GRS - A Monster Hurricane in Solar System

We might have seen many videos of winds ripping away houses, apartments, waging through fields, water bodies and everything that gets into its gruffly path. A hurricane (a.k.a cyclone or typhoon) is a very large,swirling storm with strong winds and heavy rains. It consists of an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth. A hurricane is completely different from a tornado.

A satellite snap of a hurricane 

We know that hurricanes shows its presence on earth. But have you ever thought the existence of hurricanes on other planets in our solar system? Probably not, not even me. Even planets like Saturn, Mars, Jupiter have biggest hurricanes. But the one that we talk about today, is the biggest of all the hurricane ever seen.

GREAT RED SPOT (GRS)

The Great Red Spot (Small and big)

  Yes. It's Great Red Spot(GRS) a monster hurricane on the planet Jupiter. One can never even presume its  age and size. Its size is really huge enough to gobble up anything. The usual diameter of the hurricanes on earth is about 1000 to 1500km. The biggest diameter of hurricane recorded(on earth) is 1520km in the year 2012. But the same on Jupiter is whopping 24–40,000 km east-to-west and 12–14,000 km north-to-south. This diameter is equal to three to four Earths diameter summed up! As the distances vary at different directions, the hurricane is oval in shape. But comparing the magnitude of speeds, these monster hurricanes doesn't stand as a king. Its speeds range from 430 to 600 kmph at the peaks, where as on earth it varies from 120 to 300kmph. (Max. recorded 305kmph in 1980). A clear observation, shows Jupiter having more than two small hurricanes persisting since years.

Persistence and Lifetime

The main feature that makes this hurricane a very special is its long existence. It is said to exist since about 300-400 years!!! It was once called "The permanent spot" by ancient astronomers. These hurricanes rotate in anti-clockwise direction with a period of 6 Earth days. As the time goes by, its strength, also the diameter keeps degrading. The below figure shows the rate of decrease in the diameter.

Relative sizes of GRS in years

 

Ivanpah Solar Power - Largest Solar Farm

The Ivanpah solar farm in US, holds the record for the largest solar electricity production in the whole world. This gigantic farm, acquires a whopping area of  3,500 acres in all and a budget of $2.2 billion. It has the capacity of producing 392 Megawatts of energy, which is enough to power 1,40,000 homes. The whole site has three thermal towers which collects all the energy produced by the panels. 

Three towers that collects the power

This project has some very interesting engineering. That is, all the panels seen in the above and below pictures are not normal silicon solar panel. It's just a powerful mirror, reflecting all the energy that falls, on to the huge towers . This farm contains around 3,47,000 software controlled mirrors; meaning mirrors track the sun's movement throughout the day and direct those light  towards one of the three towers, which converts the light energy into steam using a water boiler, that finally promotes the generation of electric power. This is a unique kind of engineering now being applied in many Solar Power generating Projects.

A section of huge collection of mirrors

Audi City - A place of Virtuality

Its none other than automobile ruling king Audi, which has made a new exciting showroom of unimaginable arts using latest technology and developments, to attract customers from different parts of the world. It's "Audi City" in Berlin (Germany), which in reality doesn't have any cars instead a 3D navigation screen displaying every information about the vehicle. This is a new innovative thinking of any other kind before.

Audi City, Berlin, Germany

Before getting into the nitty-gritty, lets see what makes this very showroom so special and highly interactive. The main appealing part is that, any customer can set his own model of any Audi Car, transform it, paint it, change some wheels, customize every pin to pin looking of the vehicle. These customizations are done on a small sized touchscreen monitor and when done, it is displayed on a huge screen, where one can see its total view in 3D. There's an another feature which allows one to see the inside view, review and change some of the accessories like MP3 player, Tea stand etc.

Controlling Touchscreen and huge 3D Display Screen

The main disadvantage of this showroom is that no customer can have any test drive of cars. This showroom cars is just like a phone model displayed in mobile shops. Whatever may be the pros and cons, it's a forward looking way of developing new showrooms with less expenditure; and Audi is planning to open many of this kind in the later this year.

A complete review of Audi Digital Showroom:

 

Ram Bahadur Bomjon - The boy with limitless Powers

This very fabulous boy is not fictitious, nor just a fluke for any money making business. Ram Bahadur Bomjon also called 'The Buddha Boy', born c. 9 April 1990, is from Ratanapuri village, Nepal. He's no equal to other children of his age. His way of life is completely different and very eccentric too. His powers has exceeded any spiritual leaders ability. What great monks, spiritual leaders, Saints can't do, this boy can perform those unimaginable arts, as easy as drawing a cup of water from a sea. He's no normal form of Human Being. His body is completely soaked up in a syrup of divinity, spirituality and immortality.

Ram Bahadur Bomjon

The Buddha Boy is known for his practice of meditation for over long periods without consuming any food or water. This method of surviving without food and water for several days is called Inedia or breatharianism. This may look very tumultuous and unbelievable as it seems, but rather the fact. Ram Bomjon meditated for over ten months under the same divine tree and had promised his mother (before he could go meditate), he would continue doing it for 6 years continuously. This holy place soon turned into a tourist attraction and media's most favorite spot, which reportedly disturbed his meditation process. He left the place on March 16, 2006 (i.e. 10 months of meditation) proclaiming to find a better place to continue his meditation.

