CURRENT AFFAIRS – FREQUENTLY ASKED

CURRENT AFFAIRS – FREQUENTLY ASKED

1. NATIONAL
1. New Govt. schemes
2. Newly constituted committees on national issues.
3. Newly appointed heads of important offices
4. Inter state disputes
5. Important places in news

2. BILATERAL
1. Recent trade pacts like FTA, trade targets, items of trade, grouping in WTO
2. Bilateral defence deals and military exercises.
3. Bilateral visits by heads of nations
4. Bilateral summits (Place, theme to summit, issues discussed in summit)
5. Bilateral, trilateral and regional forums Eg : - IBSA, SAARC

3. ECONOMICS
1. RBI – monetary policy changes – CRR, Bank Rate, Forex reserves, inflation rate etc
2. Finance Ministry – Fiscal policy-tax rates, tax holidays, committees appointed to
review exciting tax structures.
3. CSO – National income, Per capita income, GDP growth rate, Base year, Poverty rate
etc.
4. Central Govt. schemes of Employment Generation (NREGP), Social welfare (NOAP,
ICDS, MDMS), Poverty eradication (AAY), Infrastructure development (NURM,
NHDP)/
5. SEBI – Stock exchanges, Stock indexes, disinvestments, scams, committees
6. TRADE- Export items, Import items, export targets of various sector, trade pacts
7. PLANNING – Plan period, GDP target, priorities, sectoral allocations
8. INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
WTO – Summits, discussed issues, groupings formed for trade dialogue.
IMF, WB - development agenda, loans and grants
UNDP – Theme, HDR, HDI rankings,
ILO, UNCTAD reports.

4. POLITY
1. New amendments
2. National issues – Any related article in constitution
3. Major Supreme court verdict in national issues
4. Important committees related to constitution
5. Inter state river water, territorial disputes

5. INTERNATIONAL
1. International summits – theme of summit, major agenda, total membership, observers,
Declaration issued, recent members, venue of next summit.
2. International forums and NGO’s – WEF, WSF, TI ,Greenpeace etc.
3. International disputes – Territorial claims, civil war, Non Proliferation issues and
related treaties.
4. Terrorism – Organisations, funding, recent attacks and assassination, international
efforts to curb it(UN resolutions, treaties.)

6. SPACE
1. Recent space missions – name of space mission, space research organization(country)
and name of spacecraft, planet name, purpose, period.
2. Space phenomenon – Possible Asteroids threat etc.
3. Discoveries – Names of recently discovered planets, comets and asteroids
4. International Space station
5. Space accidents – Jupiter & Shoemaker levy-4 crash, Colombia shuttle crash,
6. International space projects like Galileo (GPS).

7. DEFENCE
1.Recenlty tested missiles – Name, type, range, speed, nuclear capability, technology
used, indigenous or joint production.
2. Bilateral defence deals-Fighters, ships, submarines, missiles, radars etc.
3. Bilateral military, Navy and Air force exercises – Place, Code name, nature of
operation.
4. International peacekeeping operations – Indian role and presence
5. Recent bodies like Strategic Forces Command etc.,

8. AWARDS
1. National Awards - Civilian – Bharath Rathna, Gandhi peace prize,
IG prize for peace, disarmament and development
- Sports – Rajiv Khel ratna – Arjuna – Dhronacharya
- Cinema – IFFI, Dadasaheb phalke, National
- Science – Kalinga, S.S. Bhatnagar
- Literature – Jnanpith, Sahithya Academy, Vyas
Samman. Saraswathi samman etc.
- Social service – IG national integration, LB Shasthri award for
excellence in pub-ad etc.
2. International - Noble prize.
Oscar awards (cinema)/ Grammy awards (music).
Ramon Magsaysay Awards (Asian Nobel prize).
Right livelihood (Alternative Nobel prize).
Booker – Pulitzer- Orange-Dylan Thomas awards (Literature)
Abel prize,Templeton awards etc.

9. PERSONALITIES
1. Newly elected head of nations and important world organisations.
2. News makers, inventors etc.
3. CEO’s of major corporate bodies.
4. Major national and international award winners.
10. BOOKS AND AUTHORS
1. Recent ones containing issues of national and international importance
2. Controversial books. (eg. In the line of fire, Lajja, Satanic verses)
3. Books which recently got national/international awards.
4. Popular writers of National/ International fame.
(Naom Chomsky, Salman rushdie, Arunthathi roy, Shashi
Tharoor, Vikram Seth, R.K. Narayan

11. SPORTS
1. Players and sports events.
2. Major national international records.
3. Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth, South Asian games-mascot, no of countries
participated. Newly added disciplines, top Medal winning countries
4. Doping cases-drug used, player, ban period, country
5. Grand slam titles in tennis
12. ENVIRONMENT
- Major treaties like Montreal – Kyoto – Basel – Cartegena etc, recent
- Summits like UNFCCC, UNEP etc.
- Calamities, Accidents and natural disasters – Valcano action, Earthquake, Tsunami,
- Storms – Cyclone – typhoon (names of it Ex.Katrina,Nargis,Gustav)
- Disease outbreak (ex. Bird flu)
-Recent campaigns by environmental agencies like

13. CULTURE AND ART
1. UNESCO World heritage sites.
2. Major temples / festivals / Eg. Recent kumba mela.
3. Dances of Indian states.
4. Folk arts and states
5.Personalities in Dance, Arts and Theatre currently in news

14. MAP BASED QUESTIONS.
1. Areas of bilateral and international disputes (islands etc).
2. Any major calamities (Valcanoe, storm, nuclear accident,)
3. Countries – language wise.
4. Location of important cities, river of a country.
5. Questions based on national census(2001).

STUDY MATERIALS FOR CURRENT AFFAIRS AREA
1. Dailies - The Hindu* ,Economic times, Dhina Mani(Tamil)
2. Magazines - Frontline ,Yojana
3. India year book* , Manorama year book.
4. Economic Survey*.

