Monday, July 30, 2007

Jewellery and society

Jewellery is factually any piece of fine material used to decorate oneself. Although in earlier times jewellery was created for more convenient uses, such as wealth storage and pinning clothes together, in recent times it has been used almost completely for beautification. The first pieces of jewellery were made from likely materials, such as bone and animal teeth, shell, wood and engraved stone. Jewellery was often made for people of high importance to show their status and, in many cases, they were covered with it.Jewellery is made out of almost every material recognized and has been made to garnish nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings and many more types of jewellery. While high-quality and artistic pieces are made with gemstones and valuable metals, less pricey costume jewellery is made from less-valuable materials and is mass-produced. Form and function Kenyan man exhausting tribal beads. Over time, jewellery has been used for a number of reasons: Currency, wealth display and storage, purposeful Symbolism Protection and Artistic display Most cultures have at some point had a practice of observance large amounts of wealth stored in the form of jewellery. Numerous cultures move wedding dowries in the form of jewelry, or create jewelry as a means to store or display coins. on the other hand, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good; a mostly poignant example being the use of slave beads.

In creating jewellery, a variety of gemstones, coins, or other valuable items can be used, often set into precious metals. Common expensive metals used for modern jewellery include gold, platinum or silver, although alloys of nearly every metal known can be encountered in jewellery -- bronze, for example, was common in Roman times. Most gold jewellery is made of an alloy of gold, the purity of which is affirmed in karats, indicated by a number followed by the letter K. For example, ordinary gold jewellery ranges from 10K (41.7% pure gold) to 22K (91.6% pure gold), while 24K (99.9% pure gold) is considered too soft for jewellery use.
Platinum alloys variety from 900 (90% pure) to 950 (95.0% pure). The silver used in jewellery is usually sterling silver, or 92.5% fine silver. Other generally used materials include glass, such as merged glass or enamel; wood, often carved or turned; shells and other natural animal substances such as bone and ivory; natural clay, polymer clay, and even plastics.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Feather

Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that shape the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds. They are the outstanding feature that distinguishes the Class Aves from all other living groups. Other Theropoda also had feathers to see feathered dinosaurs.

Characteristics

Feathers are among the most multifaceted structural organs found in vertebrates: integument appendages, formed by controlled explosion of cells in the epidermis, or outer skin layer that produce keratin proteins. The β-keratins in feathers, beaks and claws — and the claws, scales and shells of reptiles — are calm of protein strands hydrogen-bonded into β-pleated sheets, which are then further twisted and cross linked by disulfide bridges into structures even tougher than the α-keratins of mammalian hair, horns and hoof.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Dairy product


Dairy products are generally defines as foodstuffs produced from milk.They are generally high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing generally comes from cows, but occasionally from other mammals such as goats, sheep, water buffalo, yaks, or horses. Dairy products are normally found in European, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine, whereas they are almost unknown in East Asian cuisine.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Hardware and software design

Supercomputers using custom CPUs traditionally gained their speed over conventional computers through the use of innovative designs that allow them to carry out many tasks in parallel, as well as complex feature engineering. They tend to be expert for certain types of computation, usually numerical calculations, and perform poorly at more general computing tasks. Their memory hierarchy is very cautiously designed to ensure the processor is kept fed with data and commands at all times—in fact, much of the performance difference between slower computers and supercomputers is due to the memory hierarchy. Their I/O systems tend to be planned to support high bandwidth, with latency less of an issue, because supercomputers are not used for transaction processing.

As with all highly parallel systems, Amdahl's law applies, and supercomputer designs devote great effort to eliminate software serialization, and using hardware to speed up the remaining bottlenecks.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Tugboat


A tugboat, is used to manoeuvre, mainly by towing other vessels in harbours, over the open sea, rivers and canals. They are used to tow barges, disabled ships other equipment like towboats.

A tugboat refers to a recreational boat that resembles a tug in shape, but is not designed for towing.

Tugboats are strong for their size. Early tugboats had used steam engines, but, nowadays diesel engines are used. Tugboat engines normally produce 750 to 3000 hp, but larger boats can have power ratings up to 25 000 hp. The engines are regularly used in railroad engines, but naturally drive the propellor mechanically as a substitute of converting the engine output to power electric motors, as is general for railroad engines. For safety, tugboats engines feature two of each important part for redundancy.

