Saturday, December 7, 2024

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NATURE CALLS AT 10,000 METRES HIGH?

How do aeroplane toilets work?
Aeroplane loos don’t work like your toilet at home, which uses water and gravity to move waste into the sewer system. Instead they use a strong vacuum, along with a blue chemical that cleans and removes smells every time you flush.
A stinky tank
This sucking system is very much like the vacuum cleaners people use at home to remove dirt and dust from their floors. This dirt and dust ends up in a container that you empty into a rubbish bin. Similarly, the waste and the blue cleaning fluid from the aeroplane’s lavatories ends up in an underfloor storage tank, at the very back of the plane’s cargo hold. With so many people on a plane needing to use the toilet, you can imagine how big this tank has to be.
The vacuum pressure system moves all the solid and liquid waste from the toilet along a plumbing pipe that connects to the storage tank. There is a valve on the storage tank that opens when the loo is flushed and snaps shut when the toilet is not in use. This prevents foul odours escaping from the tank. This, along with the blue chemicals, helps keep the stink down.

What happens when the plane lands?
Once the plane has touched down on the ground, a special truck comes to meet it. A large hose is plugged into the waste tank valve and sucks out all the poo and wee into a container on the back of the truck.
Once everything has been emptied from the aircraft, the truck is driven to a special area at the airport where the waste from all the aeroplanes goes. From here, all of this faecal matter (a posh way of saying “poo”) is emptied into the airport’s sewer system. Driving this truck is a very important – and delicate – job. It takes three days of training for operators to learn how to use it.
FAST-FLYING FAECES On some planes waste zips into the storage tank at speeds of up to 130 miles per hour.

Watch out for blue ice
It has been reported that sometimes the valve that allows the truck to connect to the aeroplane’s waste tank can leak a small amount of the waste and blue chemical. This happens more often on older planes. The outside temperature at a normal cruising altitude of 10,000 metres is around -56°C, so the chemical turns into what is known as “blue ice”.
This blue ice remains attached to the plane as long as the temperature remains below freezing. However, as the aeroplane descends the blue ice begins to thaw, and may even fall off. There have been several occasions reported in the news where people have witnessed this flying poo.

FLUSHED WITH SUCCESS On a long-haul flight, the onboard toilets may be flushed more than 1,000 times.

In-flight dumping
In case you were wondering, the captain of the plane doesn’t have a button to release all the poo and wee from the storage tank while the plane is flying. Any waste that might leak out of the plane would be totally accidental.
Some people do think that aeroplane contrails (the white lines aircraft sometimes leave behind them in the sky) are either a special mind-control chemical or the toilet waste. Neither is true. What you are actually seeing is water vapour from the engines turning into solid crystals of ice, and forming a thin cloud in the sky.

Friday, December 6, 2024

DISCOVER THE MANY SECRETS SURROUNDING THIS ANCIENT SITE

Angkor Wat

Located in Cambodia, a country in southeast Asia, Angkor Wat is the world’s largest temple, and a hugely important historical site. It stands within the ancient city of Angkor, which was one of the biggest cities in the world in the 13th century. Angkor was much bigger than the largest cities of Europe that existed at the same time.

Despite Angkor’s great size and importance, the site is shrouded in mystery. Little is known about its past and even its original name has been forgotten. The temple’s modern name, Angkor Wat, simply means “city temple” in Khmer (Cambodia’s official language). At one point, the city was abandoned, and no one knows why or what happened to the people who lived there. Let’s take a journey through the mists of time, and see how science has tried to uncover the secrets of this ancient monument.

A mega city

Angkor Wat was built to house the remains of a king called Suryavarman II after his death. The temple was completed around 1150, shortly after the king’s death. It was designed to be a version of heaven on Earth, with lots of incredible carvings and decorations.

Constructing Angkor Wat was an epic task. It took 300,000 workers 37 years to build it. Around 6,000 elephants were used, stone was transported using canals, and around 4,000 people may have worked in the temple. Today, much of the city’s splendour has crumbled and been covered by jungle, but when it was constructed, Angkor Wat was filled with wonders both inside and out. A magnificent staircase led pilgrims to a statue of the Hindu god Vishnu, the temple’s roofs were gilded (covered in gold), as were the towers, which symbolised Mount Meru – home of the gods. After it was finished, Angkor Wat became a place of pilgrimage, visited by people for religious reasons, and the ancient temple is still a sacred site for Cambodians.

Wiping the record

Angkor Wat has had a turbulent history, and this is why there are so many mysteries surrounding the place. Shortly after it was built, the city was sacked (vandalised) by invaders. It was rebuilt by the powerful King Jayavarman VII and in 1589 a Portuguese monk, Antonio da Madalena, became the first westerner to visit Angkor. He wrote, “It is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe with a pen.” Given its splendour, many have wondered why Angkor Wat was left abandoned.