Other Human Body Facts

Other Human Body Facts

• The Gastric Flu can cause projectile vomiting.
• The Dutch people are known to be the tallest people in Europe.
• Studies have shown that the scent of Rosemary can help in better mental performance and make individuals feel more alert.
• Some brands of toothpaste contain glycerin or glycerol, which is also an ingredient in antifreeze.
• Soaking beans for twelve hours in water before they are cooked can reduce flatulence caused by beans.
• Scientists say that babies that are breastfed are more likely to be slimmer as adults than those that are not breastfed.
• Scientists have determined that having guilty feelings may actually damage your immune system
  Research has indicated that approximately eleven minutes are cut off the life of an average male smoker from each cigarette smoked.
• People have the tendency to chew the food on the side that they most often use their hand.
• Over 600,000 people died as a result of the Spanish influenza epidemic.
• Only one out of every three people wash their hands when leaving a public bathroom.
• One ragweed plant can release as many as a million grains of pollen in one day.
• One out of 20 people have an extra rib.
• One average, men spend 60 hours a year shaving.
• On average, falling asleep while driving results in 550 accidents per day in the United States.
• On average, a person has two million sweat glands.
• On average, Americans spend 33% of their life sleeping.
• On average a person passes gas 14 times a day.
• On average 1,668 gallons of water are used by each person in the United States daily.
• Nerve impulses for muscle position travel at a speed of up to 390 feet per second.
• Nerve cells can travel as fast as 120 meters per second.
• Mummy powder was once thought to be a cure for all remedies. English men used to carry the powder with them in a tiny bag wherever they went.
• Men in their early twenties shave an average of four times a week.
• Medical research has found substances in mistletoe that can slow down tumor growth.
• Medical reports show that about 18% of the population are prone to sleepwalking.
• Manicuring the nails has been done by people for more than 4,000 years.
• Left-handed people are better at sports that require good spatial judgment and fast reaction, compared to right-handed individuals.
• Ironically, when doctors in Los Angeles, California went on strike in 1976, the daily number of deaths in the city dropped 18%.
• In the United States, 8.5 million cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures were done in the year 2001.
• People with darker skin will not wrinkle as fast as people with lighter skin.
• People with allergies can lower allergy reactions by laughing.
• People who meet their calcium need reduce their risk of developing kidney stones.
• People that smoke have 10 times as many wrinkles as a person that does not smoke.
• People still cut the cheese shortly after death.
• People over the age of fifty will start to lose their dislike for foods that taste bitter.
• People of Ancient China believed that swinging your arms could cure a headache.
• The average weight of a newborn baby is 7 lbs. 6 oz. For a triplet baby it is 3 lbs. 12 oz.
• The average person spends two weeks of their life kissing.
• The average person falls asleep in about 12 to 14 minutes.
• There are approximately one hundred million people in the United States that have a chronic illness.
• There are approximately 60 muscles in the face.
• There are 50% more males that are left handed compared to females.
• There are 400 species of bacteria in the human colon.
• There are 10 million bacteria at the place where you rest your hands at a desk.
• In a lifetime, an average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva.
• In a lifetime, an average driver will release approximately 912 pints of wind inside a car.
• In Canada, men are three times more likely than women to have seen a doctor in the last year.
• In 1832, in Paisley, Scotland the first municipal water filtration works was opened.
• Humans breathe in and out approximately one litre of air in ten seconds.
• Girls have more tastebud than boys.
• From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size.
• Flu shots only work about 70% of the time.
• Gases that build up in your large intestine cause flatulence. It usually takes about 30 to 45 minutes for these gases to pass through your system.
• Fat is important for the development of children and normal growth.
• Every day, the average person swallows about a quart of snot.
• Eighty percent of 10 year old girls in the USA go on a diet.
• Air is passed through the nose at a speed of 100 miles per hour when a person sneezes.
• About twenty-five percent of the population sneeze when they are exposed to light.
• A yawn usually lasts for approximately six seconds.
• Children who are breast fed tend to have an IQ seven points higher than children who are not.
• Children grow faster in the springtime than any other season during the year.
• Eating chocolate three times a month helps people live longer as opposed to people who overeat chocolate or do not eat chocolate at all.
• Constipation is caused when too much water is absorbed in the large intestine and poops become dry.
• A ear trumpet was used before the hearing aid was invented by people who had difficulty hearing.
• The average human dream lasts only 2 to 3 seconds.
• The average person has at least seven dreams a night.
• Bile produced by the liver is responsible for making your feces a brownish, green colour.
• It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile.
• By the time you are 70 you will have easily drunk over 12,000 gallons of water.
• A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for approximately sixty-nine years.
• The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.
• The average person laughs about 15 times a day.
• The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.
• About 10% of the world's population is left-handed. 

Sex Facts

Sex Facts

• There are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day.
• The sperm count of an average American male compared to thirty years ago is down thirty percent.
  An adult esophagus can range from 10 to 14 inches in length and is one inch in diameter.
• Men sweat more than women. This is because women can better regulate the amount of water they lose.
• The average amount of time spent kissing for a person in a lifetime is 20,160 minutes.
• The average adult has approximately six pounds of skin.
• Infants spend more time dreaming than adults do.
• In one day, adult lungs move about 10,000 liters of air.
• The condom made originally of linen was invented in the early 1500's. Casanova, the womanizer, used linen condoms.
• Sex burns about 70-120 calories for a 130 pound woman, and 77 to 155 calories for a 170 pound man every hour.
• Impotence is grounds for divorce in 26 U.S. states.
• There are approximately 45 billion fat cells in an average adult.
• Kissing can aid in reducing tooth decay. This is because the extra saliva helps in keeping the mouth clean.
• During the female orgasm, endorphines are released, which are powerful painkillers. So headaches are in fact a bad excuse not to have sex.
• During World War II, condoms were used to cover rifle barrels from being damaged by salt water as the soldiers swam to shore.
• According to psychologists, the shoe and the foot are the most common sources of sexual fetishism in Western society.

