Sunday, September 20, 2009

Bijaya Dasami (Dashain)

Dashain, the one of the great festival in Nepal which is known as the win of Good over Bad. The festival is of 10 days which is believed that God Durga had a battle with Devil Mahisasur for 10 long days and had a victory so it is also called Bijaya Dasami, Bijaya implies Victory and Dasami implies 10 (the days of battle). After 10th day of festival, which goes on for another 5 days, we go to our seniors and get blessings and put TIKA (made of rice, red color known as Abir, yogurt, little bit of banana) in our forehead and Jamara by the side of our ear and ladies especially decorate it in their hair. Believe me or not this is the festival of lots of fun, food and gathering (family get together).
During these ten days a special music is played for the peace and prosperity to heal the world and minds. It is played in different tunes also known as Malasari Dhun and Mangal Dhun. Present here is the Malasari Dhun and I hope it will help to heal the world and individuals.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Mind over Matter: Brain Computer Interface

Brain Computer Interface is one of the challenge lying at the fore front of today's research.
We all know that our brain sends and receives numerous amount of signals from different parts of the body. Out of which, useful signals are picked up and are used in activities such as planning and movements as well as other activities. For people with severe neural diseases the brain-body communication might not be as easy as for the healthy person. So, even if the brain wants to send out the signal, decrypting what you are thinking in real time is really a huge challenge. This is challenging since you have to find the message deeply buried in the noise of the signals that the neurons are producing. It is just like talking at the busy railway station where everyone needs to talk: may be much more complicated than that. They are talking in some coded language and you need to understand it.

Fortunately, today's processing power of computer and advancements in research is making it possible.

Please watch a nice presentation by Stanford Research Group:


Saturday, September 5, 2009

Green Gasoline from Trees

Energy crisis, its consequences and possible alternatives are widely discussed and debated issues in present time world. There is no second belief that stock of fossil fuel is limited and one day it will be finished. Use of fossil fuel is causing environmental problems. But there are many opinions on alternatives to the traditional fuels being used. One option scientists are working on is the use of bio-diesel. Fuel is produced using biological materials mainly plants and used in vehicles. Bio-diesels are being produced by corn, sugarcane and other plant materials. There are lots of controversies on the production and use of these plants for fuel. Researchers are still going on to make this cheap, readily available and utilization of 'new' plants like algae. I n the video presented below shows the production of green gasoline. They say green, because they are using trees to produce gasoline. Trees contain cellulose which is produced by plants from sunlight and carbon di-oxide. Cellulose from tree logs made into powder is treated with catalysts which convert cellulose into gasoline and this gasoline can be used into regular machines without any modifications of the machines. However, the video doesn't speak about the commercial, economic and other parts of the green gasoline.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Amazing Talent: Sand Animation



Sand Animation performed by Ksenia Simonova in Ukraine Got Talent and it just amazing and with full of emotions brings tears in your eyes. Art has universal language and it speaks for everyone.