By the 20th century a big effort was begun to rescue the temple from being taken over by the jungle. However, the restoration work was interrupted in the 1970s, when a violent group known as the Khmer Rouge came to power. They destroyed much of the evidence from the city’s past and even used the temple walls for target practice. One man who lived during this time, Dy Proeung, made drawings of Angkor, which he saved by burying them in the jungle undergrowth. Many people’s stories, and the histories of Angkor Wat, were lost during this time.

Extreme weather

Scientists have put forward many different theories as to why the city was abandoned. Looking at the land and damage to buildings, climate scientists and environmental historians (people who study weather in the past) think the area was affected by flooding, and other disasters caused by extreme weather (such as drought), which made living there too hard.

New discoveries

In recent years, a new technology called Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) has helped unlock more of Angkor Wat’s treasures. Archaeologists (experts who study ancient objects to help us understand history) use this technology to “see through” the jungle, and have discovered the remains of houses, waterways and gardens. Some think that the gardens at Angkor Wat may have been bigger than anything seen in Europe until the 18th and 19th centuries.

However, despite these discoveries many mysteries still remain. The highest part of Angkor Wat is raised up on a mound, and some scientists think there could even be underground chambers hidden underneath. This ancient site still seems to have more secrets left to reveal.

Thursday, December 5, 2024

THE HOLE IN A LOLLIPOP STICK

Lollipop stick notch / Lollipop stick groove
The hole in the "lollipop stick notch" or :lollipop stick groove", serves a functional purpose during the candy-making process and enhances the eating experience for consumers. When lollipops are manufactured, the liquid candy mixture is poured into moulds, and the sticks are inserted into the mixture. The hole in the stick allows the candy to adhere and harden around it, securely holding the stick in place within the lollipop. 
For consumers, the hole in the stick offers a practical grip, making it easier and more comfortable to hold and enjoy the lollipop without the risk of it slipping or falling off the stick. It also prevents accidental swallowing of the stick as it creates an air passage while consuming the candy. 

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

SHE HEARD THE STARS

Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an eminent astrophysicist from Northern Ireland, is known for her perseverance, discovery and advocacy. In 1967, she revolutionised the field of astronomy with the discovery of 'pulsars'.
Jocelyn was born on July 15, 1943, in Belfast, Northern Ireland to Allison and G Phillip Bell. Her father was an architect who helped design the Armagh Planetarium. During her visits there, the staff encouraged her to pursue further studies in astronomy. Even as a child, she used to read her father's book on astronomy, which also encouraged her to explore the field. 
Jocelyn grew up in Lurgan and attended the Preparatory Department of Lurgan College from 1948 to 1956. This was a time when boys could pursue technical fields, but girls were expected to learn skills like cooking and cross-stitching. However, it was different for Jocelyn, as her parents and a few others challenged the school's policies, and she was able to study science. But then, she failed her eleven-plus exam, and her parents sent her to The Mount School, a Quaker girls boarding school in York, England, where she completed her secondary education in 1961. Here, she was impressed by her physics teacher Mr Tillot, and said, "You don't have to learn lots and lots..... of facts; you just learn a few key things, and.... then you can apply and build and develop from those.... He was really good teacher and showed me how easy physics was." 
After finishing her secondary education at The Mount School, she joined the university of Glasgow for a Bachelor of Science in Natural Philosophy (physics) and graduated in 1965. Then she joined New Hall, Cambridge, where she gained her Ph D in 1969 in radio astronomy. As a research assistant at Cambridge, she helped in building a large telescope, and in 1967, while reviewing the experiments monitoring quasars, she discovered a series of extremely regular radio pulses. Extremely puzzled over this peculiar occurrence, she consulted her advisor, astrophysicist Antony Hewish, and together their team spent months eliminating possible sources of the pulses, which they dubbed LGM (Little Green Men). Once they monitored the pulses using more sensitive equipment, they discovered several more regular patterns of radio waves and determined that these waves were emanating from rapidly spinning neutron stars, which the press later named as 'pulsars'.
This discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, but it was given to only Antony Hewish and Martin Ryle. Jocelyn did not receive the award, but she maintained that: "The fact that I was a graduate student and a woman, together, demoted my standing in terms of receiving a Nobel Prize." This decision continues to be debated even today. 

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

HISTORY BEHIND MOST POPULAR SPORTS PLAYED WORLDWIDE

The History Of Football
Football is undeniably one of the most popular sports played worldwide.
Around 2500 BC, the Greeks, Egyptians, and Chinese played games involving a ball and feet. Most of these games included the use of hands, feet, and even sticks to control a ball.
The most relevant of these ancient games to our modern-day 'Association Football' is the Chinese game of Tsu'Chu, meaning kicking the ball. Records of the game began during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), and it may have been a training exercise for the soldiers.
Tsu'Chu involved kicking a small leather ball into a net strung between two bamboo poles, and the use of hands was not permitted. The main difference between Tsu'Chu and football was the height of the goal, which hung about 30 feet from the ground.
Football began to evolve in modern Europe from the medieval period onwards, around the 9th Century. Most towns in England would kick a pig's bladder from one landmark to another. However, it was banned during some periods of Britain's history.
Records trace the history of football to ancient China. But, it was England to transform football into the game we know today. The English are credited with recording the first rules for the sport, including forbidding tripping opponents and touching the ball with hands.
As the sport developed, more rules were implemented and more historical landmarks were set. For example, the penalty kick was introduced in 1891, and red and yellow cards were introduced during the 1970 World Cup finals. In 1930, the first ever FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay. There were 41 members of FIFA at that time. Today, it boasts of over 200 members and the World Cup is one of the biggest events which happens every 4 years.

