The microwave oven has a magnetron inside it. This component generates the microwaves which are then channeled into the cooking chamber of the oven.
Microwaves are generally reflected by metal surfaces. Therefore, the cooking chamber is an enclosure made of metal, except for the oven door. Even then, the glass paneled oven door has a metal mesh to keep the microwaves in.
As such, the microwaves keep bouncing off the walls of the cooking chamber and are continually passed through the food. These waves are absorbed by the food, particularly the water molecules found in most foods.
These water molecules are excited by the microwaves and they bump around, creating friction that produces heat. This, in turn, heats up the rest of the molecules of the food, effectively heating or even cooking the food.
Ceramic and glass containers are water-free and thus remain cool, although hot food might heat them through conduction.
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.
Max Ehrmann, 1927
Desiderata is a prose poem written by Max Ehrmann in 1927. The author is a poet and lawyer from Indiana who lived from 1872 to 1945. This poem attempts to inspire its readers to attain happiness.
The word "Desiderata" is actually Latin, which means "things to be desired".
You've heard of the benefits of drinking water. But do you know you can die from drinking too much water? Most people won't believe this, but it's true.
In January 2007, Jennifer Strange was one of about 18 contestants who tried to win a Nintendo Wii gaming console by determining how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom. She guzzled almost 2 gallons (about 7.58 liters) of water. Several hours into the contest, Strange was interviewed on the air and complained that her head hurt. Several hours later, Strange was found dead in her home. The county coroner said preliminary autopsy findings indicate Strange, a 28-year-old mother of three, died of water intoxication.
Water intoxication occurs when a person drinks so much water that the other nutrients in the body become diluted to the point that they can no longer do their jobs. It is also known as hyponatremia.
Sodium is an important electrolyte that helps regulates the body’s fluids. When the body’s sodium level is changed rapidly by drinking a lot of water, the extra water then causes the cells in the body to swell and malfunction. If it's caught early, treatment with IV fluids containing electrolytes can lead to a complete recovery; but untreated, hyponatremia can be fatal.
When somebody dies of water intoxication, it is usually caused by the combination of a very large amount of water (often 5 liters or more) over a relatively short period of time (minutes to hours).
Several high risk factors include:
Gastroenteritis, particularly in infants and children:The severe diarrhea and vommiting associated with gastroenteritis can result in very large electrolyte losses. Drinking water will replace lost water and avoid dehydration, but if the person is unable to take any other drink or food then lost electrolytes will not be replaced, which can result in water intoxication.
Endurance sports: Some of the most famous cases of water intoxication have involved athletes. They got in trouble because they were losing larges amounts of both water and sodium in their sweat but they were replacing their fluid loses with water only. The use of electrolyte solutions instead of water to prevent dehydration reduces the risk substantially.
Binge Drinking: There have been at least two reported cases of people dying from binge drinking as part of drinking contests and fraternity hazing.
Drug Use: Water intoxication has occurred in people trying to dilute their urine to pass a drug test. There have been at least two cases of teenagers dying after using Ecstasy and then drinking excessive water. Impairment of the kidney’s ability to remove the extra fluid by the drugs (particularly Ecstasy) was an important factor in their deaths.
Low Body Mass (infants): It can be very easy for children under a year old to absorb too much water – especially if the child is under nine months old, because with their small body mass, it is easy to take in a large amount of water relative to body mass.
Water intoxication can be prevented if a person's intake of water and electrolytes closely matches his or her losses. Avoid situations that provoke extreme or prolonged perspiration. Drinking fluids that are specially balanced to replace lost electrolytes can also help to prevent intoxication. Eating regularly can provide needed electrolytes if only normal water is available for rehydration.
The aurora is a beautiful atmospheric phenomenon appearing as bands of coloured light sometimes visible in the night sky in the polar regions of the earth. In the northern region, it is known as the aurora borealis or the Northern Lights. In the southern region, it is known as the aurora australis or the Southern Lights.
Auroras take on different appearances. They can look like an orange or red glow on the horizon - much like a sunrise or sunset. They may also look like curtains or ribbons and move and undulate during the night.
Auroras can be green, red or blue. Often they will be a combination of colors, with each color visible at a different altitude in the atmosphere.
