Why you can't stop army ants from going across a river by dynamiting the bridges?

What do you do at home if you have bottle of some sherbet or sweet drink and ants keep crowding towards the top of that bottle so as to lick of droplets of sweet drink. Generally you keep the bottle in a bowl of water as ants can’t cross or swim across water. But you will be wrong if the ants in question are Army ants. Army ants cross rivers or bodies of water by climbing on top of each other and clustering together into a little ball that floats. Many of them fall off and sink, and naturally the ants on the bottom of the ball drown. The ones who are quick and vigorous enough to keep clawing their way to the top survive. A lot of them make it across, and that's why you can't stop army ants by dynamiting the bridges.

References:-
http://lib.ru/INOFANT/STEFENSON/snow_crash_engl.txt
http://www.angelfire.com/nc/isoptera/cretaceous.html

Ramneek Maan Singh

Most Expensive Photograph. A big irony.



This picture holds the record for the highest price paid for a photograph. This work "99 Cent" was sold for $3,346,456, February, 2007. It shows the cluttered interior of a discount store. The "99 Cent" images feature oversaturated colors and enough detail to overwhelm the viewer.

It is an irony that the picture which itself captures a discount store holds the record for highest price paid for a picture.

Ramneek Maan Singh

786

You must have noticed the number 786 on a green background prominently displayed on roadside dargahs or Muslim places of worship around the country side. What does it mean and what is it significance.

The opening verse or phrase of Quran is “Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim”. Now according to an Arabic system of numerology, the sum of numbers assigned to letters of this verse amount to 786. Not all Muslims place emphasis on this numerological analysis; however, some — mostly in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh — use 786 as a substitute for Bismillah ("In the name of Allah" or "In the name of God"). They write this number to avoid writing the name of God, or Quranic verses on ordinary papers, which can be subject to dirt or come in contact with 'unclean' materials. This practice does not date from the time of Muhammad and is not universally accepted by Muslims.

Orthodox Muslims say that Islam does not believe in this numeral mumbo-jumbo and it associates it with pagan culture. There are various arguments given to impress upon Muslims that they should desist from using such numbers one being that '786' is also an aggregation of the numbers of Hindu 'Lord Hari Krishna'. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid using this number to avoid the danger of being indulging in infidelity.

Ramneek Maan Singh

Nomenclature/terminology associated with whiskey

Single malt whiskey, blended scotch whiskey, pure malt whiskey are some of the terms you might be acquainted with. They are prominently displayed on branded whiskies. But what do they mean. Read on:

What is a Single Malt Scotch whiskey?
A Single Malt Scotch Whiskey is the product of one specific distillery and has not been mixed with whiskey from any other distilleries. It is a 100% malted barley whiskey from one distillery.

What is a Blended or Pure Malt or Vatted whiskey?
A Vatted Malt will contain a number of single malt whiskies that have been skilfully blended together or "married," to create a consistent whiskey with its own distinct, identifiable character. Such a malt can also consist entirely of single malt whiskies of various ages from the same distillery. However, vatted malts will never contain any grain whiskey. A fairly uncommon type of whiskey, it is often well suited to those who prefer their whiskey to be less challenging, due to the fact that the blender's skill will more often than not produce an unvarying malt with highly definable traits.

What is a Single Grain Scotch whiskey?
A Single grain whiskey is the product of one Grain distillery and is usually made from wheat, corn or unmalted barley. It does not have to be made from a single type of grain.

What is a Blended Scotch whiskey?
A blended scotch whisky may contain a combination of whiskies from over 40 or 50 different malt and grain distilleries. The normal ratio of malt to grain is 60% grain 40% malt. The percentage of malt used will determine the quality and smoothness of taste and character. Each whisky used in the blending process will normally have been matured for about 5 years. However there are a number of higher aged blended scotch whiskies available.

What is a Malt ?
Malting is a process applied to cereal grains, in which the grains are made to germinate and then are quickly dried before the plant develops. The resulting grain is, thereafter, called malt.

Brands:
Notable blended Scotch whiskey brands include Johnnie Walker, Chivas Regal, etc. Out of the Johnnie Walker stable, only the green label brand is vatted. Else all are blended scotch whiskies.

Ramneek Maan Singh

A Real Time capsule


















Well you might have heard of time capsules in science fiction stories. They contain information intended for people in future. One of most scientifically made time capsule with information for extra terrestrial beings sent out from earth is the Voyager Golden Record. It contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or far future humans, that may find it. The Voyager spacecraft will take about 40,000 years to come near another star, 'near' meaning in this case within around 1.7 light-years' distance; hence, if other beings do not come in the direction of the spacecraft to meet them, it will take at least that long for the Golden Record to be found.

Its contents: 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, and thunder, and animal sounds, including the songs of birds and whales. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earthlings in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim.The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is audio, designed to be played at 16⅔ revolutions per minute. It contains spoken greetings beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect. A total of 55 languages have used for spoken greetings included in the Golden Record.

Instructions for playing the record look like:




Now the big question is: How will a extra terrestrial being be able to assimilate the information encoded for him on the record. The instructions to play the record or to build a record player are in English which is very much a language on planet earth. But English probably wont be the language of communication for extra terrestrial beings ( as much as English language chauvinists would say ). How will that dilemma be solved? I don't know.

Any way this was the second but most comprehensive attempt for a time capsule by NASA, the first one being the Pioneer plaques which were placed on board the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft. The Pioneer plaque looked like this:-



Read more at:
Voyager Golden Disc
Pioneer plaque

Ramneek Maan Singh