaper or radio station, or possibly complete an internship with a magazine or a mass media conglomerate.