Tugboats are very much maneuverable and different propulsion systems have been developed to boost manoeuvrability and increase safety. The first tugs were fitted with paddle wheels but these were soon replaced by propeller-driven tugs. Kort nozzles have been added to increase thrust per hp. This was said by the nozzle-rudder which omitted the need for a conventional rudder.


Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Raft

A raft is some flat floating structure for travel over water. It is the most basic of boat design, characterized by the lack of a hull. Instead, rafts are kept afloat using any mixture of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels, or overstated air chambers. Traditional or antique rafts are constructing of wood or reeds. Present rafts may also use pontoons, drums, or extruded polystyrene blocks. Hot-air balloon rafts use durable, multi-layered rubberized fabrics, Depending on it’s utilize and size; it may contain a superstructure, masts, or rudders.
Timber rafting is used by the logging industry for the carrying of logs, by tying them together into rafts, and traveling or pulling them down a river. This method was very common up until the center of the 20th century but is now hardly used.
The type of raft used for spare time rafting is almost completely an inflatable boat, manufactured of flexible materials for use on whitewater.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Wherry

The Norfolk wherry is a black-sailed trader, kind of boat on The Broads in Norfolk. It is double-ended with the pole steeped well forward, tinted black with a single gaff sail. Mostly clinker-built, it would carry about 25 tons of goods.
Wherries were able to arrive at better boats just off coast and take their cargoes off to be transported inland through the broads and the rivers.
Before wherries, there was the Norfolk Keel, a quadrangle rigged, transom sterned clinker-built boat, 54 feet by 14 feet, and able to carry 30 tons of goods. The keel had been built since the middle Ages and the plan probably went back to the Viking invasion. After 1800, the Norfolk Keel (or 'keel wherry') disappeared, partly since a wherry could be sailed with fewer crew, and it had limited maneuverability and lacked speed.
A special wherry wheelbarrow was used to unpack cargo, e.g. stone, from the wherries. It was made from wood and strengthens with iron bands. It had no legs; therefore it could be rested on the 11 inches wide plank on the surface of the wherry.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Jet-Ski

Jet-Ski is the brand name of personal watercraft (PWC) affected by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd... The name, however, has become a widespread trademark for any type of personal watercraft. Jet Ski (or Jet Ski) can also specially refer to versions of PWCs with pivoting handle poles known as "stand-ups".
Jet Ski becomes leading colloquial term for stand-ups because, in 1973, Kawasaki was in charge for a limited production of stand-up models as intended by the recognized inventor of jet skis, Clayton Jacobsen II. In 1976, Kawasaki then began mass manufacture of the JS400-A. JS400s came with 400 cc two-stroke engines and hulls based upon the previous incomplete release models. It became the harbinger of the achievement Jet-Skis would see in the market up through the 1990s.
In 1986 Kawasaki broadened the world of Jet Skis by introduce a two person representation with lean-in "sport" style handling and a 650cc engine, dubbed the X-2. Then in 1989, they innovate their first two traveler "sit-down" model, the Tandem Sport (TS) with a step-through seating area.
In 2003, Kawasaki famous the Jet Ski brand by release a special 30th anniversary edition of its current stand-up model, the SX-R, which has seen a renewal of interest in stand-up jet skiing. The X-2 has also been efficient, based on the SX-R platform and re-released in Japan. Kawasaki continues to produce three models of sit-downs, as well as many four-stroke models.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Kerala houseboats

The houseboats in Kerala, south India, are huge, slow-moving, foreign barges used for leisure trips. They are a reworked model of Kettuvallams (in the Malayalam language, Kettu means "tied with ropes", and vallam means "boat"), which, in earlier times, were used to carry rice and spices from Kuttanad to the Kochi port. Kerala houseboats were measured a suitable means of transportation.
The fame of Kettuvalloms has returned in the function as major tourist attractions. Many come across the Kettuvallom an ideal means of explore the beauty of the Kerala backwaters.
Such a houseboat is about 60 to 70 feet (about 18 to 21 meters) long and concerning 15 feet (about 5 meters) wide at the middle. The hull is made of wooden planks that are detained together by ropes of coconut fiber; the usual wood is 'Anjili'. The roof is completed with bamboo poles and palm leaves. The exterior of the boat is tinted with protective coats of cashew nut oil.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Gondola