The boy did not eat, nor drink anything over his period of meditation. To verify whether his work of meditation was genuine or some money propaganda, worldwide renowned Channel The Discovery, had him monitored for over a week using cameras all over the place. Although there were some controversies regarding his monitoring, they somehow managed to shoot him for several days.During monitoring, Buddha Boy was found sweating around his head although the surrounding temperature was 16^o C. Later the reason was said to be due to some extreme powers of meditation which the Buddhist monks keep it secretive till today.
 According to biologists, a person cannot survive without water for more than 3 days or 4. But this boy made miracle and created a questioning among the biologists. Many neuroscientist and biologist had asked the committee members to get his blood sample for test, but the request was disregarded and he was never tested physically.

After his evacuation from Ratanapuri village, many controversies was raised over the place and many buildings and fences were destroyed which was built by his own brother for protection and well being. The exact living of Bomjon is unknown. He was last spotted on March 26, 2007 meditating inside an underground chamber. It is also said that he reappeared on 10 November 2008, spoke to a group of devotees in the remote jungle. Looking at his extreme impracticable superpower, one may easily christen him "THE BUDDHA BOY", an ultimate disciple of Gautama Buddha.

Breathalyzer - Don't Dare Drink 'n Drive

Do you Drink and Drive? If you are pretending saying "NO", well it's not a matter of talk that cops would trust you. So, how would they know your intoxication level? Here's a simple device to test your drinking activity, Breathalyzer. Breathalyzer is a simple device usually used to identify the alcohol content ( a.k.a  Blood Alcohol Content) in a person's breath.             

A Breath Analyzer Device

               
This simple and portable device, invented by Robert Frank Borkenstein, an unrecognized inventor, who made possible for the cops to capture drunk drivers at smooth hands. Before the invention of this device, police officers investigating an accident or noticing a weaving car looked for symptoms like a flushed face, slurred speech and bloodshot eyes. If the suspect then went to sleep in the police station, they might have sufficient basis for charges and further punishment. Or the other way was to get their blood samples and test them in a laboratory, which was an uphill task for the police force. 

 Working: Breath analyzers do not directly measure blood alcohol content or concentration, which requires the analysis of a blood sample. Instead, they estimate Blood Alcohol Content ( BAC) indirectly by measuring the amount of alcohol in one's breath. It just measures the proportion of alcohol vapors in exhaled air, a proportion that reflects the content of alcohol in the blood. The device is kept in suspect's mouth for a matter of seconds and the reading shows the Blood Alcohol Level. If this reading is above the normal level, he is convicted to the police station and further action is taken against the convict.

A cop inspecting a car driver

Learn more about working of Breathalyzer at howstuffworks.

Rubik's Cube - Happy Birthday :)

Coloured cube which played its own mind bending game on each kid, children and even older person is the Rubik's Cube(Magic Cube).  Today it turned 40 and let's wish him with a humming birthday song.

A Rubik's Cube

Rubik's Cube was invented by Ernő Rubik, an Hungarian inventor who showed his keen interest in puzzle stuff. The Rubik's Cube consists of twenty-six unique miniature cubes, also called "cubies" or "cubelets". Each of these includes a concealed inward extension that interlocks with the other cubes, while permitting them to move to different locations. In a classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colours (white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow; in currently sold models, white is opposite yellow, blue is opposite green, and orange is opposite red, and the red, white and blue are arranged in that order in a clockwise arrangement). It is said that then own inventor of this ingenious cube Erno Rubik, took long time to solve the puzzle.  It's not easy to describe 3-D cube. It's better to feel the way it is.

Google Celebrating Cube's Birthday

Watch google celebrating Rubik's Cube Birthday at http://www.google.com/doodles/rubiks-cube

Get a Rubik's Cube today and start Cracking it, http://www.flipkart.com/search?q=rubiks+cube&as=on&as-show=on&otracker=start&as-pos=1_q
After buying, need any help solving it? Not to worry, http://www.wikihow.com/Solve-a-Rubik%27s-Cube-%28Easy-Move-Notation%29

Rainbowing - The Ultimate Sand Mining

Rainbowing is the act of dredging sand from sea or any deep area, for construction purpose. This process uses a dredging ship which propels sand from the deep sea, as easy as pouring gallons of water. This technique is usually used in constructing artificial archipelago or artificial Islands over the sea. The name "Rainbowing"  is derived from the appearance of the arc, which closely resembles a brown-colored rainbow.

Rainbowing

World renowned famous mega-structures the Palm Islands and The World, Dubai used this technique to build cities over the sea. These ships scoops up sand from sea bed, exhaust them through a pipe at speeds up to 10 m/s. Large quantity of water present along with the sand, gives the mixture (called Slurry) a huge thrust and can be propelled through a long distance as needed.

Palm Island and The World by Rainbowing Technique

Nozzle Angle: Nozzle angle is the rotation (angle) made by the nozzle of the dredger. Indeed this is an important consideration for the range the sand to be placed. The longest range is obtained at an angle of 45°. The same which we have noted in our daily outdoor games.

Environmental Effects : Dredging involves excavating very large amount of sand from the sea bed, causing imbalance and takes long time to settle back. This process, can cause plumes of fine sediment to remain suspended in water, affecting the ecosystem.

Watch working video of the dredger ship at http://youtu.be/5f3Hl3FzMxI