Friday, November 11, 2016

Terrific spoken english teacher!

We were in our teens and my cousin desperately wanted to speak English fluently. (thanks to our Malayalam medium school). He found out a spoken English tutor at Broadway, Ernakulam. On a beautiful evening we went to his home and knocked on his door. A 30 year old Malayali tutor opened the door and asked us to sit down. We sat at the edge of his sofa. He asked us our names for which we gave him the correct answer. We did not understand the 2nd and the other questions which were really tough. It is like the tutor has taken a pledge that he won’t speak in Malayalam in his life time!. Things went from bad to worse when we saw him talking to his own 5 year old kid in fluent English. He went on asking questions to us in English to which I and my cousin looked at each other. We knew we were in deep trouble. Fortunately his wife called him in English and he went to the next room. All off a sudden we escaped from his sofa and a few minutes later found ourselves sitting in the nearby park. Even after 25 years, I wonder why did he speak to us in English!

Any time stop functioning machine


Friday, July 16, 2010

How do salmon fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn?

salmon are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to reproduce. However, there are populations of several species that are restricted to fresh water through their life.
Folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn; tracking studies have shown this to be true but the nature of how this memory works has long been debated.
The salmon spend about one to five years (depending on the species) in the open ocean where they become sexually mature. The adult salmon return primarily to their natal stream to spawn. precise method salmon use to navigate is still a mystery, though their keen sense of smell is involved.

Why do we have leap years? (an extra “leap day” in February every four years.)


The reason for leap years is to keep our current calendar in alignment with the astronomical solar years, which occur every time the Earth makes a full revolution around the sun.
Specifically, the actual solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds long. ( 365.2423 days in decimal terms.)
The rule for determining leap years is simply this: every year that is divisible by four is a leap year, except those that are divisible by 100 but not 400.
For practical purposes going forward, this means that leap years will occur every four years from now (2012, 2016, 2020, etc.) until we reach 2100, which will NOT be a leap year. However, because of the limitations of human life spans, it is unlikely that anyone reading this today will live long enough for this to be a concern. But if you do manage to survive until the end of the 21st century, just remember that February 2100 will only have 28 days.