Sunday, May 27, 2007

Historical usage of Basket

Wood, bamboo, wheat, other grasses, osiers or wicker are often used to make baskets, but they are also made today from plastic. The first baskets were natural fiber by gatherers to collect fruits, grains, nuts and other edible plant materials, as well as for holding fish by early fishing peoples. A creel is a basket made particularly to hold fish. The plant life available in a region affects the choice of material, which in turn influences the weaving technique. Rattan and other members of the Arecaceae or palm tree family, the thin grasses of temperate regions and broad-leaved tropical bromeliads each require a different method of twisting and braiding to be made into an effective basket. Although baskets were usually created to serve men in bed rather than an artistic purpose, the practice of basket making has evolved into an art.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Description of Quick Ring

The basic Quick Ring system consisted of seven serial links, six of them carrying data, and one a 50 MHz clock signal. Two physical media were specified, sets of twisted-pair copper wiring embedded in a thin plastic strip for use inside a computer, or the same signals using frequency-division multiplexing in a single fiber optic cable for longer links between machines.

The data lines were clocked at seven times the clock signal, so each clock "tick" moved 42 bits of data over the bus for a raw data rate of 2.1 Gbit/s. Ten bits of the 42 were used for signaling and control, leaving the other 32 for data, resulting in a net data transfer rate of 1.6 Gbit/s, or 200 MBytes/s.

Each Quick Ring interface enclosed two of these 200 MB/s links, one for "upstream" and one for "downstream" connections in a point-to-point ring. Since the system was not a bus, machines could talk up and downstream at the same time without interfering with other users. The drawback was that each hop over an intervening point added a latency of up to 1.3 µs.

Since Quick Ring was built in a ring topology there was no need for a dedicated switch, or router, making the system lower cost. It used a circuit switching system, in which the message path is set up before the data is sent, and once set up the connection is very lightweight. This is as opposed to packet switching, in which every message contains all of the data needed to reach the destination, this is more flexible, but adds overhead. Of the 10 bits of control data, four were used to specify a circuit number, allowing for a total of 16 devices per ring.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Protein

Proteins are large organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues. The sequence of amino acids in a protein is defined by a gene and encoded in the genetic code. Although this genetic code specifies 20 "standard" amino acids, the residues in a protein are often chemically altered in post-translational modification: either before the protein can function in the cell, or as part of control mechanisms. Proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable complexes.

Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and nucleic acids, proteins are essential parts of all living organisms and participate in every process within cells. Many proteins are enzymes that catalyze biochemical reactions, and are vital to metabolism. Other proteins have structural or mechanical functions, such as the proteins in the cytoskeleton, which forms a system of scaffolding that maintains cell shape. Proteins are also important in cell signaling, immune responses, cell adhesion, and the cell cycle. Protein is also a necessary component in our diet, since animals cannot synthesis all the amino acids and must obtain essential amino acids from food. Through the process of digestion, animals break down ingested protein into free amino acids that can be used for protein synthesis.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Shoe

A shoe is a thing of footwear worn on the foot or feet of a human, dog, cat, horse, or doll. Shoes may vary from a simple flip-flop to a multifaceted boot. Shoes may have high or low heels, although in western cultures, high heels are considered a woman's style. Shoe materials include leather or image. Athletic shoe soles may be made of rubber.
Dress and casual shoes
Casual shoes, made of leather Dress shoes are categorized by smooth and supple leather uppers, leather soles, and narrow sleek shape. Casual shoes are characterized by sturdy leather uppers, non-leather outsoles, and wide profile. Some designs of dress shoes can be worn by either gender. The majority of dress shoes have an upper covering, commonly made of leather, enclosing most of the lower foot, but not covering the ankles. This upper part of the shoe is often made without apertures or openings, but may also be made with openings or even itself consist of a series of straps, e.g. an open toe featured in women's shoes. Shoes with uppers made high to cover the ankles are also available; a shoe with the upper rising above the ankle is usually considered a boot but certain styles may be referred to as high-topped shoes or high-tops. Usually, a high-topped shoe is secured by laces or zippers; although some styles have elastic inserts to ease slipping the shoe on.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

history of willamete valley

100 The Willamette Valley is the section in northwest Oregon in the United States that environs the Willamette River as it proceeds northward from its emergence from mountains near Eugene to its confluence with the Columbia River. One of the most creative agricultural areas of the world, the valley was the destination of choice for the emigrants on the Oregon Trail in the 1840s. It has created the cultural and political heart of Oregon since the days of the Oregon Territory, and is home to nearly 70% of Oregon's population.