A kiss for one minute can burn 26.                                                                                                   

Pregnancy Facts

Pregnancy Facts

• The world's first test tube twins are Stephen and Amanda Mays born June 5, 1981.
• Some people drink the urine of pregnant women to build up their immune system.
• The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
• Every day, over 1,300 babies are born prematurely in the USA.
• During pregnancy, the average woman's uterus expands up to five hundred times its normal size.
• Changing a cat's litter box can be dangerous to pregnant women, as cat feces sometimes carry a parasite that can cause harm to the developing baby.
• A pregnant woman's dental health can affect her unborn child.
• May babies are on avearge 200 grams heavier than babies born in other months.
• When a women is pregnant, her senses are all heightened.

Studies show that couples that smoke during the time of conception have a higher chance of having a girl compared to couples that do not smoke.

Diseases Facts

Diseases Facts

• People that use mobile phones are 2.5 time more likely to develop cancer in areas of the brain that are adjacent to the ear they use to talk on the mobile phone.
• Over 90% of diseases are caused or complicated by stress.
• Over 436,000 U.S. Troops were exposed to depleted uranium during the first Gulf war.
• On average, 90% of the people that have the disease Lupus are female.
• Many cancer patients that are treated with chemotherapy lose their hair. For some when the hair grows back, it can grow back a different colour, or be curly or straight.
• Diabetes is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., accounting for about 180,000 deaths per year.
• Chances of a women getting breast cancer are increased by excessive use of alcohol.
• A popular superstition is that if you put a piece of bread in a baby's crib, it will keep away diseases.
• A person that is struck by lightning has a greater chance of developing motor neurons disease.
• Every year in the U.S., there are 178,000 new cases of lung cancer.
• Every three minutes a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer.
• Asthma affects one in fifteen children under the age of eighteen.
• Every eleven minutes in the U.S., a woman dies of breast cancer.
• Due to eating habits in the USA, one in three children born in the year 2000 have a chance of getting type II diabetes.
• The oldest known disease in the world is leprosy.
• The number one cause of rabies in the United States are bats.
• Coughing can cause air to move through your windpipe faster than the speed of sound — over a thousand feet per second!
• A headache and inflammatory pain can be reduced by eating 20 tart cherries.
• The incidents of immune system diseases has increased over 200% in the last five years.
• The flu pandemic of 1918 killed over 20 million people.
• Each year in America there are about 300,000 deaths that can be attributed to obesity.
• Every three days a human stomach gets a new lining.
• The first owner of the Marlboro Company, Wayne McLaren, died of lung cancer.
• Soldiers disease is a term for morphine addiction. The Civil War produced over 400,000 morphine addicts.
• Rocky Mountain spotted fever is a disease caused by ticks.
• A person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or six toes on one or both hands and feet.
• A study indicates that smokers are likely to die on average six and a half years earlier than non-smokers.
• A person who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day will on average lose two teeth every ten years.
• Lady Peseshet is known to be the world's first known female physician. She practiced during the time of the pyramids, which was the fourth dynasty.
• The DNA of humans is closer to a rat than a cat.
• Teenage suicide is the second cause of death in the state of Wisconsin.
• Teenage cosmetic surgeries nearly doubled in the USA between 1996 and 1998.
• Studies indicate that weightlifters working out in blue gyms can handle heavier weights.
• Studies indicate that listening to music is good for digestion.
• Studies indicate that epileptic patients that listen to Mozart's Piano Sonata can dramatically decrease their chance of a seizure.
• Lack of sleep can affect your immune system and reduce your ability to fight infections.
• It takes about three hours for food to be broken down in the human stomach.
• Over 40 million Americans have chronic bad breath.
• Carbon monoxide can kill a person in less than 15 minutes.
• Fourteen people die each day from asthma in the United States.
• Every day the human stomach produces about 2 liters of hydrochloric acid.
• Nearly half of all Americans suffer from symptoms of burnout.In humans, the epidermal layer of skin, which consists of many layers of skin regenerates every 27 days.
• Native Americans used to use pumpkin seeds for medicine.
• In ancient Egypt, doctors used jolts from the electric catfish to reduce the pain of arthritis.
• The lining of the a person's stomach is replaced every 36 hours.
• The purpose of tonsils is to destroy foreign substances that are swallowed or breathed in.
• In the United States, poisoning is the fourth leading cause of death among children.
• The risk of cardiovascular disease is twice as high in women that snore regularly compared to women who do not snore.
• The stomach of an adult can hold 1.5 liters of material.
• The stomach can break down goat's milk faster than the milk of a cow.
• The smoke that is produced by a fire kills more people than a burn does because of carbon monoxide and other dangerous gases.
• It has been medically been proven that laughter is an effective pain killer.
• Influenza caused over twenty-one million deaths in 1918.
• In a year, there are 60,000 trampoline injuries that occur in the U.S.
• Even if you eat food standing on your head, the food will still end up in your stomach.
• A person infected with the SARS virus, has a 95-98% chance of recovery.

3000 children die every day in Africa because of malaria.                                                           

Hair Facts

Hair Facts

• On average, a man spends about five months of his life shaving.
• On average, a hair strand's life span is five and a half years.
• On average redheads have 90,000 hairs. People with black hair have about 110,000 hairs.
• Next to bone marrow, hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human body.
• In a lifetime, an average man will shave 20,000 times.
• Humans have about the same number of hair follicles as a chimpanzee has.
• Hair will fall out faster on a person that is on a crash diet.
• The average human head weighs about eight pounds.
• The reason why some people get a cowlick is because the growth of their hair is in a spiral pattern, which causes the hair to either stand straight up, or goes to a certain angle.
• The reason why hair turns gray as we age is because the pigment cells in the hair follicle start to die, which is responsible for producing "melanin" which gives the hair colour.
• The big toe is the foot reflexology pressure point for the head.
• The loss of eyelashes is referred to as madarosis.
• The longest human beard on record is 17.5 feet, held by Hans N. Langseth who was born in Norway in 1846.
• The fastest growing tissue in the human body is hair.
• The average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.
• Hair and fingernails are made from the same substance, keratin.
• Hair is made from the same substance as fingernails.
• Eyebrow hair lasts between 3-5 months before it sheds.
• The first hair dryer was a vacuum cleaner that was used for drying hair.
• A Russian man who wore a beard during the time of Peter the Great had to pay a special tax.
• Everyday approximately 35 meters of hair fiber is produced on the scalp of an adult.
• Brylcreem, which was created in 1929, was the first man's hair product.
• Ancient Egyptians used to think having facial hair was an indication of personal neglect.
• A survey done by Clairol 10 years ago came up with 46% of men stating that it was okay to color their hair. Now 66% of men admit to coloring their hair.

