1) Sailing Stones

The mysterious moving stones of the packed-mud desert of Death Valley have been a center of scientific controversy for decades. Rocks weighing up to hundreds of pounds have been known to move up to hundreds of yards at a time. Some scientists have proposed that a combination of strong winds and surface ice account for these movements. However, this theory does not explain evidence of different rocks starting side by side and moving at different rates and in disparate directions. Moreover, the physics calculations do not fully support this theory as wind speeds of hundreds of miles per hour would be needed to move some of the stones.

2) Columnar Basalt

When a thick lava flow cools it contracts vertically but cracks perpendicular to its directional flow with remarkable geometric regularity – in most cases forming a regular grid of remarkable hexagonal extrusions that almost appear to be made by man. One of the most famous such example is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Ireland (shown above) though the largest and most widely recognized would be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. Basalt also forms different but equally fascinating ways when eruptions are exposed to air or water.

3) Blue Holes

Blue holes are giant and sudden drops in underwater elevation that get their name from the dark and foreboding blue tone they exhibit when viewed from above in relationship to surrounding waters. They can be hundreds of feet deep and while divers are able to explore some of them they are largely devoid of oxygen that would support sea life due to poor water circulation – leaving them eerily empty. Some blue holes, however, contain ancient fossil remains that have been discovered, preserved in their depths.

4) Red Tides

Red tides are also known as algal blooms – sudden influxes of massive amounts of colored single-cell algae that can convert entire areas of an ocean or beach into a blood red color. While some of these can be relatively harmless, others can be harbingers of deadly toxins that cause the deaths of fish, birds and marine mammals. In some cases, even humans have been harmed by red tides though no human exposures are known to have been fatal. While they can be fatal, the constituent phytoplanktons in ride tides are not harmful in small numbers.

5) Ice Circles

While many see these apparently perfect ice circles as worthy of conspiracy theorizing, scientists generally accept that they are formed by eddies in the water that spins a sizable piece of ice in a circular motion. As a result of this rotation, other pieces of ice and flotsam wear relatively evenly at the edges of the ice until it slowly forms into an essentially ideal circle. Ice circles have been seen with diameters of over 500 feet and can also at times be found in clusters and groups at different sizes as shown above.

6) Mammatus Clouds

True to their ominous appearance, mammatus clouds are often harbingers of a coming storm or other extreme weather system. Typically composed primarily of ice, they can extend for hundreds of miles in each direction and individual formations can remain visibly static for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. While they may appear foreboding they are merely the messengers – appearing around, before or even after severe weather.

7) Fire Rainbows

A circum horizontal fire rainbow arc occurs at a rare confluence of right time and right place for the sun and certain clouds. Crystals within the clouds refract light into the various visible waves of the spectrum but only if they are arrayed correctly relative to the ground below. Due to the rarity with which all of these events happen in conjunction with one another, there are relatively few remarkable photos of this phenomenon.
]]> http://starfire.gollapudi.org/2009/12/7-phenomenal-wonders-of-the-natural-world/feed/ 0 http://starfire.gollapudi.org/2009/12/shopping-on-the-day-after-thanksgiving/ http://starfire.gollapudi.org/2009/12/shopping-on-the-day-after-thanksgiving/#comments Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:43:45 +0000 Aditya http://starfire.gollapudi.org/?p=571 red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (i.e., turning a profit) according to this wiki article. So after 6 years of avoiding every single "black friday", I finally muster up the courage to brave the mall in my locality. Actually it's two malls right across from each other. How original!]]> One might ask.

What’s the big deal? Why “black friday”?

Because it is the day retailers go from being in the red (i.e., posting a loss on the books) to being in the black (i.e., turning a profit) according to this wiki article. And “friday” because it is the day after thanksgiving which falls on a thursday.

So after 6 years of avoiding every single “black friday”, I finally muster up the courage to brave the mall in my locality. Actually it’s two malls right across from each other. How original!

I start the day by sending the wife early, so I can relax and take a slow shower. I know I am not 12 anymore, but the heck with it, I love playing in the shower. So as I am getting ready, I get a call from the Apple store. It seems the part that I ordered is in stock now. Great, now I have something to do while I am at the mall amidst the thousands of other shoppers.

By 3 PM I am all ready and waiting for my cousin to come pick me up. He was on his way from a meeting and we decided to go together. We enter the mall from one of the least used entrances. Find ourselves a good parking spot in under 5 minutes. Great start. Easy entrance to both the malls. Even great! A quick call to the wife gives us our target coordinates. A 5 minute walk.

After about 2 trips up and down the “intended” store’s elevators, we finally spot my wife. We pass around a customary round of hellos, catch up on what items were bought, what needs to be bought all the while blocking the elevator entrance for the 5 minutes we were there.

We next headed up to the store and get some clothes for my wife. Immediately after which I insist we go to the apple store. After all, it was them who called me. 30 minutes later, I walk out with a brand new keyboard and the surrounding cover. All due to the fact that about 1 cm of the plastic on the edge broke off. How I wish everything in life had the same warranty coverage!! Sigh! It was back to reality.