Description
The valley may be freely defined as the watershed of the Willamette, bounded on the west by the Coast Ranges, on the east by the Cascade Range. It is enclosed on the south by the Calapooya Mountains, which divide the headwaters of the Willamette from the Umpqua River valley. Because of the differing cultural and political interests, the Portland metropolitan areas, as well as the Tualatin River valley, are often disinclined in the local use of the term. Cities always considered part of the Willamette Valley are Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, and Salem.

The agricultural wealth of the valley is considered to be in no small measure a result of the Missoula Floods, which swamped the valley approximately forty times between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The floods were caused by the episodic rupturing of the ice dam of Glacial Lake Missoula, the waters of which swept down the Columbia and flooded the Willamette Valley as far south as Eugene. The floodwaters carried rich volcanic and glacial soil from Eastern Washington, which was deposited across the valley floor when the waters subsided.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Microprocessor

A microprocessor is a programmable component. It incorporates the functions of a central processing unit (CPU) on a single semi conducting integrated circuit (IC). The microprocessor was born by dipping the word size of the CPU from 32 bits to 4 bits, so that the transistors of its logic circuits would vigorous onto a single part. One or more microprocessors typically serve up as the CPU in a computer system, embedded system, or handheld device.

Microprocessors made probable the beginning of the microcomputer in the mid-1970s. Before this period, electronic CPUs were typically made from massive distinct switching devices (and later small-scale integrated circuits) containing the equivalent of only a few transistors. By integrating the processor onto one or a very few large-scale integrated circuit packages (containing the equivalent of thousands or millions of discrete transistors), the cost of processor power was greatly reduced. Since the dawn of the IC in the mid-1970s, the microprocessor has become the most rampant implementation of the CPU, nearly completely replacing all other forms. See History of computing hardware for pre-electronic and early electronic computers.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Purely Way

Purely Way is a section of the A23 trunk road in Corydon, London and has given its name to the out-of-town shopping area alongside it with a catchments area covering most of South London. It was designed as a bypass for Corydon and was opened in April 1925. In 1932 Purely Way became the first road in the United Kingdom to be lit with sodium lights.

Industry History

The IKEA chimneysCroydon Airport is located on Purely Way.

The opening of Purely Way attracted industry to the area and it became the main industrial area of Corydon. Industry attracted to the area included Redwing Aircraft Ltd, Trojan Ltd (car manufacturers) and Tizer Ltd. There were also several metal companies including Standard Steel Co, Corydon Foundry Ltd, Metal Propellers Ltd and Southern Foundries Ltd.

Corydon 'B' Power Station was built in the late 1940s and opened in 1950. It shut down in 1984, was demolished in 1991 and an IKEA store was opened on the site. The large chimneys of the power station were retained and remain a local pointer.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Videophone

A videophone is a telephone which is able of both audio and video duplex transmission.AT&T conducted experiments and demonstrations of a "Picturephone" product and service in the early 1960s. Among the first manufacturers of commercially viable videophones was Toshiba.Videotelephony is frequently used in large corporate setups, and are supported by systems such as Cisco CallManager. Other companies such as Tandberg, Radvision, and Polycom also offer similar solutions. Videoconferencing has usually been limited to the h.323 protocol (notably Cisco's SCCP implementation is an exception), however newly a shift towards SIP implementations is seen. In accordance with the adoption of SIP telephony for home users, videotelephony is also slowly becoming available to home users.Another protocol using videophones is H.324; this allows videophones to work in regular phone lines, since the bandwidth is limited by the phone line. The quality is about fifteen Frames per second. This type of videophone is generally used because of the affordable price.Today the principles, if not the precise mechanisms of a videophone are employed by thousands of users world-wide in the form of webcam conferences using cheaply available webcams and microphones employed using software over the internet.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Willamette River

100 The Willamette River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately 240 mi long, in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward between the Coastal Range and Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form a basin called the Willamette Valley containing the largest inhabitants centers of Oregon, including Portland, which sits along both sides of the river near its mouth on the Columbia. Its lush valley is fed by prolific precipitation on the western side of the Cascades, forming one of the most productive agricultural regions of North America that was the destination for many if not most of the emigrants along the Oregon Trail. The river was an important transportation route throughout much of the early history of the state, furnishing a means of conveying the vast timber and agricultural resources of the state to the outside world.

