Energy from the Sun

The Sun is amazingly powerful, and the solar power is the basis for all life on earth. The production of the solar energy does not produce air as well as noise pollution and is considered the most cleaner and greener source of energy. Moreover, solar power is renewable, so it makes sense to explore advances in solar energy technology. There are two key ways to use the Sun's energy.

- Generating electricity using solar panels with photovoltaic effect
- Using heated water for home heating system or generating power with the help of it.


Commonly, solar power is produced by collecting sunlight and converting it into electricity. This is done by using solar panels, which are large flat panels made up of many individual solar cells. It is most often used in remote locations, although it is becoming more popular in urban areas as well.

Solar panels have no moving parts. Mount them out in the sun, hook up the wires, and collect power, without adding fuel or replacing worn-out parts. Nobody knows for sure how long a solar panel will last. Many of the very first photovoltaic panels are still producing power today.

If you are going to buy solar panels, compare them by dollars per watt. Used solar panels are a bargain in every way. Nowadays, Nanosolar Company claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt.

The sun is there everyday for all of us to enjoy and benefit from. With rising energy prices and growing environmental concerns it's time for us to realize that we all own the sun and it's up to us to use its power.

Mountain Dew Christmas Tree

It seems that you do not have enough time to create Mountain Dew Christmas Tree this year. Creators of original one were drinking soda for 3 Months to get approximately 400 Mountain Dew cans to build this beautiful artwork.













by the courtesy of mdewtree.com

Is There Any Hope Really?

Large number of suicides occurs each year at the Golden Gate Bridge between San Francisco and Marin County. One person jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge every 15 days on average, according to documentary 'The Bridge'. Film captured 19 people as they took their final plunge, and then offers interviews with grieving families.

After a fall of approximately four seconds jumpers hit the water at 75 miles per hour (120 km/h) with the force of a speeding truck meeting a concrete building. The jump is fatal 98 percent of the time. Accessibility is the biggest factor in making the Golden Gate Bridge the world's No. 1 suicide magnet. It makes suicide so easy and that is what makes it so dangerous. More than 1,250 suicides were reported since the time the bridge opened, on May 27, 1937.

Various methods have been proposed and implemented to reduce the number of suicides. The bridge is fitted with suicide hotline telephones, (sometimes inoperative, as you can see), and staff patrol the bridge in carts, looking for people who appear to be planning to jump. The bridge is now closed to pedestrians at night. Cyclists are still permitted across at night, but must be buzzed in and out through the remotely controlled security gates.

Attempts to introduce a suicide barrier have been thwarted by engineering difficulties, high costs, and public opposition. The estimated cost of a barrier is between $15 and $20 million. One recurring proposal is to build a barrier to replace or augment the low railing, a component of the bridge's original architectural design. New barriers have eliminated suicides at other landmarks around the world, but were opposed for the Golden Gate Bridge for reasons of cost, aesthetics, and safety. The load from a poorly designed barrier could significantly affect the bridge's structural integrity during a strong windstorm.

Today, the Golden Gate Bridge remains a nearly foolproof method for suicide. It is combination of beauty, lethality, romance and efficiency for people, who have the Golden Gate Bridge as a suicide site in their mind. The particular place or method of suicide is individual, but it is a function of what's available. The majority of bridge suicides are impulsive, but for a personality in crisis the accessibility of the Golden Gate Bridge is the tipping point between life and death.

Feel the Greatness of These Great Books

People in Cardiff, United Kingdom had a chance to fell the greatness of literature while the Cardiff central Library was being remodeled. Instead of using traditional temporary front, until the new building is completed, they used giant bookshelves, creating an quite dreamlike atmosphere.






Residents in Kansas, USA were asked to nominate influential books that represent kansas city. Sizeable versions of the winning nominations were then used as the exterior of the library car-park.

Use electricity wisely

South Africa’s state owned electricity provider Eskom leads by example in this cool advertising campaign.

Google has Purchased the Shortest Possible Domain Name

Google has purchased the shortest possible domain name to make it easier for Chinese users to find Google: g.cn. Interestingly, "g.com," along with most other single-letter and single-digit domain names are reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. The IANA is the master arbiter of domain names and addresses on the Internet. There are a few one-letter domain names out there, though: Z.com is owned by Nissan, Q.com by Qwest, and X.com is owned by PayPal. There was a proposal floated a few years ago to auction off the one-letter domain names, but nothing has come of it.

How to Write Articles in Simple English

As you may know Simple English is similar to English, but it only uses basic words. If you want your readers to understand your article, you should use only the 1000 most common and basic words in English. You should also use only simple grammar, for example shorter sentences. Simple English can make it easier for people to adjust to a second language and improve understanding for people whose first language is not English. Other readers of your article may be children or have learning difficulties. Remember that you want to use simple language, but the ideas do not have to be simple.

There is simple method to write articles in Simple English. Write your article; use normal words, as you would speak to another person. Look through words, if a word is a name, idiomatic (the meaning of the words is not clear from the roots), slang, or jargon (special words which experts use), then it should be replaced. For detailed writing about politics, science, or religion, articles sometimes need some complex words, then you should explain all the hard words in the article. Next, change sentences to active voice. For example, change from "The bird was eaten by the cat." to "The cat ate the bird." Check that you use verbs in past, present or future only.

When you are writing article in Simple English try not to use bad grammar and bad spelling. It is not good idea to use bad words; you are trying to write in Simple English, not Bad English. Do not use idioms (words or phrases that mean something other than what they say). Try to keep the structure of an article simple too. And, finally, do not write articles so short, that they offer no useful information as the article you just have read. :)

Shooting against the light simple solutions

When you shooting against the light your subject will appear too dark. You can choose to set a longer exposure in order to have plenty of light over the near subject, but in this case the background will appear burned. Below you will find a pair of shooting against the light simple solutions.

Use Flash Even in a Sunny Day: If you are close enough to your subject, like for instance in portrait photography, using the flash even if it is a very sunny day will fix the problem in a very simple and effective way.

D-Lighting Function: But what if your subject is too far away and you can’t or just don’t want to try a different angle with the sun behind you? Or what if it is night and a lamp illuminates the place? Will you be pleased with the overexposed lamp due to the long exposure needed in night conditions? Some new cameras come with a function called D-Lighting (or adaptive lighting). This function will solve the problem automatically.

Simple Solution Anecdote

When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (Ink won't flow down to the writing surface). In order to solve this problem, it took time and millions of dollars. They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees. The pen would work due to the pressurized ink inside. And what did Russians do? The Russians used a Pencil!

The lesson of this anecdote is a valid one, that we sometimes expend a great deal of time, effort, and money to create a "high-tech" solution to a problem, when a perfectly good, cheap, and simple solution is right before our eyes. The anecdote offered above isn't a real example of this syndrome, however. Fisher did ultimately develop a pressurized pen for use by NASA astronauts (now known as the famous "Fisher Space Pen"), but both American and Soviet space missions initially used pencils, NASA did not seek out Fisher and ask them to develop a "space pen", Fisher did not charge NASA for the cost of developing the pen, and the Fisher pen was eventually used by both American and Soviet astronauts.

Focus on Solutions

One of the most memorable case studies I came across on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies.

The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty.

Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, did not get into complications of X-rays, etc but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral of the story: Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problem. Learn to focus on solutions not on problems.