After that we head up to about 10 other stores and bought more clothes. 6 hrs later I was exhausted. I got tired looking at my own clothes. And I got to thinking. This is not “black friday”!!! This is a marketing gimmick. Nobody has any real sale going on. It’s just a “friday”. I thank myself for having the entire weekend to recover and got the hell out of there.

And later, the best part of the day was the cheese fondue dinner that night.

What a day it has been. But one thing is for sure. I will never again in my entire life step foot in a mall on a “black friday”.

Oh btw, welcome home, my newest addition to the family. My precious… More on that later. Adios. ]]> http://starfire.gollapudi.org/2009/12/shopping-on-the-day-after-thanksgiving/feed/ 0 http://starfire.gollapudi.org/2009/11/lotr-the-rings-of-power/ http://starfire.gollapudi.org/2009/11/lotr-the-rings-of-power/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:07:08 +0000 Aditya http://starfire.gollapudi.org/?p=535

Warning: If you don’t know what LOTR is, please Google it first before you even take another breath! Sigh, can’t believe people like that exist anymore.

Now without further ado, let me dive right into the topic. Today’s LOTR topic is about all about the rings. Yes, I said said RINGS. There’s more than one ring on LOTR you know.

In all there were 20 rings. Yea, you heard me right.

Three for Elves: Narya, the Ring of Fire, was set with a ruby; Nenya, the Ring of Water, was of mithril and set with a “white stone”, presumably a diamond and Vilya, the Ring of Air, and “mightiest of the Three”, was of gold and set with a sapphire. Celebrimbor gave Vilya and Narya to Gil-galad and Nenya to Galadriel. Gil-galad later gave Narya to Círdan, and gave Vilya to Elrond shortly before he died. Círdan later gave Narya to Gandalf.

Seven for Dwarves: As there were seven Dwarf ‘Houses’ or nations, it is tempting to assume that the king of each House was given his own Ring, but this is not stated.

Nine for Men: The Nine Rings caused Men wearing them to become invisible. They also extended the lifespans of Men who possessed them, although this eventually led to the Men becoming wraiths under Sauron’s complete control. The wraiths of the Men who received the Nine were the Nazgûl, the Ringwraiths, Sauron’s most feared servants.

One for the Dark Lord: The Rings of Power were objects of great potency, and so to accomplish their domination Sauron was obliged to transfer most of his own power into the One Ring, a necessity that later led to his downfall.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.

These words were spoken by Sauron when he first put on the One, and it was when they heard him speaking them that the Elves became aware of his purpose.

Now for the grand finale, to recap the words of J.R.R.Tolkien himself

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Say hello to this new blog format. In addition to the collection of anecdotes, this blog also lists interesting articles, from the field of my interest. Right now my focus are on photography and technology. And when I say technology, it’s read as Google and Apple. I plan to pan out slowly to other interests. It also includes interesting articles from friends, web and a lot of other sources.

This was my original intent from the day one, but work (or laziness) got the better of me. But no more excuses. [Atleast for now, as "technology" makes it easy for me publish with the click of a "button".]

So I hope you enjoy the posts and those who read my shared items from Google Reader, well you’ll get the idea.

Adios

Everyday I tell myself – OK, this is something I can write about, but then I find my self saying – Who am I kidding? I would rather go out and eat that ice cream I am craving for the past 1 week!!!

I would be great if all my thoughts are sent into an aggregator and then a sensor board and then automatically come for approval. All I have to do it mark the check box to it’s right and bingo, the post is published.

I have all the latest technology that I can afford – a cellphone capable of wireless internet, 2 cameras 1 for quick action and 1 for memories, a 5 MBPS internet connection, 2 laptops. But what is the use if all this if all I feel like doing at the end of the day is to lie on my recliner and watch 5 episodes of ‘Family Guy’ every day???

There has got to be a better way of living life! And I am on a mission to achieve it. The plan sounds somewhat like this.

• Get up everyday early and make sure you have atleast 30 minutes to spend with family.
• Do 1 thing every week that you have never done in your entire life.
• I have to read a book everyday – a chapter a day is enough.
• Post a blog atleast 1 every other day.

I do hope that I follow the plan at least for 1 week before falling back into the boring old ways of life!!!

And I thought finally I can finally get around to actually learning a language I claim to know for a few years now. But alas, my dreams are shattered. Check out the translations below that I got. And thanks to a friend who “actually” knew the language was able to tell me it was not correct. Or else the unsuspecting me would have actually sent this message to my wife!!!

Original Sentence – don’t make dinner tonight. i have a meeting with my office guys

Translated Sentence – ?? ??? ?? ??? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??. ??? ???? ???????? ??????? ?? ??? ?? ???? ??

Transliteration of the Translation – Do not have food tonight. I have my office with a meeting of the people

The Beloved Audi A4

As of last week, my relationship with my previous car ended! Of course, it is time to move on to better and newer stuff, but still I will always remember it as my ‘first’ car! It was not a prefect car but it was perfect for me. I always wanted to own a black car, but never thought my first one would satisfy that request. The brown leather perfectly matched the exterior giving it the unique look of a luxury car. Well, it is in fact a luxury sports car.