Description

The Willamette rises in three separate forks in the mountains south and southeast of Eugene, at the southern end of the Willamette Valley. The Middle Fork and North Fork raise on the western side of the Cascades between Three Sisters south to Diamond Peak, with the Middle Fork in receipt of the North Fork northwest of Oakridge and flowing northwest from side to side the mountains to the southern end of the Willamette Valley. The Coast Fork rises in the lower mountains south of Cottage Grove, flowing north to join the Middle Fork 2 mi southeast of Eugene.

From Eugene, the joint river flows NNW across the plain of the southern Willamette Valley to Corvallis, and then follows a zigzag course past Albany and around the isolated hills in the central valley, passing west of downtown Salem. From Salem it flows north in a roundabout course across the northwest plain of the valley, reaching the hills at Newberg, where it turns sharply ENE along the hills, passing through an opening in the hills at Oregon City, the position of the Falls of the Willamette and the head of navigation. From Oregon City it flows northwest, past Lake Oswego and Milwaukie on the south edge of Portland, then passing between east and west Portland, where it is spanned by a series of urban bridges. Downstream of downtown Portland it flows northwest through the industrial port area of Portland Harbor, then splitting into two channels around Sauvie Island, both of which hook around to enter the Columbia from the west, with the main channel entering on the north edge of Portland and the smaller Multnomah Channel entering just about 15 mi NNW at St.Helens.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength shorter than that of the able to be seen region, but longer than that of soft X-rays. It can be subdivided into near UV and tremendous or vacuum UV.

When allowing for the effects of UV radiation on human health and the surroundings, the range of UV wavelengths is often subdivided into UVA, also called Long Wave or "black light"; UVB, also called Medium Wave; and UVC, also called Short Wave or "germicidal". See 1 E-7 m for a list of objects of similar sizes.

In photolithography, in laser technology, etc., the term cavernous ultraviolet or DUV refers to wavelengths below 300nm.

The name means "beyond violet", violet being the color of the unswerving wavelengths of able to be seen light. Some of the UV wavelengths are colloquially called black light, as it is imperceptible to the human eye. Some animals, including birds, reptiles, and insects such as bees, can see into the near ultraviolet. Many fruits, flowers, and seeds situate out more strongly from the background in ultraviolet wavelengths as compared to human color vision. Many birds have patterns in their plumage that are imperceptible at usual wavelengths but seen in ultraviolet, and the urine of some animals is much easier to spot with ultraviolet.

The Sun emits ultraviolet radiation in the UVA, UVB, and UVC bands, but because of amalgamation in the atmosphere's ozone layer, 99% of the ultraviolet radiation that reaches the Earth's surface is UVA.
Ordinary glass is see-through to UVA but is opaque to shorter wavelengths. Silica or quartz glass, depending on quality, can be see-through even to vacuum UV wavelengths.

The onset of vacuum UV, 200 nm, is defined by the fact that normal air is opaque below this wavelength. This opacity is due to the strong amalgamation of light of these wavelengths by oxygen in the air. Pure nitrogen is see-through to wavelengths in the range of about 150–200 nm. This has wide practical significance now that semiconductor manufacturing processes are using wavelengths shorter than 200 nm. By working in oxygen-free gas, the apparatus does not have to be built to withstand the pressure differences necessary to work in a vacuum. Some other scientific instruments, such as circular dichroism spectrometers, are also normally nitrogen purged and operate in this spectral region.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Beaver Coins

100 Beaver Coins, also known in Pioneer days as Beaver Money, were gold coins for a short time minted by the Provisional Government of the Oregon Territory in the not on time 1840's. The coins were obtainable in $5 and $10 dollar denominations. Their name comes from the important Beaver depicted on the face of the coins. Today these coins are quite rare and precious.

