Hi... this is comin after a looong time. really wanted to write something but havent had the time to gather my thoughts and refine them..
Recently i saw the movie Dil Dosti Etc.. wont be reviewing it for u nor wud i disclose the story, just that the story made me ponder quite a lot on many issues. The most pertinent one being -
"Can you love someone without having sex?"
quite different from stuff i generally post but quite a thought provoking question none the less... ur views are most welcome... Mine..well i'll be puttin em up as soon as i've sorted em out. In the mean time i'm off on vacation of sorts wid my coll.. see ya soon with loads of sketches, photos and more. Until then take care and have fun.
The day temperatures are soaring here in chandigarh.. Yesterday's highest temperature being a whopping 43.6 degrees celsius. The day temperatures have been on the rise for the past 3-4 yrs. (No I am not starting off any banter on the disturbed ecological balance.)Hot winds blowing throughout the day make commuting hell and the scorching heat evokes lethargy, which isn't how you should feel, particularly if you are studying for semester end exams, more so if you didn't study during the semester. The night temperatures are nothing to get excited over but still they offer some respite. Thats the reason I prefer studying at night. But this somehow seems to have upset the electricity department which has taken it upon itself to make the nights as miserable if not worse than afternoons by employing powercuts. These torture not only the sleeping folk but me the most as I am left in a catch 22 situation. I am unable to sleep, unable to study and have to wake up early next morning to make up for lost time..Thankfully the ordeal as far as the exams are concerned will be over this tuesday. As for the sleepless nights, well they'll continue through the summers i reckon. If only the our buildings were constructed keeping in mind the climatology of the site the tempertures inside would be less thanthose outside during summers and vice versa in winters with little need for air conditioning. Interestingly the heat and the triggered use of air conditioers form a vicious circle. The air conditioners cool the indoors but release the heat outdoors. Which causes more ppl to buy air conditioners and further increases the temperatures outside.. I think the heat has gotten to me, i should get some sleep while there's electricity.
Most of us ride two wheelers. Some for the pleasures of biking, others for daily commuting and some for both...The traffic rules make it mandatory for the rider and the pillion to wear a BIS approved helmet.Most of us don't wear helmets and those of us who do, do so only to evade penalty, not for personal safety. The helmets manufactured in India hardly measure up to Indian standards let alone international standards.. But still for ur own personal safety i implore u to buy an ISI marked helmet. It may save ur life."i already have an ISI marked helmet" u might retort.. But then if u've been using it for more than 4 years it is probably as good a helmet as the roadside vendors sell... Remember good helmets might come costly but then so is ur life. There's no point in reading further if u already get my point..(but still u may read it:)) And those who think they don't need helmets.. well they are right... [they have nothin in their heads worth protecting ]
The conventional motorcycle helmet has two principal protective components: a thin, hard, outer shell typically made from polycarbonate plastic, fiberglass, or Kevlar and a soft, thick, inner liner usually made of expanded polystyrene or polypropylene foam. The purpose of the hard outer shell is:
to prevent penetration of the helmet by a pointed object that might otherwise puncture the skull, and
to provide structure to the inner liner so it does not disintegrate upon abrasive contact with pavement. This is important because the foams used have very little resistance to penetration and abrasion.
The purpose of the foam liner is to crush during an impact, thereby increasing the distance and period of time over which the helmet stops and reducing its acceleration.
To understand the action of a helmet, it is first necessary to understand the mechanism of head injury. The common perception that a helmet's purpose is to save the rider's head from splitting open is misleading. Skull fractures are usually not life threatening unless the fracture is depressed and impinges on the brain beneath and bone fractures usually heal over a relatively short period. Brain injuries are much more serious. They frequently result in death, permanent disability or personality change and, unlike bone, neurological tissue has very limited ability to recover after an injury. Therefore, the primary purpose of a helmet is to prevent traumatic brain injury while skull and face injuries are a significant secondary concern.
The most common type of head injury in motorcycle accidents is closed head injury, meaning injury in which the skull is not broken as distinct from an open head injury like a bullet wound. Closed head injury results from violent acceleration of the head which causes the brain to move around inside the skull. During an impact to the front of the head, the brain lurches forwards inside the skull, squeezing the tissue near the impact site and stretching the tissue on the opposite side of the head. Then the brain rebounds in the opposite direction, stretching the tissue near the impact site and squeezing the tissue on the other side of the head. Blood vessels linking the brain to the inside of the skull may also break during this process, causing dangerous bleeding.
Another hazard, susceptibility of the brain to shearing forces, plays a role primarily in injuries which involve rapid and forceful movements of the head, such as in motor vehicle accidents. In these situations rotational forces such as might occur in whiplash-type injuries are particularly important. These forces, associated with the rapid acceleration and deceleration of the head, are smallest at the point of rotation of the brain near the lower end of the brain stem and successively increase at increasing distances from this point. The resulting shearing forces cause different levels in the brain to move relative to one another. This movement produces stretching and tearing of axons (diffuse axonal injury) and the insulating myelin sheath, injuries which are the major cause of loss of consciousness in a head trauma. Small blood vessels are also damaged causing bleeding (petechial hemorrhages) deep within the brain.
It is important that the liner in a motorcycle helmet is soft and thick so the head decelerates at a gentle rate as it sinks into it. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how thick the helmet can be for the simple reason that the helmet quickly becomes impractical if the liner is more than 1 or 2 inches thick. This implies a limit to how soft the liner can be. If the liner is too soft, the head will crush it completely upon impact without coming to a stop. The liner is a hard plastic shell and beyond that is whatever the helmet is hitting, which is usually an unyielding surface, like concrete pavement. Consequently, the head cannot move any further, so after crushing the liner it comes suddenly to an abrupt stop, causing high accelerations that injure the brain.
Therefore, an ideal helmet liner is stiff enough to decelerate the impacting head to an abrupt stop in a smooth uniform manner just before it completely crushes the liner and no stiffer. The required stiffness depends on the impact speed of the head, which is unknown at the time of manufacture of the helmet. The result is that the manufacturer must choose a likely speed of impact and optimize the helmet for that impact speed. If the helmet is in a real impact that is slower than the one for which it was designed, it will still help but the head will be decelerated a little more violently than was actually necessary given the available space between the inside and outside of the helmet, although that deceleration will still be much less than what is would have been in the absence of the helmet. If the impact is faster than the one the helmet was designed for, the head will completely crush the liner and slow down but not stop in the process. When the crush space of the liner runs out, the head will stop suddenly which is not ideal. However, in the absence of the helmet, the head would have been brought to a sudden stop from a higher speed causing more injury. Still, a helmet with a stiffer foam that stopped the head before the liner crush space ran out would have done a better job. So helmets help most in impacts at the speeds they were designed for, and continue to help but not as much in impacts that are at different speeds. In practice, motorcycle helmet manufacturers choose the impact speed they will design for based on the speed used in standard helmet tests. Most standard helmet tests use speeds between 5 and 7 m/s.
Full Face Helmets:
A full face helmet covers the entire head, with a rear that covers the base of the skull, and a protective section over the front of the chin. Such helmets have an open cutout in a band across the eyes and nose, with a plastic face shield (which may be clear or tinted) that generally swivels up and down to allow access to the face. Many full face helmets include vents to increase the airflow to the rider.
The significant attraction of these helmets is their protectiveness. Some critics dislike the increased heat, sense of isolation, lack of wind, and alleged reduced hearing of such helmets. Full face helmets intended for off-road use sometimes omit the face shield but extend the visor and chin portions.
Studies have shown that full face helmets offer the most protection to motorcycle riders because 35% of all crashes showed major impact on the chin-bar area. Wearing a helmet with less coverage eliminates that protection — the less coverage the helmet offers, the less protection for the rider.
Below are extracts from the Bureau of Indian Standards for the composition and testing of helmets :
The shell of the helmet shall be of non-metallic materials conforming to the test requirements.
The protective padding shall be of expanded polyurethane foam, polyethylene or any other material having similar properties.
The comfort padding shall be of expanded polyurethane foam, polyethylene or any other suitable material having similar properties.
The retention system material for chin-strap and headband shall be sweat-resistant, non-irritant and shall not be known to cause skin disease.
The characteristics of the materials used in the manufacture of helmets shall be known not to undergo appreciable alteration under the influence of aging, or of other circumstances.
The strap shall not be less than 2Omm wide. The device to open the retention system shall not be capable of opening other than as a result of a deliberation act.
The helmet conditioned by solvents, ambient, ultra violet, heat and cold shall be tested for impact absorption.
The helmet shall be tested for their sound attenuation properties by the method given.
The sound transmission loss shall be not more than lOdB over the frequency range 250 to 2000Hz.
Impact absorption capacity is determined by recording against time acceleration imparted to a headform fitted with the helmet, when dropped in guided free fall at a specified impact velocity upon a fixed steel anvil.
The protective helmet shall be placed, with an initial load of 10 N, on a headform oriented in such a way that the plane tangential to the shell at the point selected for the test is substantially horizontal.
A metal punch with a conical head rounded at the top shall be placed vertically to touch the shell at the point selected and held in position by a ring. A metal drophammer shall fall on the top of the punch, and the depth to which the point penetrates into the shell shall be measured by means of an inertia-free device, such as a photoelectric device, indicating the minimum vertical distance reached, in this test between the head of the punch and the headform.
If u've made it till here(with or without reading...) thanks for ur time... and do try and buy a helmet and try to create awareness regarding this among ur friends.
Sorry people... Havent been able to read any of the stuff u've posted recently, and haven't been able to post anythin myself for quite some time... Theres a lot i want to say but there's still time. Am sleep deprived... Will get back to the island wid full gutso as soon as my energy levels are replenished. Till then take care and have fun.
>>A father passing by his teenage daughter's bedroom was astonished >>to >>see the bed was nicely made and everything was neat and tidy.Then >>he >>saw >>an envelope propped up prominently on the centre of the pillow.It >>was >>addressed "Dad".With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope >>and >>read the letter with trembling hands:- >> >>Dear Dad, >>It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you,but I'm >>leaving home.I had to elope with my new boyfriend Randy because I >>wanted to >>avoid a scene with Mom and you.I've been finding real passion with >>Randy & he is so nice to me.I know when you meet him you'll like >>him >>too - even with all his piercing,tattoos,& motorcycle clothes.But >>it's not only the passion Dad,I'm pregnant & Randy said that he >>wants >>me to have the kid and that we can be very happy together.Even >>though >>Randy is much older than me(anyway, 42 isn't so old these days is >>it?), and has no money,really these things shouldn't stand in the >>way >>of >>our relationship, don't you agree? >> >>Randy has a great CD collection;he already owns a trailer in the >>woods >>& has a stack of firewood for the whole winter.It's true he has >>other girlfriends as well but I know he'll be faithful to me in his >>own >>way. >> >>Randy taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone & he'll >>be >>growing it for us & we'll trade it with our friends for all the >>cocaine & ecstasy we want.In the meantime,we' ll pray that science >>will >>find a cure for AIDS so Randy can get better;he sure deserves it!! >> >>Don't worry Dad,I'm 15 years old now & I know how to take care of >>myself.Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to >>know >>your grandchildren. >> >>Your loving daughter, >>Rosie >> >>At the bottom of the page were the letters "PTO".Hands still >>trembling,her father turned the sheet,and read: >> >>PS:Dad, none of the above is true.I'm over at the neighbour's >>house. >>I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life >>than my >>report card that's in my desk centre drawer.Please sign it & call >>when it is safe 4 me 2 come home.
On 18th April Lionel Messi scored a goal that has led people worldwide to draw comparisons to the goal scored by Maradona against England in the '86 worldcup. Messi is just 19 years of age. His Club F.C. Barcelona won this King's Cup match 5-2 against Getafe. Sit back and enjoy the sublime skills and electric speed of this hugely talented Argentine football sensation...
Feeling Hot
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Sketches from Goa