I will always remember the boom of the turbo engine and the grip of the quattro that stuck to the ground like a lizzard. The tremendous torque right when I needed it – low speeds!!! Perfect for LA traffic!

The moon roof, through which I would watch the rain drops or the sun shine. The bose audio system that gave me company all the days I was all alone. Making the countless trips to Taco Bell or Carl’s Jr.

I remember the days when my friends dubbed it the ‘chick magnet’. Ah, those days are over. I will miss you my ‘black beauty’! Always!

Wet Floor

Well I came across this picture of a P-3 Orion belonging to the Royal New Zealand Air Force Squadron No. 5 in ANTARCTICA!!!

Warning on Ice

No words for it!!!

I had this sudden feeling of all the blood rushing through my body all the way up to my head… my thoughts race… and my heart is pounding. Is it over yet? “Yes!”. Now I get anxious? Did it do anything?

It all started with a big bang followed by a screeching sound… Couldn’t help but wonder that such a small thing could cause so much pain!! I can’t stop now. The only choice I was left with was to keep going. But I can’t take it off my mind. I keep playing it over and over in my head. How can I not see it??? It was right there in front of my eyes. Was this some way the ’superpower’ was telling me of the difficulties that lay ahead?

I tried to think of something else. Music. That will probably help. But no. I still can’t get it off my head. Did it do something? Anything at all? I kept going. The past came back to haunt me. I still remember the first time it happened to me 2 years ago. It still hurts so much. All the agony and the damage it did, huh, still fresh in my mind.

Finally I came to rest. And there it was… The damage. I could clearly see it. My heart broke. It’s not even been 3 days. But life goes on. It doesn’t stop no matter what happens does it? I just console myself and move on with only one thought on my head – “Shit happens and it happens fast! Be prepared for it”

“A small piece of loose metal”

The first scratch on my brand new car!!!

Swaying with the branches,
Like the grasslands of the savannah;
Dancing to the tune of the breeze,
She came walking by the lake side.

Her face glittered like the moon,
A moon seen through the depths…
Her slender frame – those eyes
Like fire can kill at first look!

She took a deep breath
And looked at me…
Is it a delusion?
Or a dream come true?

Making up my mind,
I approach her with caution;
And took a seat beside her – though
My heart filled with passion and fear!

We sat motionless for hours
So still, but for the wind;
We kept staring at the lake below
And the stars above…

The overpowering silence drove me mad
Because, I could think of none other.
Her charms lured me to the unbelievable,
To this fascinating world filled with delight!

She rose and walked down to the waters,
And with a sparkle in her eyes
That seems to shower arrows and hearts –
Gave a glance that made me skip a beat!

That moment I knew what was to happen
For I could sense the glint of love within her,
What else could I ask for?
May she know what I have in my mind…?

The shimmering moon above,
And the distant pounding of the waves…
The cool breeze that makes
The silky hair falls over her face…

He sits close by, staring at her,
Making her blush – the strange feeling.
They look eye-to-eye,
Wondering what to do?

Their hands close on each other,
And that warm hug;
Embracing their thoughts,
Unifying their joy…

Could anything feel better?
But being in the safest hands!
Hands that know the feel,
The feel of true love and affection!

The leaves above,
Dance to the tune of romance,
And those below,
Cuddle up in each others arms.

Lifting their souls,
On a journey to a world
Filled with eternal passion and love;
Never to return to be separated!

Nothing could cheer up the misty minds
That gets clogged down by thoughts,
Than walking down the lane,
Hand-in-hand alone in the night!

The enchanting happiness,
Of being together – forever
Stays in the spirits of love.
Untouched by the hands of time…

No power in the entire world,
Could make such a strong bond.
An attachment of eternal love
Filled with determination and will.

With a keen desire ahead,
To show the world – that true love
Lasts forever in the hearts
And in the golden pages of history…

I will be waiting…
But for whom or for what?
I don’t know why…
But I will be waiting!

The sands of time doesn’t stop,
Nor I want it to,
But waiting for you,
Makes me loose my mind.

But tell me why
Am waiting for you?
Even if I don’t know,
Who you are or what you want…

The feelings inside me,
Makes my heart go insane.
Every moment that passes by,
Makes me jump with joy.

Whatever the time is,
Or whatever the place I am,
I will always be there,
Waiting for you… for your love!

The thundering sky roars in the distance,The howling wind passes by,
Dark clouds crack down, – drenching
Mother Earth, the beads of water.

One could hear the frogs
Cracking happily in the pond, nearby.
And the chirps of the birds
Nesting in the trees above.

Eagerly expecting for more – but
The drizzle continues to fade…
The winds stopped blowing, for an instant
Followed by the silence of Eden.

Opening itself to the warm rays
The clear sky now looks fresh,
Beaming with the cool breeze
And the smell of the soil!

The flowers start a new life,
And the grass heads to a new horizon;
Everything a new feeling,
But it is just the same…

So is Love!!!