Blue and violet: less than 120 kilometers (72 miles)
Green: 120 to 180 km (72 to 108 miles)
Red: more than 180 km (108 miles)
Aurora over Bear Lake, Alaska
Red aurora above Pioneer Peak, Alaska
How do auroras happen? The solar wind from the Sun can bring fast-moving particles towards the Earth. Some of them are then guided by the Earth's magnetic field towards the north and south magnetic poles. As they approach the Earth, the particles interact with the atmosphere making it glow in many different colours and causing the effect we call an aurora.
Illustration of how the aurora is formed
Auroras are like neon lights. Neon lights work by exciting gases inside of a tube with electricity. The resulting colors that you see are a result of the different gases used to make neon lights. In an aurora, the neon colors you see are the different wavelengths of light from gases high in the atmosphere.
A photograph of an aurora borealis taken aboard the International Space Station (ISS)
The following YouTube video shows the aurora australis captured by NASA's IMAGE satellite and overlaid onto NASA's satellite-based Blue Marble image.
For more information of the aurora, follow the links below:
If you frequently surf the Internet, you may have realized by now that certain URLs have the "www" prefix in front of them, while certain others don't. For example http://www.google.com has it, while http://phfoong.googlepages.com doesn't. Why is this so, you may ask?
The reason for this happening is due to the usual practice of naming the Internet hosts according to the services they provide. For example:
The host name of a Web server usually has the "www" prefix.
The host name of an FTP server usually has the "ftp" prefix.
The host name of a News server usually has the "nntp" or "news" prefix.
The use of the prefixes is in fact NOT required. That is why we can see many website today not having the "www" prefix in their URLs. The "www" is simply a choice in name, nothing more.
A googol is a very huge number. It is actually 10100 (which is 1 followed by 100 zeroes).
The term was popularized by Edward Kasner. On a walk with his nephews, Milton and Edwin Sirotta, Kasner asked for their ideas for a name for a very large number. Nine-year-old Milton suggested "googol."
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, named their search engine after the term googol.
There is also googolplex - an even bigger number. A googolplex is equals to 10googol (which is 1 followed by a googol zeroes).
Incidentally, the company headquarters for Google is known as the Googleplex (most likely a combination of Google and complex).
In my previous post regarding bacterial vs. viral infection, I touched a little on the emergence of antibiotic resistance. So, what exactly is antibiotic resistance?
First, we need to establish what is an antibiotic. Antibiotics are medicines that fight (or prevent) infections caused by bacteria. Antibiotics cannot fight infections caused by viruses. Antibiotics have been used extensively in the fight against infectious diseases.
However, because it is used so much (and sometimes inappropriately), bacteria are quickly adapting and becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Antibiotics kill or inhibit the growth of susceptible bacteria. Sometimes one of the bacteria survives because it has the ability to neutralize or evade the effect of the antibiotic; that one bacterium can then multiply and replace all the bacteria that were killed off. Exposure to antibiotics therefore provides selective pressure, which makes the surviving bacteria more likely to be resistant. In addition, bacteria that were at one time susceptible to an antibiotic can acquire resistance through mutation of their genetic material or by acquiring pieces of DNA that code for the resistance properties from other bacteria.
Because of antibiotic resistance, diseases are becoming harder to treat using conventional antibiotics. Not only that, they are becoming more virulent, causing widespread infections. Newer and more expensive antibiotics have to be used to treat these resistant bacteria. In fact, the bacteria are adapting faster than we can develop new antibiotics! This graph clearly shows that we are slowing down in the discovery of new antibiotics.
So, what can we possibly do to help prevent this health care disaster? Here are some recommendations from the CDC:
Do not take an antibiotic for a viral infection like a cold, a cough or the flu.
Take an antibiotic exactly as the doctor tells you. Do not skip doses. Complete the prescribed course of treatment, even if you are feeling better.
Do not save any antibiotics for the next time you get sick. Discard any leftover medication once you have completed your prescribed course of treatment.
Do not take antibiotics prescribed for someone else. The antibiotic may not be appropriate for your illness. Taking the wrong medicine may delay correct treatment and allow bacteria to multiply.
Antibiotic prescriptions in outpatient settings can be reduced dramatically - without adversely affecting patient health - by not prescribing antibiotics for viral illnesses, such as colds, most sore throats, coughs, bronchitis, and the flu.
Do not demand antibiotics when a healthcare provider has determined they are not needed.
Talk with your healthcare provider about antibiotic resistance.
You can read more about antibiotic resistance here:
