Reference Maunde - Beyond TriviaReference Maunde - Beyond TriviaMind boggling facts, news and reviews you wish to know. Articles
What is a sitemap of a website?
2008-02-03 05:07:00 What is a site map?A site map basically is a page that features or lists the links you have on your web site. This will make it easier for search engines to proceed and spider your web site. It is usually found near the bottom page of a web site.Why are site maps important?An HTML site map is important. It should contain the top level pages. In one page, there should be just about the right amount of links in it. The link should not exceed 100 for more favorable views.There are certain benefits in having a good HTML sitemap. This generally would assure any potential customer to easily navigate the site, find exactly what they came to look for. The site map page will serve as a tool for your visitors. This way they will opt to visit your site more if they can easily browse and find their way in your web site. It can also ensure that your visitors can very well stay in your web site.Good links will also ensure you that spiders will locate your web site easily each week. This will make... More About: Internet , Website , Sitemap
Using expired domain names to generate income
2008-02-02 15:19:00 Many people are just now becoming aware of the income generating potential of expired domain names and are using that knowledge to make vast sums of money on the internet. The total number of websites that are listed on internet search engines are into the millions and a quantifiable percentage of them at any given time are expired and are available to the public and that means you.The reason that they have expired is simply because the previous owner has stopped paying the renewal fees on them, and that can be for any one of a number of reasons other than the website was not profitable. Partnership disputes, divorce, loss of interest and even death of the owner are just a smattering of the scenarios that are leading to perfectly viable domain names expiring and becoming available to be snatched up by anyone who can search them out.It was the dot com crash that that really got the business of acquiring abandoned domain names started, because a large number of the internet businesses... More About: Internet , Domain , Domain Names , Income , Names
Internet Security: Why It?s Important
2008-01-31 10:36:00 In today?s world, the internet is one of the most popular tools that you can use to buy goods and services. It is considered as one of the most useful tools that people make use of. The internet have proved to be a very good venue that you can use for communication and with this, you can now purchase goods and services from the companies you can find in the internet today.It is also a great tool to start your own online business and make transactions. With the fast and cheap communication that the internet provides, you would definitely want to get connected in the internet to make money or make life easier for you.However, with all the advantages of the internet, there are also disadvantages. Because financial dealings are made in the internet on a daily basis, it is also considered that millions or even trillions of dollars are being exchanged in the internet everyday. This spawned a new group of criminals that would do anything to steal money from you by just using the internet.T... More About: Security , Internet , Internet Security
Beware of Spoofing, Phishing and Link Altering
2008-01-29 11:32:00 A growing rank of Internet crooks are now using new tricks called "phishing" and "spoofing" to steal your identity. Bogus e-mails that attempt to trick customers into giving out personal information are the hottest new scam on the Internet."Spoofing " or "phishing" frauds attempt to make internet users believe that they are receiving e-mail from a specific, trusted source, or that they are securely connected to a trusted web site, when that's not the case at all, far from it. Spoofing is generally used as a means to convince individuals to divulge personal or financial information which enables the perpetrators to commit credit card bank fraud or other forms of identity theft.In "email spoofing" the header of an e-mail appears to originate from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Spam distributors often use email spoofing in an attempt to get their recipients to open the message and possibly even respond to their solicitations."IP spoofing" is a technique used to gain... More About: Phishing , Link , Beware
The Warning signs of Online Fraud and How to avoid it
2008-01-29 10:48:00 The number may seem grim for Web-based commerce. In 2004 in the Unites States alone, computer users logged in more than 207,000 Internet fraud reports to the U.S. Internet Crime Complaint Center. If you look hard at this number, you may be astounded, and a good bit frightened, by the implication. You may ask, "Is it really safe to buy and sell at an online site?"Put simply, the answer is: yes. The Internet is an incredibly powerful tool for business, so you can't pass it over just because of a few crooks and conmen even if they do seem like they're behind every pop-up window and banner ad. The truth is that you can create opportunity and make more money online than you could lose in fraud.Better yet, you could lose absolutely nothing if you know the warning signs of fraud and the tricks to avoid danger during your Web-based business dealings.Whether you're looking to buy or sell goods online, the first and the best way to fight fraud is prevention. There are certain warning signs... More About: Fraud , Signs , Warning Signs , Online
