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water out of thin air – star trek style

  An arid desert from where water is planned to be extracted (by porous means) from the atmosphere. This Jordanian startup has, it seems, finally come to the rescue of humanity. And it is straight to the point, too:  Producing Clean, Drinking Water from Desert Air .  Beyond doubt, it means that the magical-sounding system from this incredibly named company can produce water in the lush valleys of Nepal, too. Reason: if it can produce water from an arid desert, it can definitely produce water from climates less arid than a desert. So let me recount a story on why this machinery is suitable for Nepal along with the rest of the world. As everyone in the world knows, Nepal is a country full of all kinds of landscapes. There are forests, valleys, plateaus, almost-peninsulas, almost-islands, flatlands, badlands, grasslands, waterfalls, cliffs, mountains, canyons, gorges, caves, hills, and even a sea (albeit 500 km away). But no desert. No desert? How come? This question troubled some import
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the longest rivers

This is a top 10 list of the world's longest rivers, considering the length from its source to mouth. Source: Various. 01. Nile – 6,695 km — East and North Africa 02. Amazon – 6,516 km — South America 03. Yangtze – 6,380 km — China 04. Mississippi-Missouri – 5,969 km — USA 05. Yenisei – 5,539 km — Siberia 06. Yellow River – 5,464 km — China 07. Ob – 5,410 km — Siberia 08. Paraná-Rio – 4,880 km — South America 09. Congo – 4,700 km — Central Africa 10. Amur-Argun – 4,440 km — North Asia 11. Lena – 4,400 km — Russia

age of empires - II: the conquerors expansion

This video featuring Age of Empires 2 - The Conquerors is a work of inspiration. It is also a kind of fond remembrance for those all-nighters I did on this amazing game around 2000, 2001 and once again later in 2006 (basically my teenage and post-teenage years). The screenshot grabs in this video are from 2006 summer, when I played and enjoyed the campaigns night after night in Cairo. During the day I used to volunteer at WFP. One morning in a train to Maadi (in barely-slept mood after one such all-nighter with the game), I thought of creating a video using in-game cinematic. Instead of using the saved screen grabs, I had planned to use actual gameplay footage. The original idea was to capture the screen recording of the gameplay, interpolate the frames to around 30fps (I still had to figure out how), and upscale the video resolution to 720p, the go-to resolution of the time. :) It simply seemed too ambitious with the machine I had with me. At that time, I had a desktop computer with N

commonly used physics terminologies in the simplest words possible

The balls of a pendulum are in perfect rhyme, measuring the passage of time. Alpha particle   A particle released by radioactive decay that consists of two protons and two neutrons – equivalent to the nucleus of a helium atom. Beta particle   A particle released by radioactive beta decay – usually an electron, but rarely a positron. Beta particles are released from unstable atomic nuclei when a neutron transforms into a proton or, more rarely, vice versa. Gamma radiation   A form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation released by various processes such as radioactive decay. Electron   A low-mass elementary particle carrying negative electrical charge. Electrons are found in the orbital shells surrounding an atomic nucleus, and play a key role in chemical bonding. They are also the principal means by which electric current flows through materials. Proton   A subatomic particle with substantial mass and positive electric charge, normally found in the atomic nucleus.  Neutron   An elect

the seven spiritual laws of success by deepak chopra

  Taken from the site of Deepak Chopra, here are The Seven Laws of Spiritual Success: The Law of Pure Potentiality Take time to be silent – to just BE. Meditate for 30 minutes twice a day. Silently witness the intelligence within every living thing. Practice non-judgment. We have unlimited pure potentiality all around us – we just need to be open and ready to lock into one thing. The universe gives us the ability to manifest and do what we like – we just have to know how to get it. There is unlimited pure potential. The Law of Giving and Receiving Today, bring whoever you encounter a gift: a compliment or flower. Gratefully receive gifts. Keep wealth circulating by giving and receiving care, affection, appreciation, and love. We have to have the ability to receive — when a person gives us something and we say "no", that is creating an imbalance. It is important to give every day: give thanks, gratitude, support, love, freedom — what you can afford — even time. All that you g

frequently used terms in photoshop

Here's a list of terms you may encounter as you learn Adobe Photoshop® – from BDM Publications . Active layer The layer currently selected in the Layers panel Adjustment layer A layer that lets you apply colour and tonal adjustments to your image without permanently changing pixel values. Use adjustment layers to experiment with colour and colour tones. You can think of an adjustment layer as a veil through which the underlying layers are seen. Adobe RGB The RGB colour space profile created by Adobe Systems, Incorporated. It provides a large gamut of colours. Aliasing The jagged edges seen at the edges of diagonal lines, arcs, and so on, caused by pixels lining up in a saw-tooth pattern. Alpha channels Masks, which let you manipulate, isolate, and protect specific parts of an image. In Photoshop, alpha channels are called saved selections. To save an alpha channel, choose Select > Save Selection. To load an alpha channel, choose Select > Load Selection. Anti-aliasing The smoo

brush-up on your photography glossary

Here's a list of some terms in photography: Aperture : Behind the lens of your camera is a movable circular iris which opens and closes to control the amount of light falling on the sensor. This is usually controlled by the camera's light meter, although some cameras have a manual aperture control. Altering the aperture also changes the depth of field.   Artefacts : When an image is stored in your camera's memory it has to be compressed to fit, usually into a JPEG file, and in the process some information is inevitably lost. When the image is uncompressed for viewing, noise creeps in and appears as angular blocks in the image, which are known as artefacts. Auto-focus : Almost all digital cameras have automatic focusing. There are essentially two types: contrast detection, used in compact cameras and most CSCs, uses the camera's main sensor and works by detecting the borders between high-contrast areas and trying to make them as sharp as possible. Phase detection AF is u