Football Facts 
● There are more than 265 million players worldwide, and an estimated 4 billion people are actively watching the sport from time to time, which without a doubt makes it the most popular sport in the world.
● Sheffield FC is the oldest professional football club in the world and it was founded in 1857.
● A professional game is always 90 minutes long, divided into two halves of 45 minutes + stoppage time. The stoppage time is usually between 1 to 5 minutes, depending on injuries and breaks in each half of the game.
● Nawaf Al-Abed scored after just 2.4 seconds and is usually credited as the fastest goal ever scored.
● Sialkot in Pakistan is famous for making the balls for the FIFA World Cup since 1982. And, some of the best balls are manufactured by hand-stitching in Pakistan. Adidas and other high-quality balls are made here.
● The FIFA World Cup has been ongoing every fourth year since 1930, and despite 21 tournaments being played since the first one in Uruguay, only 8 different countries have won the tournament.
● Brazil has won the FIFA World Cup 5 times, which makes it the most successful national team of all time.
● Canadians and Americans are the only ones in the world who call it soccer instead of football.
● The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in Pyongyang is the biggest stadium (having an area of 20.7 hectares) in the world with a capacity of up to 150,000 people.
● Football players run on average 9.65 km every game.
● Cristiano Ronaldo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Luis Suarez are the only 3 players to ever have scored a goal in every single minute from 1 to 90 minutes.

Monday, December 2, 2024

THE SECRET TO QUICK AND SUSTAINED ENERGY

Bananas
Have you ever noticed the foods that athletes keep during practices and matches?
Bananas are usually at the top of that list. But why bananas, and not just any and every fruit? In other words, what is so special about the banana that athletes and gym enthusiasts always have one in their kit?
The answer is simple. Bananas are one of the best ways to gain quick and sustained energy. In fact, they have often been called the 'perfect food' because they are rich in nutrients like potassium, zinc, iron, folic acid, calcium, Vitamin B6, and soluble fibre.
To be used as fuel, our system converts all foods into simple carbohydrates or sugars. This procedure takes up a lot of energy. That is why you feel tired after having a particularly large and heavy meal; it's because your body is working overtime in trying to digest the food! The carbohydrates in ripened bananas are already in their most basic form, making them easy to digest with minimal energy loss.
In bananas, there are two types of sugars-glucose and fructose. Glucose is the sugar that is the easiest to digest. It quickly enters your bloodstream and can be used to provide a burst of energy. Because fructose is absorbed more slowly, it provides a longer-lasting source of energy. Thus, you get quick besides long-lasting energy... a double win!
Moreover, potassium is necessary for normal muscular function. The lack of it leads to muscle cramps, weariness, and dehydration. Bananas provide the dense, readily available carbohydrates required to replenish muscle glycogen (muscle sugar) lost during exercise.
Thus, bananas are a perfect food for before, during or after any physical activity.
So, have you had your daily dose of bananas today?

Sunday, December 1, 2024

LEANING TEMPLE OF INDIA

Ratneshwar
Did you know that the Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple is taller and also leans at an angle higher than the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
Lying on the Manikarnika Ghat in the holy town of -Varanasi, the traditional Ratneshwar Temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva, who is worshipped as Mahadev (a form of Shiva).
The Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple leans by over 9°, more than the Pisa tower, which leans only by 4°. While the tower of Pisa is 54 metres high, Ratneshwar is 74 metres in height. The leaning temple of Ratneshwar Mahadev is thus also called Kashi Karvat (lean in Kashi).
Although this temple remains underwater for most of the year due to its visibly low level, it is valued and preserved even now. When the temple entrance is drowned in water, it is said that a priest dives into the water to worship and perform other rituals. The elegant architecture of the Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple includes a Nagara Shikhara (high curve shape) and a Garbhagriha (sanctum), which gets engulfed by water, the level of which reaches up to the Shikhara.
Before the 1860s, it was erected straight, but then, according to one of the beliefs, the temple ghat collapsed as it was not to bear its weight, thus tilting the temple backwards. Dr Ratnesh Varma of the District Cultural Committee once claimed that it was constructed by the Amethi royal family. Legend has it that a servant of Raja Man Singh built the Ratneshwar Temple as a token of love for his mother, Ratna Bai.
During the monsoon, when the temple sanctum submerges in water, no rituals are performed, and no prayers are heard. So, some people also believe that it is a cursed temple that could bring misfortune in their lives. 

An African folktale

THE MAN WHO NEVER LIED Once upon a time, there lived a wise man named Mamad, known far and wide for never telling a lie. People from even di...