Bedwetting: Not a Shame
2008-01-28 12:29:00 Bedwetting (Enuresis) is the involuntary passage of urine during sleep and is a very common problem among children. At least one out of ten kids below the age of 6-years has this problem, but the good news is the ratio of kids' bedwetting goes down as they grow older. Only one out 20 is affected up to the age of 10, though there are infrequent cases of bedwetting by youths as old as 18. Only 1% of the children carry this problem to the age of 18.Most bedwetting children possess a small bladder that cannot hold all the urine produced during the night and/or an inherited deficiency. In addition, some kids and in rarer cases teens are deep sleepers who don't awaken to the signal of a full bladder. Compounding the above problems is the fact that often the dream state relaxes the pubic muscles, which eventually leading to bedwetting.Bedwetting can be a result of deep sleeping patterns, sleep apnea or failure of the body to produce a hormone which stimulates re-absorption of water from ... More About: Medical Science , Bedwetting , Shame
What reflex actions is a baby born with?
2008-01-26 03:21:00 The most importance of several involuntary responses found in healthy newborns is the rooting reflex, by which infants instinctively turn toward the stimulus of touch and open their mouths. This reflex enables the newborn child to find nourishment when in contact with the mother's breast and to feed long before being able to see or smell the nipple and know its purpose.The Moro reflex, named in honour of a German pediatrician who practiced early in this century, occurs when a newborn is started by loud noises or by a sudden change in position. (In adults the equivalent is called the startle reflex.) Infants will fling out their arms and legs, then clench the fists and pull the arms back in a movement that resembles embracing. Scientists have speculated that the Moro reflex is a primitive gesture that helps the infant cling securely to the mother.A third kind of involuntary response observed in newborns is the Babinski reflex, named for the French neurologist who described it in det... More About: Science , Baby , Reflex
Fish that release poison to see off attackers
2008-01-25 13:31:00 Stonefish, which are found on the sea bottom in warm, shallow waters, are among the most venomous of venomous fish. Like most others, such as weevers and toad fishes, they only inject their poisons in self-defence. It takes pressure from a predator - pressing down on one of the hollow spines along the stonefish's back - to release the poison, rather like a hypodermic syringe. The poisons are painful but rarely lethal.The stonefish also defends itself by being perfectly camouflaged - as a rock. Partly buried under sand or mud, its disguise is enhanced by a covering of warty lumps that secrete a sticky substance to which small organisms become attached. More About: Fish , Animals , Release , Poison , Atta
Diamond Glow
2008-01-22 15:13:00 Diamonds are expensive because they're beautiful and rare. But fake diamonds often sell for a lot of money, too, because they can look very real. Now, scientists have discovered a way to distinguish certain genuine diamonds from imitations. The simple new technique works with a rare form of blue diamond that glows in the dark.Diamonds that belong to a group called type IIb usually look blue. After they absorb high-energy light, though, type IIb diamonds phosphoresce, or glow in the dark, for a little while. This phosphorescence ranges in color from blue to pink to fiery red, depending on the diamond. Type IIb diamonds can be stunning, and some of them are quite famous. The large Hope Diamond, for one, glows orange-red for up to a minute after the lights go out. (The Hope Diamond is on display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.) Despite these diamonds' rarity and fame, however, scientists hadn't paid much attention to them till... More About: Science , Glow , Diamond
The harmonious lives of the hyraxes
2008-01-21 13:15:00 Hyraxes are furry and rabbit-sized with blunt heads and small ears, and are found in Africa and the Middle East. They live in large family groups numbering up to 20 animals, with females outnumbering males by as many as two to one. There are rock hyraxes, and on the rocky and densely vegetated hillocks of Africa's Serengeti plain, rock and bush hyraxes live side by side in close accord.Both types of hyrax sleep in the same holes and huddle together for warmth, and also make many similar calls. Newborn hyraxes are sniffed intensively by animals of both species, and the young ones play together. This relationship is one of the closest known between two species of mammal. Only some apes and monkeys, for example - have a similar close association.The two species of hyrax can coexist because they do not compete for food. Bush hyraxes eat leaves and rock hyraxes feed mainly on grass. Yet despite their similarity and closeness, the two species do not interbreed. Mating behaviour is differ... More About: Animals , Lives
Formation flying has hidden advantages
2008-01-19 12:32:00 The sight of a flock of geese flying overhead in the familiar V-shape formation often please observers on the ground, but there is more to this formation flying than just its beauty. Some birds, such as geese and cranes, migrate over vast distances. Rare Siberian cranes, for example, fly from their wintering grounds in India and China to their breeding grounds in Siberia and back again each year. By flying in a V-shape the birds save energy, as each receives a boost from the bird in front. Flapping wings produce small eddies of air at their tips. These swirls of turbulence are a nuisance to the bird producing them as they act as a drag on flight. But they help a bird following a little way behind, because the upwash of air provides extra lift, so the bird does not have to work so hard to stay airborne. The best effect is achieved if the birds fly with wing tips overlapping, but there is still some benefit in loose V-formations.Snow geese will often fly slightly behind and above the ... More About: Animals , Flying , Hidden , Advanta , Ages
Canadian breast cancer discovery
2008-01-17 13:58:00 A surprising discovery by Queen's University researchers that happened when their work took an unexpected turn may help women with advanced breast cancer respond better to conventional drug treatments. The Queen's team's findings, to be published online Monday in the international journal Cancer Research, show that a newly discovered "peptide" molecule (a chain of amino acids smaller than a protein) increases the effectiveness of drugs used to kill breast cancer cells by about 350 per cent .Dr. Zongchao Jia and Dr. Vinay Singh, of the Queen's Department of Biochemistry, initially intended to study the structure of a protein implicated in causing drug resistance in breast cancer. When unraveling the structure proved more difficult than expected, the research team looked to a similar protein associated with Alzheimer's Disease.From there, Dr. Jia and Dr. Singh were able to design a a completely new peptide able to counteract the resistance to cancer drugs. "We were excited to fin... More About: Discovery , Canadian , Breast Cancer , Breast
Can a lack of vitamins drive you crazy?
2008-01-16 15:14:00 Vitamins play a key role in brain metabolism. Studies show that even small vitamin deficiencies can derange the mind. Lack of the B vitamins, for example, is often associated with depression, intellectual impairment, and psychosis. One study found that over half of the people admitted to the psychiatric unit of a British general hospital were deficient in at least one of the eight B vitamins.However, vitamins vary in retention rates. Thus nutritionists advise caution when taking vitamin supplements. Too much vitamin A, for instance, can severely injure the eyes, brain, and nervous system. More About: Vitamins , Drive , Crazy , Medical Science
What makes you right-handed or left-handed?
2008-01-15 14:21:00 Why some 90 percent of people posses a greater degree of strength and coordination in their right hands than in their left - and why the opposite is true for the other 10 percent - is something that remains unexplained.There are many theories. The Greek philosopher Plato believed that human were by nature ambidextrous, and the "folly of our nurses and mothers" imparted the "bad habit" of right-handedness. Today, theories on why individuals have a dominant right or left hand tend to place more emphasis on inheritance and less on learning. Even infants seem to demonstrate, by the direction in which they turn their heads and by their strength of grip, a preference for one side over the other.If your parents are left-handed, the probability that you will be, too, is 23 times higher than if both parents are right-handed. British researcher Marian Annett thinks that most people are born with a gene inclining them to right-handedness. The 18 percent without this gene, she suggests, become ... More About: Left , Medical Science , Handed
The sea anemone's barbed broadside
2008-01-13 15:21:00 Its flowery name belies the sea anemone's deadly nature. Found on rocks from shallow waters and tidal zones down to the deepest parts of the ocean, it is not as innocent as it appears, for its colourful, petal-like tentacles are capable of killing. On each one there are thousands of nematocysts, specialised cells containing tiny structures like harpoons.When a small fish brushes up against the anemone, it triggers off a massive harpoon attack. Each harpoon is firmly attached by a thread and has a poisoned barb that, once lodged in the prey, cannot be taken out. With its poisoned victim paralysed and secured by the thread, the anemone then devours its prey. More About: Broad , Anemone
Do adopted children face special health risks?
2008-01-12 14:55:00 Infants who spend their first few months in institutions, however technically good the care, have more fevers and respiratory infections than normal. These institutionalized children may also lag in growth and weight gain. Fortunately, most of the babies show a dramatic improvement once adopted into a loving home.If the birth mother of an adoptive baby has received little or no prenatal care, the result can be a low-birth weight child susceptible not only to physical complications but to certain intellectual ones as well. Some physicians believe that a stressful pregnancy can cause attention-deficit disorder, a condition that impairs the child's ability to concentrate and therefore to learn.A long-term health problem for adoptees can result from their lack of medical history. When a doctor asks people who have been adopted whether their parents had diabetes or heart disease, in most cases the adoptee can't answer. What could be vital in diagnosis or treatment is unknown.It is ofte... More About: Society , Health , Children , Special , Face
World's cheapest car 'Tata Nano'.
2008-01-11 15:12:00 It's either the start of a people's revolution or the trigger for social and environmental headaches across the globe. The Tata Nano , the world's cheapest car, was unveiled with great fanfare in the Indian capital yesterday amid bright lights and blaring music.Designed to put a stop to a family of four travelling on a single scooter, the new model from Tata Motors ? and more importantly its price tag of £1,277 ? should make motoring affordable for a new class of consumer in the developing world. But green activists predict trouble ahead for countries that already have inadequate infrastructures and soaring CO2 emissions.Tata spent five years making its budget model "people's car", priced at just 100,000 rupees and marketed at India's developing middle class. The company's chairman, Ratan Tata, recalled the scene that had inspired him to build the car. "There was the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little ... More About: Technology , Tata Nano
Cyber technology to detect online fraudsters
2008-01-10 13:47:00 Shopping or carrying out other transactions online may soon be a safer affair, for Iowa State University researchers are developing a cyber technology to track fraudsters. Yong Guan, Iowa State University's Litton Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, says that his team has already developed a technology that may help online advertising companies like Google and Yahoo reduce "click fraud"--falsely increasing hits to ads posted on Web sites that results in higher costs for pay-per-click advertising. He and the Iowa State University Research Foundation have filed a patent on this technology. Guan hopes that his research will one day enable millions of naive Internet users to protect their computers with the latest security patches and safeguards. "There are a lot of security issues and researchers have worked on them from the early 1980s. And 30 years later we're still working on them. These are hard problems," he says. Compared to the past few years... More About: Technology , Online , Cyber
Changing shape and living longer
2008-01-09 10:22:00 Few animals have come closer to achieving invisibility than the Central American glass frog. Its body is transparent in some places and dappled green and black in others. When it sits still on a leaf, its outline is so indistinct that it looks more like a small blemish on the foliage than a living creature.This camouflage is known as splash camouflage, which blurs the frog's outlines. Nothing declares an animal's presence, nor identifies it. more readily than shape, so the ability to apparently change this is an invaluable aid to staying alive.The skin patterns of the grey tree frog are arranged in such a way that they appear to continue across the frog and onto the branches to which it clings. Even the suction discs on its long toes are splashed with colour, and darker bands run right across its back and limbs, so that they merge into one overall shape.Some South American tree frogs are similarly camouflaged, but can enhance their disguise by pulling their limbs into their bodies... More About: Living , Animals , Changing , Shape
Why is touch called "the mother of our senses"?