It is a customary Venetian rowing boat. Gondolas were for centuries the chief resources of transportation within Venice and still have a role in public transport, serving as traghetti (ferries) over major canals.
The gondola is propelled by an oarsman (the gondolier) who stands opposite the bow and pushes, rather than pulls, a single oar. Contrary to accepted belief the gondola is never poled, the waters of Venice being too deep for that. A gondola for passengers may have a small open cabin, for their defense next to sun or rain. A sumptuary law of Venice essential that gondolas should be decorated black, and they are frequently so painted now.
It is predictable that there were several thousand gondolas during the 18th century. There are a few hundred nowadays, most of which are for hire by tourists, while a few serve as traghetti or are in confidential ownership and use.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Coracle

A coracle is a small, trivial boat used mostly in Wales but also found across a lot of parts of the British Isles. Oval in shape and very connected to half a walnut shell, the structure is made of a framework of split and interwoven willow rods, tied with willow bark. The outer layer was initially an animal skin such as horse or bullocks hide (corium), with a thin layer of tar to make it fully water proof - today replaced by tarred calico or canvas, or simply fiber glass. The structure has a keel-less, flat bottom to evenly extend the weight of the boat and its load across the structure and to reduce the required depth of water - often to only a few inches, making it ideal for use on rivers. Coracles are so light and portable that they can simply be carried on the fisherman's shoulders when taking place to and from his work. Coracle-fishing is perform by two men, each seated in his coracle and with one hand holding the net as with the other he plies his paddle. When a fish is trapped, each hauls up his end of the net until the two coracles are brought to touch and the fish is are then secured.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Air boats

Air boats, is also known as fan boats, and are flat-bottomed punts motorized by a propeller attached to an automobile or aircraft engine. The propeller has the typical shape and size of an airplane propeller and so requires a large metal cage to look after passengers and other users. The flat bottom allows air boats to find the way easily through shallow swamps and marshes as well as in canals, rivers and lakes; it can also be used on frozen lakes. The driver sits high on a platform to recover visibility and to permit spotting floating obstacles and animals in the alleyway of the boat. Steering is expert by swiveling vertical fins positioned in the propeller wash in the very rear of the airboat, so control is a function of current, wind, water depth and propeller thrust. Crabbing into the wind or current is necessary. The noise from the propeller and engine is quite loud; the greater part of the noise is produced by the propeller. Air boats vary in size from 18 person tour boats to trail boats accepted on a road trailer and suitable for two or three passengers.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

A Civil Role Model
The word civil carries a lot of power. The usage needs to be carefully considered when it's entered into a sentence or an expression. Civil means a wide difference of things. It can be defined as a way to be attentive of the forms required for good reproduction. It can also be a means to the needs and affairs of the common public. However, the latter of the two definitions can also be extended to include a definition of the private rights and the remedy sought by action or costume. The point is that the word civil has a greater significance that has been embraced by our American legal traditions. It is the premise that law is there to provide the people and the lawyers are nothing more than mere guardians of law.
These are thoughts that were measured during the class viewing of A Civil Action. In the events of the case, there were many concerns that were brought up about our permissible culture.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Quadriga
A chariot is a two-wheeled, horse-drawn means of transportation. In Latin they say biga is a two-horse chariot, and quadriga is a four-horse chariot. It was used for very old warfare throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, and constant to be used for travel, processions and in games after it had been superseded militarily. Early forms may also have had four wheels, even though these are not usually referred to as chariots. The serious creation that allowed the construction of light, horse-drawn chariots for use in battle was the spoked wheel. In these times, most horses could not support the weight of a man in battle; the unique wild horse was a large pony in size. Chariots were efficient in war only on fairly flat, open terrain. As horses were slowly bred to be larger and stronger, chariots gave way to cavalry. The earliest spoke-wheeled chariots date to ca. 2000 BC and their usage peaked approximately 1300 BC (see Battle of Kadesh). Chariot races sustained to be popular in Constantinople until the 6th century. In modern warfare, the planned role of the chariot is played by the tank or the armored personnel carrier. In World War I, just before the opening of the first tanks, motorcycles with machine-guns mounted on a sidecar and armoured cars constitute mechanized versions of the chariot. It might be said that the Russian tachanka for a short time re-introduced horse-drawn chariots, armed with machine-guns but these were much more a light version of the horse artillery which had been a feature of European battlefields for well over a hundred years.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Security
A security is a fungible, negotiable interest on behalf of financial value. Securities are generally categorized into debt and equity securities. The company or other individual issuing the security is called the issuer.
Securities may be represented by a certificate or, more characteristically, by an electronic book entry interest. Certificates may be bearer, meaning they entitle the holder to rights under the security merely by holding the security, or registered, meaning they give the right the holder to rights only if he or she appears on a security register maintained by the issuer or an intermediary. They include shares of corporate stock or mutual funds, bonds issued by corporations or governmental agencies, stock options or other options, limited partnership units, and a variety of other formal investment instruments that are negotiable and fungible.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

industry

An industry is generally any grouping of businesses that share a common method of generating profits, such as the "music industry", the "automobile industry", or the "cattle industry". Usually an industry is also used specifically to refer to an area of economic production focused on manufacturing which involves large amounts of capital investment before any profit can be realized, also called "heavy industry.". As of 2004, Financial services is the largest industry (or category of industries) in the world in terms of earnings.

Industry in the second sense became a key sector of production in European and North American countries during the Industrial Revolution, which upset previous mercantile and feudal economies through many successive rapid advances in technology, such as the development of steam engines, power looms, and advances in large scale steel and coal production. Industrial countries then assumed a capitalist economic policy. Railroads and steam-powered ships began speedily integrating previously impossibly-distant world markets, enabling private companies to develop to then-unheard of size and wealth. Manufacturing is a wealth producing sector in an economy. Following the Industrial Revolution, perhaps a third of the world's economic output is derived from manufacturing industries—more than agriculture's share.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Solar System

The Solar System is the stellar system comprising the Sun and the retinue of celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 162 known moons, three currently identified dwarf planets and their four known moons, and thousands of small bodies. This last category includes asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and interplanetary dust.

The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun; a main sequence G2 star that contains 99.86% of the system's known mass and dominates it gravitationally. Because of its large mass, the Sun has an interior density high enough to sustain nuclear fusion, releasing enormous amounts of energy, most of which is radiated into space in the form of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light. The Sun's two largest orbiting bodies, Jupiter and Saturn, account for more than 90% of the system's remaining mass.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Genotype

The genotype is the specific genetic makeup of an individual, in the form of DNA. Together with the environmental variation that influences the individual, it codes for the phenotype of that individual. Non-hereditary mutations are not classically understood as representing the individuals’ genotype. Hence, scientists and doctors sometimes talk for example about the type of a particular cancer, thus separating the disease from the diseased. While codons for different amino acids may change in a random mutation, this doesn't necessarily alter the phenotype.

Typically, one refers to an individual's genotype with regard to a particular gene of interest and, in polyploid individuals; it refers to what combination of alleles the individual carries. Any given gene will usually cause an observable change in an organism, known as the phenotype. The distinction between genotype and phenotype is commonly experienced when studying family patterns for certain hereditary diseases or conditions, for example, hemophilia. Sometimes people who do not have hemophilia can have children with the disease, because the parents each "carried" hemophilia genes in their body, even though these genes have no effect on the parent’s health.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Competitiveness

Many philosophers and psychologists have recognized a trait in most living organisms that drive the particular organism to compete. This trait, called competitiveness, is viewed as an innate biological trait that coexists along with the urge for survival. Competitiveness, or the inclination to compete, though, has become identical with aggressiveness and ambitiousness in the English language. Competing with, however, instead of competing against - is synonymous with the synthesis process, and exercised through dialectic. More advanced civilizations integrate progressiveness, instead of forcefulness, into their interactions.

The term also applies to econometrics. Here it is a comparative measure of the ability and performance of a firm or ub-sector to sell and produce/supply goods and/or services in a given market. The two academic bodies of thought on the evaluation of competitivenes are the Structure Conduct Performance Paradigm and the more contemporary New Empirical Industrial organization model. Predicting changes in the competitiveness of business sectors is becoming an integral and explicit step in public policy making. Within capitalist economic systems, the drive of enterprises is to maintain and improve their own competitiveness.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Cosmology

Humans have many different methods which attempt to answer fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and our place in it . Other methods include science, philosophy, metaphysics, esotericism, mysticism, and forms of shamanism, such as the sacred consumption of ayahuasca among Peruvian Amazonia's Urarina. The Urarina have an elaborate animistic cosmological system, which informs their mythology, religious orientation and daily existence.

Given the generalized discontents with modernity, consumerism, over-consumption, violence and anomie, many people in the so-called industrial or post-industrial West rely on a number of distinctive religious worldviews. This in turn has given rise to increased religious pluralism, as well as to what are commonly known in the academic literature as new religious movements, which are gaining ground across the globe.