A lifespan of an eyelash is approximately 150 days. 

Tongue Facts

Tongue Facts

• Close to fifty percent of the bacteria in the mouth lives on the surface of our tongue.
• There are approximately 9,000 taste buds on the tongue.
• Your tongue has 3,000 taste buds.

85% of the population can curl their tongue into a tube.                                                              

Mouth Facts

Mouth Facts

• In a month, a fingernail grows an eighth of an inch.
• People whose mouth has a narrow roof are more likely to snore. This is because they have less oxygen going through their nose.
• While sleeping, one man in eight snores, and one in ten grinds his teeth.

It takes food seven seconds to go from the mouth to the stomach via the esophagus.

Eyes Facts

Eyes Facts

• We should never put anything in or near our eyes, unless we have a reason to use eye drops. We would only do that if our doctor or parent told us to use them.
• Blinking helps to wash tears over our eyeballs. That keeps them clean and moist. Also, if something is about to hit our eye, we will blink automatically.
• Our body has some natural protection for our eyes. Our eyelashes help to keep dirt out of our eyes. Our eyebrows are made to keep sweat from running into our eyes.
• Our eyes are very important to us, and we must protect them. We don't want dirt, sand, splinters or even fingers to get in our eyes. We don't want our eyes to get scratched or poked. That could damage our sight!
• The study of the iris of the eye is called iridology.
• The shark cornea has been used in eye surgery, since its cornea is similar to a human cornea.
• The number one cause of blindness in adults in the United States is diabetes.
• The eyeball of a human weighs approximately 28 grams.
• The eye of a human can distinguish 500 shades of the gray.
• The cornea is the only living tissue in the human body that does not contain any blood vessels.
• The conjunctiva is a membrane that covers the human eye.
• Sailors once thought that wearing a gold earring would improve their eyesight.
• Research has indicated that a tie that is on too tight cam increase the risk of glaucoma in men.
• People generally read 25% slower from a computer screen compared to paper.
• Men are able to read fine print better than women can.
• In the United States, approximately 25,000 eye injuries occur that result in the person becoming totally blind.
• All babies are colour blind when they are born.
• A human eyeball weighs an ounce.
• If the lens in our eye doesn't work quite right, we can get glasses to help us see. Glasses have lenses in them that work with our eye's own lens to help us see better.
• Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.
• The reason why your nose gets runny when you are crying is because the tears from the eyes drain into the nose.
• The most common injury caused by cosmetics is to the eye by a mascara wand.
• Some people start to sneeze if they are exposed to sunlight or have a light shined into their eye.
• The highest recorded speed of a sneeze is 165 km per hour.
• It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• The space between your eyebrows is called the Glabella.
• Inside our eye, at the back, is a part called the "retina." On the retina are cells called "rods" and "cones." These rods and cones help us to see colors and light.
• Just behind the pupil is a lens. It is round and flat. It is thicker toward the middle.
• Over the front of our eye is a clear covering called the "conjunctiva."
• The white part of our eye is called the "sclera." At the front, the sclera becomes clear and is called the "cornea."
• Around the pupil is a colored muscle called the "iris." Our eyes may be BLUE, BROWN, GREEN, GRAY OR BLACK, because that is the color of the iris.
• Our eyes have many parts. The black part on the front of our eye is called the "pupil." It is really a little hole that opens into the back part of our eyes.

Your eyes blinks over 10,000,000 times a year! 

Blood Facts

Blood Facts

• Two million red blood cells die every second.
• There are approximately 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.
• Seven percent of a humans body weight is made up of blood.
• In the early nineteenth century some advertisements claimed that riding the carousel was good for the circulation of blood.
• Each day 400 gallons of recycled blood are pumped through the kidneys.
• By donating just one pint of blood, four lives can be saved.
• Blood is such a good stain that Native Americans used it for paint.
• The kidneys filter over 400 gallons of blood each day.
• The average life span of a single red blood cell is 120 days.
• Blood accounts for about 8% of a human's body weight.
• A woman has approximately 4.5 liters of blood in her body, while men have 5.6 liters.
• Your blood takes a very long trip through your body. If you could stretch out all of a human's blood vessels, they would be about 60,000 miles long. That's enough to go around the world twice.
• Half your body’s red blood cells are replaced every seven days.

If all the blood vessels in your body were laid end to end, they would reach about 60,000 miles.

Bones Facts

Bones Facts

• The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes bone which is located in the ear.
• There are 54 bones in your hands including the wrists.
• The only bone fully grown at birth is located in the ear.
• The human face is made up of 14 bones.
• The chances of getting a cavity is higher if candy is eaten slowly throughout the day compared to eating it all at once and then brushing your teeth.
• If an identical twin grows up without having a certain tooth, the other twin will most likely also grow up with that tooth missing.
• Humans are born with 300 bones in their body, however when a person reaches adulthood they only have 206 bones. This occurs because many of them join together to make a single bone.
• Gardening is said to be one of the best exercises for maintaining healthy bones.
• Enamel is hardest substance in the human body.
• Although the outsides of a bone are hard, they are generally light and soft inside. They are about 75% water.
• Adult human bones account for 14% of the body's total weight.
• In 2000 babies are born with a tooth that is already visible.
• Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!
• Your thigh bone is stronger than concrete.

The strongest bone in your body is the femur (thighbone), and it's hollow!                             

Brain Facts

Brain Facts

• Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men in the United States.
• The human brain has about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons.
• From all the oxygen that a human breathes, twenty percent goes to the brain.
• People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.
• Once a human reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells a day. The cells will never be replaced.
• It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself. Since your brain knows this, it ignores the resulting sensation.
• A women from Berlin Germany has had 3,110 gallstones taken out of her gall bladder.
• In America, the most common mental illness is Anxiety Disorders.
• Your brain is 80% water.
• Your brain is move active and thinks more at night than during the day.

Heart Facts

• Women hearts beat faster than men.
• Three years after a person quits smoking, there chance of having a heart attack is the same as someone who has never smoked before.
• The human heart weighs less than a pound.
• The human heart can create enough pressure that it could squirt blood at a distance of thirty feet.
• The first open heart surgery was performed by Dr. Daniel Hall Williams in 1893.
• Scientists have discovered that the longer the ring finger is in boys the less chance they have of having a heart attack.
• The right lung of a human is larger than the left one. This is because of the space and placement of the heart.
• The human heart beast roughly 35 million times a year.
• Olive oil can help in lowering cholesterol levels and decreasing the risk of heart complications.
• In a lifetime, the heart pumps about one million barrels of blood.
• In 1967, the first successful heart transplant was performed in Cape Town, South Africa.
• People that suffer from gum disease are twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack.
• Most heart attacks occur between the hours of 8 and 9 AM.
• The human heart beast roughly 35 million times a year.

At one time it was thought that the heart controlled a person's emotions.

Human Body Facts

• In one day, a human sheds 10 billion skin flakes. This amounts to approximately two kilograms in a year.
• Every square inch of the human body has about 19,000,000 skin cells.
• Approximately 25% of all scald burns to children are from hot tap water and is associated with more deaths than with any other liquid.
• Forty-one percent of women apply body and hand moisturizer at least three times a day.
• Every hour one billion cells in the body must be replaced.
• The world record for the number of body piercing on one individual is 702, which is held by Canadian Brent Moffat.
• The small intestine in the human body is about 2 inches around, and 22 feet long.
• The human body makes anywhere from 1 to 3 pints of saliva every 24 hours.
• The human body has approximately 37,000 miles of capillaries.
• The aorta, which is largest artery located in the body, is about the diameter of a garden hose.
• The adult human body requires about 88 pounds of oxygen daily.
• It is very common for babies in New Zealand to sleep on sheepskins. This is to help them gain weight faster, and retain their body heat.
• An average women has 17 square feet of skin. When a women is in her ninth month of pregnancy she has 18.5 square feet of skin.
• The width of your armspan stretched out is the length of your whole body.
• 41% of women apply body or hand moisturizer a minimum three times a day.
• A human's small intestine is 6 meters long.
• There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee. You don't see all of them because most are too fine and light to be noticed.
• Every hour one billion cells in the body must be replaced.
• Dead cells in the body ultimately go to the kidneys for excretion.
• By walking an extra 20 minutes every day, an average person will burn off seven pounds of body fat in an year.

The human body is 75% water.

1. Hardware interrupts make use of two of such input signals namely this, except...
a. NMI (Non maskable Interrupt)
b. INTR (Interrupt Request)
c. PIC (Programmable Interrupt Controller)
2. In a standard PC the PICs are programmed such that the master PIC generated the
interrupt number...
a. 0-7 for IRQ0 –IRQ7 respectively
b. 8-15 for IRQ0 –IRQ7 respectively
c. 16-23 for IRQ0 –IRQ7 respectively
3. IRQ 0 has the...
a. same priority
b. lowest priority
c. highest priority
4. The PIC has to be notified about the return of the previous interrupt by the...
a. ISR routine
b. IMR routine
c. IRR routine
5. following is characteristic of ICWs, exept...
a. ICW programmed at time of boot up
b. ICW are used at run-time.
c. ICW are used to program the operation mode like cascade mode or not
also it is used to program the function of PIC i.e if it is to invoke interrupts
08~ 0FH or 70-77H on IRQ request.
6. following is characteristic of ICWs, exept...
a. OCW is used signal PIC EOI
b. OCW are used at run-time.
c. OCW are used to program the operation mode like cascade mode or not
also it is used to program the function of PIC i.e if it is to invoke interrupts
08~ 0FH or 70-77H on IRQ request.
7. The circular keyboard buffer starts at the address
a. 40:1AH and contains 32 bytes
b. 40:1EH and contains 32 bytes
c. 40:1CH and contains 32 bytes
8. The interval timer has 3 channels each channel is 16 bit wide. What port used as
the command register?
a. port 41
b. port 42
c. port 43
9. the port 61h Bit 0 is used to...
a. control the speaker
b. connect the interval timer to the speaker
c. turn the speaker on off
10. A value of 0xb4 is loaded into the...
a. command register 0x43
b. command register 0x42
c. command register 0x61

math tricks

Multiplication by 5
It's often more convenient instead of multiplying by 5 to multiply first by 10 and then divide by 2. For example, 237x5=2370/2=1185
Same way you can also multiply by 50
Multiplication by 4
Replace either with a repeated operation by 2.For example 124x4=248·2=4
Multiplication by 25
Multiply first by 100 and then divide by 4 For example37x25=3700/4=1850/2=925.
Multiplication by 8
Replace either with a repeated operation by 2. For example 124x8=248x4=496x2=992.
Multiplication by 45
Multiply first by 90and then divide by 2.For example37x45=37x90/2=3330/2=1665
Or see this method also 37 x45 = 37 (100/2 -10/2)= 3700/2-370/2=1850-185=1665
Multiplication by 55
Multiply first by 110and then divide by 2. For example37x55=37x110/2=4070/2=2035
Multiplication by 75
Multiply first by 300 and then divide by 4 .For example37x75=37x300/4=11100/4=2775
Multiplication by 125
Multiply first by 500 and then divide by 4 For example37x125=37x500/4=18500/4=4625
Multiplication by 150
Multiply first by 300 and then divide by 2 For example37x150=37x300/4=11100/2=5550
Multiplication by 175
Multiply first by 700 and then divide by 4 For example37x175=37x700/4=25900/4=6475
Multiplication by 225
Multiply first by 900 and then divide by 4 For example37x225=37x900/4=33300/4=8325
Multiplication by 275
Multiply first by 1100 and then divide by 4
For example37x275=37x1100/4=40700/4=10175

Pathogenic Ascomycetes

Pathogenic Ascomycetes
Microsphueru ulni is an ascomycete that infects the leaves of the common
lilac. It produces conidiospores at the ends of hyphae by abstriction. Ascus
production occurs in a completely enclosed fruiting body called a cleistocarp.
The formationo f asci is not associated with a fusiono f gametic nuclei. When
an infected lilac leaf is examined, the conspicuous element is the whitish
mycelium with its powdery profusion of conidiospores. It is a powdery
mildew. Careful examination with ale ns discloses small, black dotst;h ese are
the cleistocarps. In figure 19-7 a cleistocarp having anchoring filaments has
ruptured, and asci-bearing ascospores are being extruded.
Endothecia purasiticu is another ascomycetous plant pathogen. It has
caused the near extinction of chestnut trees in the United States. The fungus
was inadvertently brought to this country on stock brought from the Orient
near the year 1900. From the initial point of infection in Long Island, New
York, it spread throughout the country and destroyed nearly all the chestnut
trees. Although a few resistant trees remaina nd a comeback is possible, iits
not yet much evident.
Cerutostomelh ulmi causes Dutch Elm disease, so-called because it was
first describedi n the Netherlands. This fungus infecttsh e American Elm tree.
The infection began in this country in 1930; again, the source was imported
stock. It has spread widely and caused vast destruction among American Elm
trees. The destiny of the American Elm appears to be the same as that of the
American Chestnut.

Harappa and Indus civilization

Harappa and Indus civilization

Although agriculture seems to have come late to India, arriving sometime around 5000 BC, India was one of the first regions to give birth to civilization. Only a few centuries after the first Mesopotamian cities sprang up, a people living along the northern reaches of the Indus River discovered urbanization, metalwork, and writing. It is a mysterious civilization and one with no discernible continuity, for it thrived for just several centuries and then disappeared. The Indo-European immigrants who settled the region did not adopt most of the aspects of this civilization, and what precisely they did adopt is difficult to ascertain. So while Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Yellow River civilizations lasted for millenia and left their mark on all subsequent cultures, the Indus River civilization seems to have been a false start.

For the overwhelming majority of human history, this early culture was truly a lost civilization. The mounds which stood where great cities once thrived excited interest in observers, but no one in their wildest dreams could have imagined that beneath those large mounds lay cities that had been lost to human memory.

In the 1920's, excavations began on one of these mounds in Harappa in Pakistan. While the archaeologists expected to find something, they did not imagine that a city lay beneath the earth. Archaeologists would later discover another large city to the recovery of at least eighty villages and towns related to this newly discovered civilization. They named it Harappan after the first city they discovered, but it is more commonly called the Indus River civilization. While we have stones and tools and fragments and bones, we really have no one's voice or experience from the bustling days of the great Harappan cities. We don't know who the people were who built and lived there. We don't know, either, when they first built their cities; some scholars argue that Harappan civilization arises around 2250 BC, while others argue that it can be dated back to 2500 BC or earlier.

Like the civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece, Harappa grew on the floodplains of a rich and life-giving river, the Indus. The original cities and many of the towns seemed to have been built right upon the shores of the river. The Indus, however, is destructive and unpredictable in its floods, and the cities were frequently levelled by the forces of nature. Mohenjo-Daro in the south, where the flooding can be fairly brutal, was rebuilt six times that we know about; Harappa in the north was rebuilt five times.

The Harappans were an agricultural people whose economy was almost entirely dominated by horticulture. Massive granaries were built at each city, and there most certainly was an elaborate bureaucracy to distribute this wealth of food. The Indus River valley is relatively dry now, but apparently it was quite wet when the Harappans thrived there. We know this because the bricks that they built their cities with were fired bricks; since sun-dried bricks are cheaper and easier to make, we can only assume that over-abundant humidity and precipitation prevented them from taking the cheaper way out. In addition, many of the Harappan seals have pictures of animals that imply a wet and marshy environment, such as rhinoceroses, elephants, and tigers. The Harappans also had a wide variety of domesticated animals: camels, cats, dogs, goats, sheep, and buffalo.

Their cities were carefully planned and laid out; they are, in fact, the first people to plan the building of their cities. Whenever they rebuilt their cities, they laid them out precisely in the same way the destroyed city had been built. The pathways within the city are laid out in a perpendicular criss-cross fashion; most of the city consisted of residences.

Life in the Harappan cities was apparently quite good. Although living quarters were cramped, which is typical of ancient cities, the residents nevertheless had drains, sewers, and even latrines. There is no question that they had an active trade with cultures to the west. Several Harappan seals have been found in excavations of Sumerian cities, as well as pictures of animals that in no way could have existed in Mesopotamia, such as tigers. There is not, however, a wealth of Mesopotamian artifacts in Harappan cities.

We know nothing of the religion of the Harappans. Unlike in Mesopotamia or Egypt, we have discovered no building that so much as hints that it might be a temple or involve any kind of public worship. The bulk of public buildings in the city seemed to be solely oriented towards the economy and making life comfortable for the Harappans. We do, however, have a number of tantalizing figures on various seals and statues. What we gather from these figures (and we can not gather much), is that the Harappans probably exercised some sort of goddess worship. There is, however, some sort of male god (maybe) that has the head of a man with the horns of a bull. In addition, we believe from various artifacts that the Harappans also may have worshipped natural objects or animistic forces, but the circumstances of this worship can only be guessed at.

We know that the Harappans were eventually supplanted by waves of migrations of Indo-Europeans. These new peoples, however, did not seem to adopt the religious practices of the Harappans, so it is not possible to reconstruct Harappan religion through the religion of the Vedic peoples, that is, the Indo-Europeans who constructed the rudimentary Indian religion represented by the Vedas.

Right at the heart of the mystery, like a person speaking behind sound-proof glass, are the numerous writings on the artifacts that have been unearthed. Harappan writing was a pictographic script, or at least seems to be; as of yet, however, no one has figured out how to decipher it or even what language it might be rendering. The logical candidate is that the Harappans spoke a Dravidian language, but that conclusion, which may not be true, has not helped anybody decipher the script. Like the rest of Harappan civilization, the writing was lost to human memory after the disappearance of the Harappans.

And finally they disappeared. And they disappeared without a trace. Some believe that they were overrun by the war-like Aryans, the Indo-Europeans who, like a storm, rushed in from Euro-Asia and overran Persia and northern India. Some believe that the periodic and frequently destructive flooding of the Indus finally took its toll on the economic health of the civilization. It is possible that the periodic changes of course that the Indus undergoes also contributed to its decline. All we know is that somewhere between 1800 and 1700 BC, the Harappan cities and towns were abandoned and finally reclaimed by the rich soil they had sprung from.

Jute in India
Jute cultivation is believed to have started in India as early as 800 B.C. for manufacturing cordage, paper and cloth. It is one of the most important cash crops of eastern India. Jute is called the “brown paper of wholesale trade” since it is used for the package of many commodities such as cotton, wool, rice, wheat, sugar, pulses, fertilizer and cement. Jute is also used for manufacturing carpets, rugs, tarpaulins, upholstery, ropes and strings.

Events in Indian, Pakistani nuclear development

Events in Indian, Pakistani nuclear development:

India

--1948: India establishes an Atomic Energy Commission for exploration for uranium ore.

--1953: President Eisenhower launches ``Atoms for Peace'' program, offering access to exchange atomic technology for pledges to use it for civilian use, not weapons.

--1954: Head of India's AEC, rejects safeguards, oversight by new International Atomic Energy Agency.

--1956: India completes negotiations to build 40 megawatt ``Canadian-Indian Reactor, U.S.'' research reactor. United States supplies heavy water, used to control nuclear fission.

--1958: India begins designing and acquiring equipment for its own Trombay plutonium reprocessing facility, giving the nation a dual-use capability that could lead to atomic weapons.

--1959: U.S. trains Indian scientists in reprocessing, handling plutonium.

--1963: Two 210-megawatt boiling-water reactors are ordered for the Tarapur Atomic Power Station from General Electric. United States and India agree plutonium from India's reactors will not be used for research for atomic weapons or for military purposes.

--1964: First plutonium reprocessing plant operates at Trombay.

--1965: Chairman of India's AEC proposes subterranean nuclear explosion project. China, one of five declared nuclear states, detonates first atomic explosive device. U.S. withdraws military aid from India after the India-Pakistan War.

--1966: India declares it can produce nuclear weapons within 18 months.

--1968: Non-Proliferation Treaty completed. India refuses to sign.

--1969: France agrees to help India develop breeder reactors.

--1974: India tests a device of up to 15 kilotons and calls the test a ``peaceful nuclear explosion.'' Canada suspends nuclear cooperation. The United States allows continued supply of nuclear fuel, but later cuts it off.

--1976: Soviet Union assumes role of India's main supplier of heavy water. Canada formally halts nuclear cooperation.

--Early 1980s: India acquires and develops centrifuge technology, builds uranium enrichment plants at Trombay and Mysore.

--1991: India enters agreement with Pakistan prohibiting attacks on each other's nuclear installations, a measure to ease tensions.

--1992: Rare Metals Plant at Mysore begins producing enriched uranium. Nuclear Suppliers Group, organization of nations with nuclear materials, stops supplying India.

--1997: India announces development of supercomputer technology that can be used to test nuclear-weapon designs. Fuel reprocessing plant at Kalpakkam, a large-scale plutonium separation facility, completes ``cold commissioning'' in last phase of pre-operating trials.

--1998: India announces plans to sign deal with Russia for two 1,000 megawatt nuclear reactors.

--May 11-13: India conducts five underground nuclear tests, declares itself a nuclear state.

------

Pakistan

--1972: Following its third war with India, Pakistan secretly decides to start nuclear weapons program to match India's developing capability. Canada supplies reactor for the Karachi Nuclear Power Plant, heavy water and heavy-water production facility.

--1974: Western suppliers embargo nuclear exports to Pakistan after India's first test of a nuclear device.

--1975: Purchasing of components and technology for Kahuta uranium-enrichment centrifuge facility begins after return of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, German-trained metallurgist who takes over nuclear program.

--1976: Canada stops supplying nuclear fuel for Karachi.

--1977: German seller provides vacuum pumps, equipment for uranium enrichment. Britain sells Pakistan 30 high-frequency inverters for controlling centrifuge speeds. United States halts economic and military aid over Pakistan's nuclear-weapons program.

--1978: France cancels deal to supply plutonium reprocessing plant at Chasma.

--1979: United States imposes economic sanctions after Pakistan is caught importing equipment for uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta.

--1981: Smuggler arrested at U.S. airport while attempting to ship two tons of zirconium to Pakistan. Nevertheless, Reagan administration lifts sanctions and begins generous military and financial aid because of Pakistani help to Afghan rebels battling Soviets.

--1983: China reportedly supplies Pakistan with bomb design. U.S. intelligence believes Pakistani centrifuge program intended to produce material for nuclear weapons.

--1985: Congress passes Pressler amendment, requiring economic sanctions unless White House certifies that Pakistan is not embarked on nuclear weapons program. Islamabad is certified every year until 1990.

--1986: Pakistan, China sign pact on peaceful use of nuclear energy, including design, construction, operation of reactors.

--1987: Pakistan acquires tritium purification and production facility from West Germany.

--1989: A 27-kilowatt research reactor is built with Chinese help and comes under international monitoring.

--1990: Fearing new war with India, Pakistan makes cores for several nuclear weapons. Bush administration, under Pressler amendment, imposes economic, military sanctions against Pakistan.

--1991: Pakistan puts ceiling on size of its weapons-grade uranium stockpile. It enters into agreement with India, prohibiting the two states from attacking each other's nuclear installations.

--1993: Report by the Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute says about 14,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges installed in Pakistan. German customs officials seize about 1,000 gas centrifuges bound for Pakistan.

--1996: Pakistan buys 5,000 ring magnets from China to be used in gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment. China tells U.S. government it will stop helping Pakistan's unsafeguarded nuclear facilities. Islamabad completes 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor that, once operational, could provide the first source of plutonium-bearing spent fuel free from international inspections.

--1998: Reacting to fresh nuclear testing by India, Pakistan conducts its own atomic explosions.

Aurangzeb, Akbar, and the Communalization of History

Aurangzeb, Akbar, and the Communalization of History

In Indian history, the syncretistic and communalist viewpoints have conventionally been represented, to take one case in point, by offering a contrast between the lives of the two emperors under whom the Mughal Empire was at its zenith, Akbar (reigned 1556-1605) and Aurangzeb (reigned 1658-1707). Akbar is often adduced as an example of the tolerant ruler, whose policies demonstrate that though he himself was a Muslim, the state was not Islamic. Some have even pointed to him as a 'secular' ruler, when scarcely any monarch in Europe was such, and his advocacy of a new faith, the Din-i-ilahi, which combined elements from various religions, exemplifies the ecumenism with which he is associated. "He looked upon all religions alike", writes Tara Chand, "and regarded it his duty to make no difference between his subjects on the basis of religion. He threw upon the highest appointments to non-Muslims." [1] Though it is admitted that he may have forged political and military alliances with Hindu rulers from considerations of expediency, other historians allude to more enduring signs of his real commitment to religious harmony and interest in different faiths, such as his marriage to Rajput women, his scholarly interest in epics such as the Ramayana, and his zeal in promoting Hindu learning. Historians point to Akbar's elimination of the jizya (poll-tax) usually levied on non-Muslims and his assumption of final authority on religious questions on which there might have been conflict of opinion among Muslim theologians, thereby undermining the authority of the ulama (Muslim clergy). Describing Akbar's success as "astonishing", Jawaharlal Nehru gave it as his opinion, in a work that places him among the ranks of historians, that Akbar "created a sense of oneness among the diverse elements of north and central India." [2]

The commonplace view of Aurangzeb, on the other hand, is that he repudiated Akbar's policies of religious toleration, and by alienating Hindus he undermined the very empire whose tremendous expansion he masterminded. Nehru maintained that Aurangzeb had "put the clock back", undoing what his predecessors had achieved by working against the "genius of the nation" and ignoring the common culture that had been forged among the different elements of the Indian population. "When Aurangzeb began to oppose this movement [of synthesis] and suppress it and to function more as a Moslem than an Indian ruler," Nehru argued, "the Mughal Empire began to break up." But where Nehru saw Aurangzeb as a "bigot and an austere puritan" whose policies were instrumental in creating unease and dissent, and Tara Chand deplored his "misdirected efforts" which caused "irreparable damage" to the "great edifice of the empire", [3] many Indian historians have been inclined to take a much harsher view of Aurangzeb's conduct. In this they were to follow the lead supplied by Jadunath Sarkar, whose 1928 biography of Aurangzeb in four volumes bequeathed the view of Aurangzeb that still predominates in the popular imagination. Sarkar suggested that Aurangzeb intended nothing less than to establish an Islamic state in India, an objective that could not be fulfilled without "the conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent"; and to render this scenario more complete, he proposed that the jizya (poll-tax) on non-Muslims, which Aurangzeb had re-instituted in 1679, was aimed at forcibly converting Hindus to Islam, though he was unable to marshal evidence to substantiate this view. [4]

If Aurangzeb was so ferocious a communalist, why is it, some historians have asked, that the number of Hindus employed in positions of eminence under Aurangzeb's reign rose from 24.5% in the time of his father Shah Jahan to 33% in the fourth decade of his own rule? They suggest, moreover, that Aurangzeb did not indiscriminately destroy Hindu temples, as he is commonly believed to have done so, and that he directed the destruction of temples only when faced with insurgency. This was almost certainly the case with the Keshava Rai temple in the Mathura region, where the Jats rose in rebellion; and yet even this policy of reprisal may have been modified, as Hindu temples in the Deccan were seldom destroyed. The image of Aurangzeb as an idol-breaker may not withstand scrutiny, since there is evidence to show that, like his predecessors, he continued to confer land grants (jagirs) upon Hindu temples, such as the Someshwar Nath Mahadev temple in Allahabad, Jangum Badi Shiva temple in Banaras, Umanand temple in Gauhati, and numerous others. [5] On the other hand, one might argue, if Akbar was so dedicated to the principle of religious harmony, why is it that none of the Mughal princesses were ever allowed to marry into Rajput households? And while he may have propagated a new syncretistic faith, how was it received by ordinary Muslims? Moreover, do not both the supporters of Akbar and critics of Aurangzeb presume that relations between Hindus and Muslims are to be inferred by studying the lives of rulers, or at best members of the ruling class? What, in any case, is really conceded when it is admitted that Akbar was tolerant towards other faiths to the same extent that Aurangzeb was only solicitous of the welfare of his Muslim subjects? As the historian Harbans Mukhia has argued, "Once one accepts that the liberal religious policy of Akbar was only the reflection of his own liberal outlook, the conclusion becomes inescapable, for instance, that the fanatic religious policy of Aurangzeb flowed from his fanatic disposition." [6] If Aurangzeb sought to convert members of important Hindu families to Islam, all the more to ensure the preservation of his empire, why should that serve as a basis for the presumption that a wholesale conversion of Hindus was a matter of state policy? By what method of transference is it possible to construe that conflicts among the ruling elite are conflicts at the broader social level? In the debate over the nature of the Indian past, then, particularly with respect to Hindu-Muslim relations, Akbar and Aurangzeb were to become, as they still are, iconic figures.