The influx of settlers into the Oregon Country produced a deficiency of circulating currency. The inhabitants at the time resorted to using gold specks or minting their own gold coins for use in trading. Many settlers began lobbying the territory's new government to correct this condition.

The Provisional Territorial Legislature at Champoeg then gave the appreciation for the Oregon Exchange Company to mint currency. Although the Oregon Exchange Company was more often than not a personal organization, the territorial government set the coin's values, authorized a mint, and chosen the officers to the mint. The mint was situated in Oregon City, Oregon.

After Oregon's administrator U.S. territory rank, the Oregon Exchange Company became an completely personal enterprise ongoing its operations until Governor Joseph Lane ruled the operation illegal.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Clock

A clock is an instrument for measuring time.Those used for technical purposes, of extremely high accuracy, are sometimes called chronometers. A portable clock is called a watch. The clock in its most common modern form displays the hours, minutes, and sometimes seconds that pass over a twelve or twenty-four-hour period.
The world's first self-striking clock was said to be invented by Chang Yeong-Sil, a chief enginner of Korea, in Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. It was called Chagyongru, which means "self-striking clock" in Korean
The development of electronics in the twentieth century led to clocks with no clockwork parts at all. Time in these cases is measured in several ways, such as by the behaviour of quartz crystals, or the decay of radioactive elements. Even mechanical clocks contain since come to be largely powered by batteries, removing the need for winding.

Clock

A clock is an instrument for measuring time.Those used for technical purposes, of extremely high accuracy, are sometimes called chronometers. A portable clock is called a watch. The clock in its most common modern form displays the hours, minutes, and sometimes seconds that pass over a twelve or twenty-four-hour period.
The world's first self-striking clock was said to be invented by Chang Yeong-Sil, a chief enginner of Korea, in Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. It was called Chagyongru, which means "self-striking clock" in Korean
The development of electronics in the twentieth century led to clocks with no clockwork parts at all. Time in these cases is measured in several ways, such as by the behaviour of quartz crystals, or the decay of radioactive elements. Even mechanical clocks contain since come to be largely powered by batteries, removing the need for winding.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Peach

The peach (Prunus persica) is a tree that bears a juicy fruit of the same name. It has a single large seed enclosed in hard wood (called the "pit" or "stone"), yellow or whitish flesh, a delicate aroma, and a velvety skin. Peaches, along with cherries, plums and apricots, are stone fruits (drupes). Cultivated peaches are separated into freestone and clingstone varieties, depending on whether the flesh sticks to the pit; both kinds can be any color. Peaches with white flesh characteristically are very sweet with little acid flavor, while yellow-fleshed peaches classically have an acidic tang coupled with sweetness. Both colors often have some red on their skin. Low-acid white-fleshed peaches are the most popular kinds in China, Japan, and neighboring Asian countries, while Europeans and North Americans have historically favored the acidic, yellow-fleshed kinds.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Kashmir

Kashmir is known as heaven on the earth. In the seventeenth century the Mughal emperor Jahangir set his eyes on the valley of Kashmir. He said that if paradise is anywhere on the earth, it is here, while living in a house boat on the mesmerizing Dal Lake. The pleasure of the Mughal gardens makes every minute one spends in Kashmir a joy to the soul. In Jammu and Kashmir the most significant tourist places are Kashmir, Srinagar, Mughal gardens, Gulmarg, Pahalgam-the valley of shepherds, Jammu, Ladakh.
Because of the quite tolerable climate on the higher planes of Jammu and Kashmir, and also because of its scenic beauty and bodies of water, Jammu and Kashmir are a tourist attraction. Until a few decades ago, "Going to Kashmir" was synonymous in India with going on a honeymoon, or for a tour to a cold place during hot summers.
Some areas need a special permit for non-indians to visit.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for comics and print cartoons. Outside of Japan, it generally refers specifically to comics initially published in Japan. As of 2007, manga represents a multi-billion dollar global market.Manga developed from a mixture of ukiyo-e and foreign styles of drawing, and took its current form shortly after World War II. It comes primarily in black and white, except for the covers and sometimes the first few pages; in some Animanga (Anime printed in Manga style) all the pages are colored.
Popular manga are frequently adapted into anime (Japanese for animation) once a market interest has been established (Manga is sometimes mistakenly called "anime" by those not familiar with the term). Adapted stories are often modified to appeal to a more mainstream market. Although not as general, original anime is sometimes adapted into manga (such as the Gundam franchise, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop and Tenchi Muyo).