2008-01-06 15:33:00 Touch is the earliest of the human senses to develop. It is already functioning during the seventh week of pregnancy, long before the ears or the eyes are fully formed. And it is literally the broadest of the senses, since the skin, where the touch receptors are found, covers the entire body.At birth, babies use their sense of touch in their first efforts to understand their surroundings. Even after they have learned to recognize things by sight, they often try to confirm what they see through touch - by patting their mothers' faces or reaching out to the sides of their cribs.Adults also seem to regard touch as fundamental. How often do you find yourself not believing what you see until you have actually felt it? A sign saying "Wet Paint," for example, often serves less as a warning than as an invitation to touch the paint and find out how wet it really is. More About: Science , Mother , Touch
Beyond the boundaries of Science
2008-01-05 14:42:00 There's no question about it, many of us are intrigued by the uncanny. This fascination with all kinds of psychic phenomena seems to be deep-rooted in human nature. Although scientists continually debunk paranormal claims, they endure.SpiritualismThe oldest and best known of all such claims, spiritualism holds that people with special powers, known as mediums, can communicate with the spirits from another world. Mediums hold seances and, possessed by a spirit, bring back messages from the dead. Through mediums, the dead can respond to questions. Seances are often accompanied by such psychic phenomena as table rapping, furniture moving, and floating ectoplasm, indicating the presence of a spirit in the room.Human auraBelievers in this theory say that everyone gives off a kind of radiation, an aura. There are people who claim that someone's aura is a visible emanation. The colour of an aura varies and has meaning. Violet, for example, signifies a person of deep spirituality whereas ... More About: Science , Paranormal
Why do amputees feel sensation in missing limbs?
2008-01-04 17:30:00 The strange phenomenon of "phantom limb" is apparently related to an image of the body that persists after the limb or the use of it has been lost. In many cases, the image of the functioning limb has been stored in the brain since early childhood. Almost every amputee has "felt" pressure in a missing arm or leg when it is actually the stump that is being touched. Many amputees feel a persistent mild tingling in the lost limb; others may feel severe pain. Usually the problem disappears over time as the patient corrects his or her body image, but sometimes it becomes so annoying that psychotherapy is needed.One woman felt that the fingers of her missing hand were digging into its palm. Finally she came to believe that she could open her clenched fist and the pain disappeared.If a person is born with a missing limb or loses a limb early in childhood, there is usually no phantom limb effect, presumably because the image of the whole body has not yet been imprinted on the brain. More About: Medical Science , Missing , Amputees , Limbs , Feel
Why has the number of divorces risen so much in recent decades?
2008-01-02 17:04:00 Througout the Western world the divorce rate generally climbed in 1960s and 1970s, then leveled off in the 1980s. This reflects the passage of the post - World War II baby boom generation through its twenties, the decade of life when people are most likely to get divorced.One key cause is a change in values. More people today evidently feel that commitment to staying married and raising children together is less important than personal fulfillment and happiness. Other factors contributing to the high divorce rate include the increased economic independence of women as more of them work, and the declining influence of family, ethnic, and religious ties that reinforce the commitment to marriage.Along with these social changes, the divorce laws have been greatly modified. They make it much easier to dissolve a marriage; often mutual consent is all that is legally required. More About: Society , Recent , Divorces , Number
Can witch doctors really kill people by black magic?
2007-12-31 15:12:00 Some deaths that credulous people attribute to black magic may really be due to natural causes, accidents, or even murder.But scientists who have investigated otherwise unexplained deaths following voodoo rituals, for example, contend that the victims, deeply convinced of their enemies' magical powers, were actually frightened to death. The awful terror provoked by touching an object thought to be imbued with black magic could affect the brain centres that control breathing and heart contractions, perhaps triggering a fatal heart arrhythmia. More About: Society , Doctors , People , Magic , Black
What are the most stressful of all situations?
