Annamalaiyar Temple

Name
Proper name: Arulmigu Annamalaiyar Thirukoil
Sanskrit transliteration: Arunachaleswara
Tamil: திருஅண்ணாமலையார் திருக்கோயில்

Location
Country: India
State: Tamil Nadu
District: Tiruvannamalai district
Locale: Thiruvannamalai

Temple Details
Primary Deity: Annamalaiyar (Shiva)
Consort: Unnamalaiyaal (Apitakuchambaal – Parvati)
Temple Tank: Agni theertham
Important festivals: Karthigai Deepam

Annamalaiyar Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva, located at the foothills of the Annamalai Hill in the town of Thiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, India.

Shiva is worshipped as Annamalaiyar or Arunachaleswarar represented by lingam, with his consort, Unnamalaiyaal (Apitakuchambaal – Parvati).

The temple occupies a significant place in Saivism realm and is regarded as one of the Pancha Bhoota Stalas – this temple is associated with the element fire (Agni).

The temple complex spans 10 hectares and is one of the largest temples in India. It houses 4 gopurams  with the tallest being the eastern tower with 11 storeys and a height of 66 metres (217 ft), making it one of the tallest gopurams in India.

The Karthigai Deepam festival celebrated during the full moon day in November–December during which a huge beacon lit on the top of the hill. It can be seen from miles around and believed to be Shiva’s lingam of fire joining the limitless skies.

The event is witnessed by 3 million pilgrims. During each full moon day, the Annamalai Hill is swelled by close to 1 million pilgrims who do a girivalam and worship Annamalaiyar in the temple.

The temple is revered by the Tevaram hymns of 7th century Saiva nayanars – Tamil saint poets and is also classified as a Paadal Petra Sthalam. It is said that the 9th century Saiva saint poet Manikkavasagar composed the Tiruvempaavai at Thiruvannamalai.

BATS

1. Bats are the only mammals able to fly

2. A single brown bat can catch around 1,200 mosquito-size insects in one hour

3. Vampire bats don’t suck blood

4. Bats don’t have “fat days.” The metabolism of a bat is enviable

5. Fewer than 10 people in the last 50 years have contracted rabies from North American bats

6. Bats use echolocation to get around in the dark.

7. Bats make up a quarter of all mammals

8. More than 50 percent of bat species in the United States are either in severe decline or are listed as endangered

9. An anticoagulant found in vampire bat saliva may soon be used to treat human cardiac patients

10. Bats have only one pup a year

11. The average bat will probably outlive your pet dog

12. Bats wash behind their ears

Nile River

The length of the Nile River is approximately 6650 kilometres. It is believed to be the longest river in the world.

Located in Africa, the Nile River lies in the following countries: Kenya, Eritrea, Congo, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

The Nile River has huge significance in regards to Ancient Egypt. Most of Ancient Egypt’s historical sites are located along the banks of the Nile River including cities such as Luxor and Cairo.

In 2004, the White Nile Expedition became the first to navigate the entire length of the Nile River. The expedition began in Uganda and finished in Rosetta, taking four months and two weeks to complete.

The Nile Delta in Northern Egypt is where the Nile River drains in to the Mediterranean Sea. It is around 160 kilometres in length and spreads out over 240 kilometres of coastline. It is rich in agriculture and has been farmed for thousands of years.

Around 40 million people (half of Egypt’s population) live in the Nile Delta region.

In 1787, the famous Rosetta stone was found in the Nile Delta in the city of Rosetta. This Ancient Egyptian artifact played a key role in modern understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The Aswan High Dam was built in 1970 to help regulate flooding of the Nile River. Before the Aswan Dam was built, years that featured high levels of water could wipe out crops while years of low level water could produce famines and drought. The dam helps control these water levels.

Strange Facts

1. Fingernails grow four times faster than toenails

2. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people

3. If you rub an onion on your foot – within 30 – 60 minutes you will be able to taste it – this is because it travels through the blood stream

4. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath (if you hold it until you go unconscious, you begin to breath normally as soon as you do)

5. On one square inch of human skin there are 20 million microscopic creatures

6. A snail can sleep for 3 – 4 years – during which period it does not need food

7. Giraffes can live longer without water than camels

8. The songs of humpback whales can change dramatically from year to year, yet each whale in an oceanwide population always sings the same song as the others

9. To test if a pearl is real, you can rub vinegar on it – the composition of the pearl will cause it to bubble furiously

10. Oysters can change between being female or male

Saturn

1. Saturn is the least dense planet in the Solar System

2. Saturn is a flattened ball

3. The first astronomers thought the rings were moons

4. Saturn has only been visited 4 times by spacecraft

5. Saturn has 60 moons

6. How long is a day on Saturn is a mystery

7. Saturn’s rings could be old, or they could be young

8. Sometimes the rings disappear

9. You can see Saturn with your own eyes

10. There could be life near Saturn

Crescograph

A crescograph is a device for measuring growth in plants. It was invented in the early 20th century by Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, an Indian scientist.

The Bose crescograph uses a series of clockwork gears and a smoked glass plate to record the movement of the tip of a plant (or its roots) at magnifications of up to 10,000.

Marks are made on the plate at intervals of a few seconds, demonstrating how the rate of growth varies under varying stimuli. Bose experimented with temperature, chemicals, gasses and electricity.

A Bose inspired modern electronic Crescograph was designed and built by Randall Fontes to measure plant movement at Stanford Research Institute for which culminated in a report “Organic Biofield Sensor” by H. E. Puthoff and R. Fontes.

The Electronic Crescograph plant movement detector is capable of measurements as small as 1/1,000,000 of an inch. However, its normal operating range is from 1/1000 to 1/10,000 of an inch.

The component which actually measures the movement is a differential transformer. Its movable core is hinged between two points. A micrometer is used to adjust and calibrate the system. It could record plant growth magnifying a small movements such as 10,000,000 times.

Sahara Desert

1. The Sahara, which is known in Arabic as aṣ-ṣaḥra´ al-kubra and means “The Great Desert”, is the largest hot desert in the world.

2. With a total area of more than 9,400,000 km², it is almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe.

3. Over-all, when hot and cold deserts are combined, Sahara is the 2nd largest desert on Earth. It is next only to Antarctica which is classified as desert due to very low precipitation rates.

4. Rock-Art Sites of Tadrart Acacus, where you’ll find drawings of animals on the cave’s wall, is declared a UNESCO World

5. The countries within the Sahara Desert are Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara.

6. Emi Koussi is the highest peak in the Sahara. It is 3,415 m tall and is located in the Tibesti Mountains in the northern part of Chad.

7. The Berbers, together with the Tuaregs, are the dominant ethnic groups in the Sahara.

8. Richat Structure is an unusual landform located in Mauritania. This prominent circular feature in the Sahara has attracted the attention of many due to its conspicuous bull’s eye form. This unique landform has a diameter of about 50 km.

9. Sahara has one of the world’s harshest climates. The prevailing north-easterly wind often causes the sand to form dust devils and sand storms.

10. Sahara is so dry that half of it receives less than 20 mm of rain per year while the reminder has up to 10 cm per year.

11. Rainfall in the Sahara is extremely rare but when it does it is usually torrential when it occurs after long dry periods.

12. Its quite surprising but there is about 500 species of plants that grow in the Sahara Desert.

POLO

Polo is a team sport played on horseback in which the objective is to score goals against an opposing team. Sometimes called, “The Sport of Kings“, it was highly popularized by the British.

Players score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team’s goal using a long-handled mallet.

The traditional sport of polo is played at speed on a large grass field up to 300 yards long, and each polo team consists of four riders and their mounts.

In arena polo, only three players are required per team and the game usually involves more maneuvering and shorter plays at lower speeds due to space limitations of the arena.

The modern game is played on horses. Polo is played professionally in 16 countries. It was formerly, but is not currently, an Olympic sport.

History

The game first played in Persia (Iran) at dates given from the 5th century BC, or much earlier, to the 1st century AD and originated there, polo was at first a training game for cavalry units, usually the king’s guard or other elite troops.

Sultan Qutb-ud-din Aibak, the Turkic Emperor of North India, ruled as an emperor for only four years, from 1206 to 1210 but died accidentally in 1210 playing polo.

Later on Polo was passed from Persia to other parts of Asia including the Indian subcontinent and China, where it was very popular during the Tang Dynasty and frequently depicted in paintings and statues. Valuable for training cavalry, the game was played from Constantinople to Japan by the Middle Ages. Known in the East as the Game of Kings.

The name polo is said to have been derived from the Tibetan word “pulu“, meaning ball.

DIAPER

A nappy or a diaper is a kind of pant that allows one to defecate or urinate on oneself discreetly. When diapers become soiled, they require changing; this process is often performed by a second person such as a parent or caregiver.

Failure to change a diaper on a regular enough basis can result in diaper rash.

Diapers have been worn throughout human history. They are made of cloth or disposable materials. Cloth diapers are composed of layers of fabric such as cotton, hemp, bamboo or microfiber and can be washed and reused multiple times.

Disposable diapers contain absorbent chemicals and are thrown away after use. The decision to use cloth or disposable diapers is a controversial one, owing to issues ranging from convenience, health, cost, and their effect on the environment.

Plastic pants can be worn over diapers to avoid leaks, but with modern cloth diapers, this is no longer necessary.

Diapers are primarily worn by children who are not yet potty trained or experience bedwetting. However, they can also be used by adults with incontinence or in certain circumstances where access to a toilet is unavailable.

These can include the elderly, those with a physical or mental disability, and people working in extreme conditions such as astronauts. It is not uncommon for people to wear diapers under dry suits.

Types

Disposable
Cloth Diaper

First Battle of Panipat

Date: 21 April 1526
Location: Panipat, Haryana, India
Result: Mughal victory
Territorial changes: Delhi Sultanate annexed by Mughals

Belligerents:
Mughal Empire
Lodi Empire

The first battle of Panipat took place in Northern India, and marked the beginning of the Mughal Empire. This was one of the earliest battles involving gunpowder firearms and field artillery.

In 1526, the Mughal forces of Babur, the Timurid ruler of Kabulistan, defeated the much larger Indian army of Ibrahim Lodi, Sultan of Delhi.

The battle was fought on 21 April near the small village of Panipat, in the present day Indian state of Haryana, an area that has been the site of a number of decisive battles for the control of Northern India since the twelfth century.

It is estimated that Babur’s forces numbered around 15,000 men and had between 20 to 24 pieces of field artillery. Babur estimated Lodi had around 100,000 men, though that number included camp followers, while the fighting force was around 30,000 to 40,000 men in total, along with at least 100 war elephants. Lodi’s army was mostly Hindus although he and his dynasty was Muslim of Pashtun ethnic background.

The advantage of guns at the time of war It is generally told that Babur’s guns proved decisive in battle, firstly because Ibrahim Lodi lacked any field artillery, but also because the sound of the cannon frightened Lodi’s elephants, causing them to trample Lodi’s own men.

Ibrahim Lodi died on the field of battle, abandoned by his feudatories and generals (many of whom were mercenaries). Most of them changed their allegiance to the new master of Delhi. However had Sultan Ibrahim survived another hour of fighting he would have won, as Babur had no reserves and his troops were rapidly tiring.