Monday, March 05, 2007

Sit flying

Sit flying is a form of locomotion obtainable to skydivers and vertical wind tunnel flyers. It describes the ability to 'fly' ones body in any direction while in a 'sit' position. It's called a 'sit' because it looks like the flyer is sitting in a chair.
The correct position for flying a sit is to orient yourself feet first in the direction of the relative wind and maintain 90-degree angle bends at the knees, hips, and shoulders. Wind from the tunnel or from free-fall should be hitting the flyer on the feet, hamstrings, bottom, and the underside of the arms. To move about relative to the tunnel or other jumpers, the flyer simply redirects the airflow the opposite direction the jumper wants to go. Newtonian mechanics then push the flyer in the preferred direction. Fall rate changes (descending faster or slower) can also be made. This is done by presenting more surface area (wide legs and arms, higher drag, slower fall rate) or less surface area (arms up or even stand up, less drag, faster fall rate) from the flyers body to the wind.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Traditional animation

Also called cel animation, the frames of a traditionally animated movie are hand-drawn. The drawings are traced or copied onto transparent acetate sheets called cels, which are then located over a painted background and photographed one by one on a rostrum camera. Nowadays, the use of cels (and cameras) is mostly obsolete, since the drawings are scanned into computers, and digitally transferred directly to 35 mm film. The "look" of traditional cel animation is still preserved, and the character animator's work has remained essentially the same over the past 70 years. Because of the digital influence over modern cel animation, it is also known as tradigital animation.
Examples: The Lion King, Spirited Away, Les Triplettes de Belleville
Full animation
The most common style in animation, known for its realistic and often very detailed art.
Examples: All Disney feature length animated films, The Secret of NIMH, The Iron Giant
Limited animation
A cheaper process of creating animated cartoons that does not follow a "realistic" approach.
Examples: The Flintstones, Yellow Submarine
Rubber hose
The characters are usually cartoony, and the animators have a lot of artistic freedom as rubber hose animations don't have to follow the laws of physics and anatomy in the same degree as the other main styles in animation.
Examples: Early Mickey Mouse cartoons, Ren and Stimpy, Popeye
Rotoscoping
A technique where animators trace live action movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films.
Examples: Gulliver's Travels, American Pop

Friday, February 23, 2007

Erosion

Erosion is the displacement of solids by the agents of wind, water or ice, by downward or down-slope movement in response to gravity or by living organisms . Erosion is well-known from weathering, which is the decomposition of rock and particles through processes where no movement is caught up, although the two processes may be concurrent.
Erosion is an intrinsic normal process but in many places it is increased by human land use. Poor land use practices include deforestation, overgrazing, unmanaged construction movement and road or trail building. wever, improved land use practices can limit erosion, using techniques like terrace-building and tree planting.A certain amount of erosion is natural and, in fact, healthy for the ecosystem. For example,
gravels repeatedly move downstream in watercourses. Excessive erosion, however, can cause problems, such as in receipt of water sedimentation, ecosystem damage and outright loss of soil.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Magnetic field in Mercury planet

Despite its slow revolving, Mercury has a relatively strong magnetic field, with a magnetic field strength 1% as strong as the Earth’s. It is potential that this magnetic field is generated in a manner similar to Earth’s, by a dynamo of circulating liquid core material. However, scientists are uncertain whether Mercury’s core could still be liquid,although it could perhaps be set aside liquid by tidal effects during periods of high orbital eccentricity. It is also probable that Mercury’s magnetic field is a remnant of an earlier dynamo effect that has now ceased, with the magnetic field becoming “frozen” in solidified magnetic materials.
Mercury’s magnetic field is physically powerful sufficient to deflect the solar wind around the planet, that creates a magnetosphere within which the solar wind does not go through. This is in difference to the situation on the Moon, which has a magnetic field too weak to stop the solar wind impacting on its surface and so lacks a magnetosphere.