2007-12-30 15:14:00 Studies indicate the death of a spouse is one of the single most stressful events anyone can experience. Also very stressful are the death of a close relative, a major injury or illness, and divorce. Surprisingly, mere changes in routine can be harmful. People who deep changing shifts from day to night are more prone to stress than those who always work the same schedule. The disturbing of biological body rhythms takes a high toll. More About: Science
Can the birth order of a wife and husband affect their marriage?
2007-12-29 14:34:00 Birth-order roles may play a part in how adults relate to each other in marriage. Two firstborns who marry will have to remember that both can not simultaneously insist on being the boss. They will have to temper their aggressive instincts with consideration and tolerance for each other, perhaps setting up in advance a system for problem solving of agreeing on areas of responsibility.When two youngest children marry, both will have to remember that they cannot revert to the role of dependent baby, demanding everything be done for them. In fact, youngest children may have to remember, whatever the birth order of their spouses, that they cannot expect to be fussed over and pampered the way they were by older sibling.Middle children have often learned the art of compromise to preserve family harmony. They must remember to speak up for their own desires and not to compromise themselves into unhappiness and dissatisfaction. More About: Society , Marriage , Wife , Birth , Order
Does sickness have a smell?
2007-12-28 14:44:00 There are doctors who rely on their sense of smell as a diagnostic tool, literally finding out what is wrong with a patient by using their noses. Certain diseases apparently have distinctive odors, caused by a change in metabolic processes associated with the patient's condition. A garlic odor is a sign of arsenic poisoning, and a fruity smell on the breath can mean either a diabetic or someone who is starving.Here are some other illnesses and their distinct smells; German measles smells like plucked feathers; scrofula (a form of tuberculosis) smells like stale beer; typhoid like baking bread; yellow fever like a butcher's shop. Alert surgeons frequently check for bacterial infection by sniffing a patient's bandages. A musty cellar odor can mean an infected wound. More About: Medical Science , Sickness , Smell
When does gambling become a disease?
2007-12-27 15:22:00 A willingness to accept risk is a healthy expression of our need to grow, change, solve problems, help ourselves and others. Even people who bet regularly, but not excessively - so-called social gamblers - are as well adjusted as nongamblers, studies show. Social gamblers are people who can "take it or leave it."Getting high on risk, much like getting high on drugs or alcohol, is at the heart of compulsive gambling. Win or lose, the compulsive gambler craves the action. As one put it, "I don't feel alive unless I am gambling."In the 1950's, behaviorist B. F. Skinner's experiments with pigeons showed that persistence (addiction) develops when reinforcement (winning) is so variable as to be unpredictable. Almost all compulsive gamblers have had at least one big win and believe they're bound to have another - soon. More About: Society , Gambling , Disease
Selecting a Digital Camera
2007-12-23 12:10:00 There are various factors that come to mind when buying a digital camera. When you are investing thousands or rupees or dollars or euros for a camera, you want to make sure you don't buy a model that doesn't really suit your purpose or is much too advanced for your requirements. I listed two of a few pointers that may assist you in making the right buying decision.CCD or CMOS?CCD (Charged Coupled Device) and CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) are the two types of image sensors used in digital cameras. Camera s with CCD sensors are recommended over CMOS plainly because the image quality is tremendously better in the former. Though CMOS lenses are significantly cheaper to manufacture and easier to implement than CCDs, the difference in image quality is simply passable. CCD sensor CMOS sensorCMOS sensors are extremely portable and require considerably lesser battery power - precisely why their most common application is in webcams and phone cams.The Megapixel mythFirst th... More About: Technology , Digital Camera , Digital
Are a blnd person's other sense more acute than a sighted person's?
More articles from this author:2007-12-20 04:59:00 There is no physiological evidence to suggest that the senses of touch, taste, smell, or hearing are superior in the blind. It is true, however, that persons who lose one sense almost always become more adept at using the sense they have left, giving the impression that these remaining senses are inherently more acute. More About: Society , Sense 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |



