PRan's Blog

Tsunami 2004

2009-12-26T11:23:00.002+05:30

Occasion: On the way to a health camp after 2004 Tsunami
Location: Ferry, Verugal aru
Date: 2004 Dec 27

Ferry at Verugal Aru (marked) Google Map

News 1st, Daily Mirror & CNN

2008-07-08T22:45:00.005+05:30

News Article on Daily Mirror web site

Topix linking to article published by Daily Mirror

It seems the Sirasa/ MTV had got an award for "Best World Report"!!! Is it really?
This was posted as a News Article in online edition of Daily Mirror as a breaking news on 3rd July 2008. Just two sentences for such an achievement!!!
Well few searches turned out negative results & it made me curious. The facts is there is no evidence of such award or an award ceremony, any where in the web or at least in the CNN website. The news report itself looks bit suspicious. It doesn't give any proof of such or links to the original news item. Further more it seems the award ceremony is for 2008. How can they have an award ceremony for 2008, in the middle of the year of 2008? How can a responsible media company like Wijaya, publish such baseless reports? Hope they will remedy it promptly & not by taking the relevant page off line, but by publishing an explanation or an apology on the same page...

Firefox 3 is here

2008-06-18T14:02:00.004+05:30

Firefox 3 Download Day certificate

to Firefox from Microsoft IE with love

Al Billings of Mozilla Corporation

The cake the Microsoft IE team sent on the Firefox 2 launch

Ahh got my own Firefox 3 download certificate for helping to set the World Record. It's way past the expected 5million by the time I write this post & still counting fast...

Get your copy of Firefox from here & also don't forget to get your own Firefox 3 Download Day certificate too.

It seems Microsoft Internet Explorer team had delivered a cake personally to the Firefox team, as the tradition continues from the Firefox 2 release.

I think it's really amusing that they had kept the 'e' part of the Firefox 2 cake in their freezer to this day. Hope they will keep a piece of the cake this time too until they get their Firefox 4 cake. Hope that will not take long...

Arthur C. Clarke, no more...

2008-03-19T09:49:00.001+05:30

Arthur C. Clarke, the sci-fi author had passed away today at Colombo after a brief illness.

Ridi Viharaya goes online

2007-12-30T16:35:00.000+05:30

A new web site was launched yesterday for the Ridi Viharaya, Kurunegala.
It has a Sinhala Unicode version thought not fully implemented.

Happy 9th Birthday Google!

2007-09-27T23:02:00.000+05:30

It's Google's 9th Birthday today. Happy Birthday Google!
I was very much moved by a comment left by a visitor to my blog post
Happy Birthday Google!, exactly one year ago..

prakashraju said...
YOU ARE MY GOD ALMIGHTY!!!!
EVERYTHING IS IN YOU!!!!

I LOVE YOU GOOGLE!!
WITHOUT YOU MY DAYS WON'T START!!
I WISH YOU MANY MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY!!!

I PRAY FOR YOUR SUCCESS!!!!
WITH LOVE & AFFECTION!

yours forever!!!!

I couldn't agree more.

Well this time I thought of bringing some facts about the Web search, the thing that Google does best...

Choose your search term wisely. Multiple terms will narrow down your search.
The order in which search terms are entered will effect the results.
All letters are treated as lowercase even if you type in uppercase letters.
and >> No need to have 'and' between words. By default all search terms entered are searched for.
+ >> common words & single digits & characters are ignored in Google searches. To include them, you need to have + sign in front it.

Eg: Google birthday +9

" " >> having quotes around search terms will search for exact phrase.

Eg: "Google's 9th Birthday"

- >> to exclude a term from the search, add a - sign in front of the term

Eg: Google -9th birthday

~ >> to include synonyms in a search

Eg: ~food research includes results with Food, Nutrition, Restaurant , etc.. as synonyms of food

OR >> to include either of the terms, put uppercase 'OR' between two search terms.

Eg: Google OR Yahoo birthday

.. >> to include a number range, which can be years, $, v, kg etc.. as you specify.

Eg: search wars 2005..2007, electric shaver 100..250 v, electric shaver $100..250

* >> to include one or more keywords in it's place. Google will fill in the blanks.

Eg: "google's * birthday logo" will return results with 9, seventh, goofy , etc.. in place of '*'

site: >> to restrict a search to a particular web site.

Eg: site:ranatunga.blogspot.com Google birthday

allintitle: >> to restrict for search terms appearing only in the title of web pages.

Eg: allintitle: google birthday 9th

intitle: >> to find web pages with the search term appearing immediately after 'intitle:' in the title of a web page. Note: No space between 'intitle:' & search term.

Eg: intitle:Google birthday 9th

allinurl: >> to find web pages with all of the search terms occurring in their URL.

Eg: allinurl: ranatunga Google birthday

inurl: >> to find web pages with the term immediately after 'inurl:' occurring in the url. Note: No space between 'inurl:' & search term.

Eg: inurl:ranatunga google

link: >> to find web pages that link to a particular site.

Eg: link:ranatunga.blogspot.com

related: >> to find similar web pages to a specified web page.

Eg: related:http://ranatunga.blogspot.com

cache: >> to get last snapshot Google bot created

Eg: cache:http://ranatunga.blogspot.com

info: >> to get information Google has collected about a web page.

Eg: info:http://ranatunga.blogspot.com

definition: >> to get a definition of a word, as given in various web sites

Eg: define:google

filetype: or ext: >> to retrict search to a file type other than html. Supported types are,

Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)

Adobe PostScript (ps)

Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku)

Lotus WordPro (lwp)

MacWrite (mw)

Microsoft Excel (xls)

Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt)

Microsoft Word (doc)

Microsoft Works (wks, wps, wdb)

Microsoft Write (wri)

Rich Text Format (rtf)

Shockwave Flash (swf)

Text (ans, txt)

Further readings at Google: Web Search Help Center :

Cricket Scores @ Google

2007-09-16T01:30:00.001+05:30

Originally uploaded by zahidul islam

I was amazed to find that Google search box can be used to see the latest Cricket Scores in Twenty20 world championship matches being played.
You can just type Cricket for results of the latest match or Cricket Sri Lanka for your favorite team or Cricket Sri Lanka New Zealand for a specific match. A summery of the score card is shown with a link to the complete score card.
After all Google seems to have noticed the enthusiasm among Cricketing fans...

Ministry of Education Hacked into...

2007-08-17T22:44:00.001+05:30

Well not exactly...
I was browsing among the Government Web sites, when I came across our Ministry of Education web site (see the image on right). I was shocked to see that it had been Hacked by some hackers. I quickly checked the Google cache for the snapshot they had created (see the image on left side). It was dated 15 Aug 2007, 14:18:06 GMT. So this site had been hacked during last 3 days. The hackers intentions are not very clear from what they had done. May be they just wanted to deface a government web site for fun.
It seems only the home page of the site had been hacked.
On further research I came across Zone-H which has an archive of Web sites that have been hacked. I was amazed to see the number of Sri Lankan Government web sites that had been subjected to defacement by various Hacking groups.

As I could not link to the particular table, I have copied the text, as you can see below:

Date	Attacker	Domain	OS	View
2007/07/30	RitualistaS	mcg.mpi.gov.lk	Win 2003
2007/01/27	Dr.Jr7	dmc.gov.lk/external.asp	Win 2003
2007/01/06	yas	mail.samurdhi.gov.lk	Linux
2006/12/04	DeltahackingSecurityTEAM	primeminister.gov.lk/record/delta.htm	Linux
2005/12/12	Devil Code	mpdinor.gov.lk	Win 2000
2005/10/16	Tz4r	muslimaffairs.gov.lk/forum	Linux
2005/03/14	batistuta	muslimaffairs.gov.lk/forum	Linux
2005/02/06	H4ck3rsBR	slelections.gov.lk	SolarisSunOS
2005/02/06	H4ck3rsBR	sec.gov.lk	SolarisSunOS
2005/02/06	H4ck3rsBR	ports-aviation.gov.lk	SolarisSunOS
2005/02/06	H4ck3rsBR	npd.gov.lk	SolarisSunOS
2005/02/06	H4ck3rsBR	trc.gov.lk	SolarisSunOS
2004/01/24	Red Eye	ibsl.gov.lk	Win 2000
2003/06/19	[ LunixO ]	moe.gov.lk	Linux
2003/06/07	Digital lords	moe.gov.lk	Linux
2002/09/27	PaGgY	hinduministry.lk	Win 2000
2001/04/08	SadoR	erd.gov.lk	Windows
2001/04/04	Silver Lords	customs.gov.lk	Windows
2001/04/01	Silver Lords	erd.gov.lk	Windows
2001/04/01	PoizonB0x	customs.gov.lk	Windows
2001/03/31	PoizonB0x	erd.gov.lk	Windows
2001/03/18	LOUCOS.BR	erd.gov.lk	Windows
2001/02/26	Alien00	erd.gov.lk	Windows
2000/12/24	Silver Lords	erd.gov.lk	Windows
2000/12/23	Silver Lords	customs.gov.lk	Windows
2000/06/04	EhW	erd.gov.lk	Windows

Still most of the above sites are not back online or have not been repaired completely. Any way most of our government websites are ill designed & not maintained well. Almost all of them use tables rather than CSS for layouts & are very poor in design, compromising their usability.

Earthquake near Sri Lanka!!!

2007-07-18T11:47:00.000+05:30

Earth tremors have been felt in some areas of Sri Lanka, including Colombo & Kandy. The images here are from USGS Earthquake Hazards Program.

According to USGS,
Magnitude: 5.2
Time: at 04:27:28 (UTC)
at 10:27:28 am local time at epicenter
at 09:57:28 am Colombo, Sri Lanka
Location: 6.548°N, 84.455°E (In bay of Bengal)
Distance: 510 km (315 miles) E of Colombo, Sri Lanka
More details visit here Magnitude 5.2 - BAY OF BENGAL

I couldn't find any details regarding any Tsunami Warnings at the time of posting.
The relevant links are:

Typo?

2007-07-15T23:18:00.000+05:30

Typo is an abbreviation used to denote a typographical error or an error in a typeset. But now it's commonly used to define all spelling mistakes. For bloggers like us, it's a common thing, though we try hard not to do such mistakes.

Photo: AP Photo by John Raoux

Photo: Ken Thornsley, NASA

Look at these images closely. They were taken when the Endeavour space shuttle was taken to it's launch pad today. Look carefully at the banner. Can you see a difference between the two photos? First one says 'Go Endeavor'. But the space shuttle is named 'Endeavour' after 18th century explorer James Coock's ship HM Bark Endeavour. The mistake was noticed & was corrected as seen in the second photo, where the banner reads 'Go Endeavour'.
So typos can happen even at that level? Please bare with me if I have done any...

Talents 2007

2007-07-06T21:57:00.000+05:30

There were only two days remaining, when I got hold of the news about Talents 2007. I had to make some arrangements in a haste so I can attend the occasion.
During our University life, Talents was a major event where we looked forward to with much enthusiasm. During the period we got prepared for the variety show, the faculty start to overflow with life. Heads bent on books, start to wander around singing, dancing, acting & laughing. It's the time to dream, rather to make creative dreams & make them a reality. It's a welcome break from the tedious work at the faculty, but still managing to find time to run for lectures, tutorials, practicals, ward work, etc..
Committees elected from the students look after various aspects of logistics in this mega event, with help from experienced seniors & the ever so helpful staff members, ranging from the academic to non-academic.
It always brings back memories when I sat in front of the stage, of the time we were in the limelight. Ahh weeks, if not months, of preparations, sleepless nights... After all it lasts only for few moments on stage...
There were only very few I knew among the students. I only can remember them very faintly, even tough they could remember me very well. After all it was a grand show second to none, of it's predecessors...
Keep it up dear sisters & brothers, it's our signature... A unique blend of Arts & Medicine...

Please visit my previous post on Talents 2006

Also visit: Talents

Once in a Blue Moon

2007-05-31T20:10:00.000+05:30

Once in a Blue Moon
Originally uploaded by Kalamakia

Well it seems my postings have become so rare lately, that I post 'Once In a Blue Moon'. Well today is a such day, that we are going to have a Blue Moon.
Blue Moon, has nothing to do with it's colour. It only means, a full moon that occurs for the second time in a month. Considering that the average interval between two full moons is about 29.5 days & a month has about 30.5 days, it's a rare occurrence to have two full moons in a month. But it occurs about 41 times in a century or only occurs once in about 32 months.
The term 'Once in a Blue Moon' has been in use in medieval England from old times & one such occasion was in a 'Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse' by William Barlow, the Bishop of Chichester, in 1528.
But the usage of this phrase had had different meanings during these long years of use,

in 16th century: obvious absurdities, where there could be no doubt.
in 18th century: as equal to 'never'
in mid 19th century: a fairly infrequent event

There had been times, where the moon really appeared to be blue. This occurs due to light reflected from moon being scattered by dust particles which are about a micron or so in diameter. In these occasions dust particles were ejected to upper atmosphere during large volcano eruptions such as that occurred in 1883 of Krakatoa volcano or large forest fires that occurred in 1953 in western Canada.
But this year Americans have seemed to have celebrated the Blue Moon on 31st of May, 2007. >>> Blue Moon over North America on Thursday. How can that be? How can they have a Blue Moon two month before New Zelander's had one?

Well it also has a logical explanation. This occurs due to the World Time Zones. When the time of the full moon changes with each time zone it falls to the next month. This is illustrated below.

Time Zone	City	Full Moon 1	Full Moon 2	Full Moon 3	Full Moon 4
GMT + 12hrs	Auckland	2 May @ 22:09	1 June @ 13:04	1 July @ 01:49	30 July @ 12:48
GMT + 04hrs	Moscow	2 May @ 14:09	1 June @ 05:04	30 June @ 17:49	30 July @ 04:48
GMT	Greenwich	2 May @ 10:09	1 June @ 01:04	30 June @ 13:49	30 July @ 00:48
GMT - 05hrs	Chicago	2 May @ 05:09	31 May @ 20:04	30 June @ 08:49	29 July @ 19:48

For more details go to The Blue Moon of 2007.

It seems the method used for calculating the blue moon astronomically also had not been the one used earlier. This new definition had come into use after it had been mistakenly interpreted by an amateur astronomer in an article in 1946 in Sky & Telescope magazine on Blue Moons (see What's a Blue Moon?). It had then been adopted by various other newspapers, radio & TV shows giving wide publicity to this misinterpretation.
The correct definition had been a complex one, that uses seasons rather than months to calculate the blue moon. The third full moon occurring in a season with 4 full moons had been considered to be the blue moon (Usually a season only had three full moons). But it had not been so simple either.
The year they used was 'tropical year' running from one winter solstice to the next. The seasons were defined using a method which gives seasons of equal duration (which uses dynamical mean Sun or fictitious mean Sun, which are imaginary bodies & this method is not used now to define seasons). Then also they used some rules which are laid down in Gregorian calendar reform in 1582.
To see a list of blue moons according to this old definition visit Blue Moon - four Full Moons in a season. According to this it seems there is no Blue Moon in 2007. Phew... after all I'm not doing blog posts Once in a Blue Moon.

references:

The Phrase Finder: Once in a blue moon
Science @ Nasa: Once in a Blue Moon
Obliquity: Once in a Blue Moon

Boys, you are our Champions.

2007-05-03T22:25:00.000+05:30

We are proud of our cricket team even though they couldn't beat the Australians. Still they are our champions. You did your best guys. What could we ask for more?
The Sri Lankan team returned home from Caribbeans today. Amidst torrential rains many gathered by the sides of the roads just to greet them.
I'm very much relived to see & hear, that Sri Lankan media has all the praises for them, unlike the attitude the Indian & Pakistani media had towards their teams. (ehh, Indian & Pakistani friends don't get crossed with me, but that's the truth.)
I found something very interesting that will keep our heroes right on our desktop. A screen saver from Cricinfo.com (Cricinfo home), which has each player in action & some statistics about their performance. You can down load the screen saver from here>> teamsrilanka.
Also visit here for other screen savers from cricinfo.com. They have some pretty screen savers on other major cricket teams & also some on legends of cricket.
Below are some screen captures of the screen saver. First one is the startup image. Next one is a composite of four screens.

Found & Lost, life...

2007-04-29T17:59:00.000+05:30

I was in Colombo during the weekend. We went over there for the delivery of our sister-in-laws baby. It's a beautiful baby girl. All family members were happy to see that both mother & baby were doing well.
When I arrived at home today, I found that I have lost a long standing friend. Rover was born in 1993. Don't be fooled by it's innocent looks, it bites!

Rover Hope you will be a human in your next life!!!

Let down by a friend...

2007-04-20T23:42:00.000+05:30

The first two things I do after returning form a busy days work are, check my email, then check site statistics of visitors to this blog. After doing these two today, I loaded up my blog in another tab just to check whether all is well after the changes I've made to layout during past few weeks.
Nothing was special, or is it? There is a message at the end of the web page from Firefox's NoScript Add-on. That was odd. I have enabled all the scripts from my blog. Still there is another new java script that has not been enabled, originating from my own blog!! See the screen capture below.
As it was not there yesterday when I loaded the blog, I just thought of doing a Google search to get to know more about it.
I was shocked to read the search results. I was shocked more than on that day that I had my blogger account switched (see Blogger busted... & Blogger busted - part II).
My trusted site statistics tracking service, sitemeter had deceived me. Please read this article SiteMeter Installing SpyWare In Your Website?. It seems they have sold the trust we kept on them to a third party. I am ashamed to be associated with them.
As bloggers, most of us rely on site statistics tracking services to keep track of the visitors to our blogs (and of course to other web pages). We check on statistics regularly to see just how many read our sites, what search quarries bring traffic to our sites etc..
But it seems sitemeter had been tracking all our blog readers' web browsing habits with the help from specificclick.net. Thats a bit unethical to say the least.
So please read Things you should know before using Sitemeter. At the end of it you can see how you can remove tracking cookies that have been installed from Sitemeter's partner specificclick.net. If you have visited this blog earlier or have visited another site that used their service, please try block their cookies, as they may have already placed their cookies in your browser.
Dear friends of the blogsphere, if you are using sitemeter, then you are exposing your site visitors to being spied upon. Take care of your valued site visitors!!! I have already...

Migration complete!

2007-04-15T22:48:00.000+05:30

Well it was sometime back that I upgraded to new blogger. But I was stuck with my classic 3-column-template (provide free by Thur's tempates), because I thought it's a waste of browser space to have only one sidebar rather than having two of them.
After migrating to new blogger, I started working on the new template. A List Apart & TJKDesign were of great help. But I couldn't do it alone.
So I started looking for a new 3 column blog template, which supported the new blogger. Well it was too early & all blog hackers were busy creating hacks. I couldn't find a template that suited my needs (like fluid middle column, first loading the main section rather than sidebars, etc.).
Finally I found the template I was looking for, at Dummies Guide to Google Blogger Beta. I did the necessary changes so it looked the way I want.
Please use comments below if you find any bugs when loading in your browser෴

Woodpecker's headache!

2007-03-28T22:02:00.000+05:30

These are a couple of Red backed Woodpeckers or Black-Rumped Flamebacks (Dinopium benghalense) I saw in my backyard. I got their attention because of the characteristic hammering sound they generate while searching for insects in tree barks.
When I did a web search, I found some amazing evolutionary adaptations they have for their niche.
They hammer 10 times a second up to 5 hours & creates a force of 30G (30 times the force of gravity) when the beak hits the tree bark.

beak is stronger than steel with a chisel like tip
neck muscles highly developed for hammering
skull is relatively thick with relatively spongy bone to cushion the brain
bones between skull & beak are joined by flexible cartilage, which cushions the shock
relatively less cerebrospinal fluid around brain & relatively small brain, less prone to concussion
contracts mandibular muscles just before impact, transmitting the shock to whole body passing the brain

Are you over weight? Check it for yourself...

2007-02-04T21:44:00.000+05:30

Are you over weight?
Are you putting up more fat?
Is your new year's resolution is to loose some weight?
Wondering how much weight you should loose?

For this purpose, Body Mass Index (BMI) is used. It checks whether an individual has appropriate weight for height.

The formula is; BMI = Weight in kg/ Height in meteres²

I have done the hard part & wrote the below JavaScript calculator to do it. Before proceeding any further, shall we do some calculations? Use the below BMI calculator to calculate your BMI.

BMI value is independent of age & sex. So all age groups & both males & females can use it to assess their health risks & it indicates body fatness. Health risks increase at both ends of the spectrum, especially at higher end. The WHO classification is used in this calculator. There is an ongoing debate, whether to have different cut-off points for different ethnic groups, specially Asians, but still the results are inconclusive.
BMI itself is not a diagnostic tool. If your BMI is higher than 24.99, you have a higher tendency to have health risks associated with obesity. So in that case a doctor needs to check up whether you really have any health risks & to check whether you should lose weight.

Read further on BMI:
Wikipedia: Body mass index
CDC: About BMI for Adults

Read further on, Controlling Your Weight

Notice:

Above BMI calculator was written by me. I'm not a pro in Javascript. If you find any bugs, please fell free to bring it to my notice. This have been tweaked to run on Firefox 2. It had been tested on IE 6. both on MS Windows. If you find any problems in using it on any other browser or platform, please put a comment with the problem you have noticed, and a method to contact you, to get further details if I need to. Thank you.

Blogger busted - part II

2007-01-12T23:24:00.001+05:30

The things are getting out of control.

If you haven't seen the earlier post Blogger busted, please read it first.
Today I got an email from the owner of the blog that I talked about in the previous post. It seems he had got stuck in my blogger dashboard. Please see the comments in that post or click here.
Today I could login to my blogger dashboard with out any problem. Well thats a relief...
But not for long... I clicked on my profile to edit some details. Alas, my profile name was different.
It is happeing again. It's somebody else's profile. See first image below. To see the blogs he had published, I just clicked on 'select blogs to display' link. Well the next screen was even worse (second image). It belonged to another person. So now I have access to parts of three other blogger accounts. All this seems to be from Sri Lanka or at least Sri Lanka & India.
Still by clicking link to dashboard from that profile, i could access my profile.
Why is this happening to me? Hope others will not change any settings , if they have access to my blogger dashboard.

Is any of you blogger users out there having the same problem?
I had no problem with this blogger account for years & it seems all these blogger accounts that I have access to are newer ones.
I don't know to whom I should report this to. We have already reported this to blogger support.

Why me? Why is this thing happening to me?
I am posting this in a hurry, because I may not be able to log into Blogger next time.
Hope this will be resolved soon by Google engineers!

Blogger busted...

2007-01-12T23:24:00.000+05:30

Today I had the shock of my life when I tried to log into Blogger to put up a new post. When I typed in my user name & password to blogger login page, the blogger dashboard looked bit weird. To my shock there was only one blog (rather than the 3, of which 2 are for testing purposes), & it's name also appeared to be so long Adventures of Scotty White. Then only I saw that the user's email address is different from my one. It was some c*****.s**********@gmail.com (see images below). In this account, I could do some things like put up a new post, change blogger layout, etc, etc. But it asked for user name & password again, when I tried to change important settings like changeling profile info, etc.
Well first I was bit excited to get to somebody else's account by chance, but when I got to know that repeated attempts at logging in to my account took me to this same account, which belonged to somebody else, I was bit shocked.
Well may be it's my destiny to start writing this Scotty's adventure...
Finally I managed to log into my blogger account, but when I typed in the URL to see the Scotty's blog (the other blog I was logged into by mistake), it still appeared as if the author of that other blog has logged in (see 3^rd image below), rather than showing my email address.
I wonder how much our accounts at Google are secure. For it being a free service we can not expect more. And also I wonder whether any body else went through this same experience.

Tsunami remembrance...

2006-12-27T00:15:00.001+05:30

I was busy carrying out my usual duties, when suddenly it seemed that all the noise had died out, except for the cardiac monitor, which beeped with every beat of my patients heart. Then I suddenly noticed that all the staff members in the operating theater were standing still. I looked at my watch & it read 9.25am. The whole of country stood still for two minutes to remember the unfortunate catastrophe that reached our shores two years ago at this very moment.
Immediately after this great catastrophe in 2004, most of the staff members (including specialist consultants) from all government hospitals were mobilized to conduct health camps in the affected areas.
Below are some of the photos I took at Sainthamaruthu Hospital in Ampara District after it was destroyed by Tsunami waves.

The last photo is of an intravenous infusion bottle & infusion set with the needle & adhesive plaster (circled) which was used to connect it to the patient. It got entangled in this tree, what happened to the poor patient to which it was connected?

Busy Bees...

2006-10-02T22:08:00.000+05:30

Today morning I saw these bees busy at work. Got some really beautiful photos of them.
I just thought of reading more on them & found some very interesting facts...

Busy at work	Bee Facts: Belong to genus Apis Have been producing honey for at least 100 million years. Have 4 wings, 5 eyes & fly at an average of 13-15 mph. Stroke wings 13,800 beats/minute, thus making a distinctive buzz. Produce beeswax from 8 paired glands on the underside of their abdomen. Honey is created when bees mix plant nectar with their own enzymes & then evaporate it by fanning their wings. Honey contains about 17.1% water, 38.5% Fructose, 31.0% Glucose & Maltose, Sucrose and other complex carbohydrates. Honey supplies 2 stages of energy, Glucose is absorbed quickly & gives an immediate energy boost & Fructose is absorbed more slowly providing sustained energy. Average hive temperature of 33ºC is maintained even if the outside temperature is 43ºC or -40ºC. A colony contains one queen, 500 to 1,000 drones and about 30,000 to 60,000 workers. Worker bees live for about 28 to 35 days Bees have an unusual genetic sex determination system, haplodiploidy. Workers are produced from fertilized eggs and have a double set of chromosomes. The males, or drones, develop from unfertilized eggs and are thus haploid with only a single set of chromosomes. Queen may mate with up to 17 drones over a 1-2 day period of mating flights & stores the sperm in her spermatheca, thus she has a lifetime supply and never mates again. Queen bees live for 2 to 5 years. Queens will lay almost 2000 eggs/day. Queen bees mandibular gland produces a pheromone, called queen substance, which workers lick from the queen's body and pass along. It inhibits the ovaries of workers. When the bee stings, the stinger, poison sac and several others parts are torn from the bee's body to be left on the victim & it will soon die. Bees communicate using Dance language & consists of a dance in a circle, for indicating sources & a tail-wagging dance in which the exact distance is indicated by a number of straight runs with abdominal wagging, fewer the runs per minute, farther away the source.

Hovering near a flower, just before landing on it...
Bees still busy at work, even after the flowers had withered away in the hot sun

Happy Birthday Google!

2006-09-27T22:09:00.000+05:30

When I went to Google home page to do some searching to find some facts for my next blog post, I was surprised to see the Google logo. It's Google's Birthday!!! Then I did some searches & got these old Google Birthday logos.

Google derives from Googol which means 1.0 × 10¹⁰⁰. It's founders are Larry Page and Sergey Brin. You can read about all the Google milestones here.

I wonder how much we use Google services daily. If Google weren't here, I wonder how different a world we would be in. My list of Favorite Google services are as follows:

Gmail

Freedom to Read...

2006-09-14T07:29:00.000+05:30

I was searching for Robert Knox's 'An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon' when I stumbled upon this two great free resources. I was amazed to see how much free content they had & we are so ignorant as not to use them.

Project Gutenberg

This was started by Michael Hart in 1971 & named the project after Joannes Gutenberg who innovated the printing press.
By August 2006 there are 19000 free ebooks in Project Gutenberg.
Material is added only after it has received a copyright clearance according to US copyright law.

Google Book Search

Google offers full view of books that are out of copyright. (Also google continues to offer those books that are still in copyright, which can be searched for keywords & will be presented with a small snippet of the surrounding text to the relevant keyword & there will be links to stores where you can buy the book)
They simply provide full text view of books according to the copyright law of the viewers country. There is a link where PDF formats of the relevant ebook can be downloaded if they are out of copyright.
Also from yesterday (August 12) they are offering 42 Banned Books

Kandyan Dancer Orchid

2006-08-20T20:51:00.000+05:30

These are Kandyan Dancer Orchids from our garden. This belongs to the genus Onicidium, which has more than 300 orchid species.
I could not find the exact species name of this orchid though.
These have been named after it's resemblance to Kandyan Dancers, a traditional form of upcountry dancing in Sri Lanka, where the dancers wear highly ornamented costumes.

< Kandyan Dancers in the Procession on my Wedding day

Also visit Oncidium to read more on this genus of Orchids

Birth time...

2006-08-18T22:59:00.000+05:30

These are cut ends of two banana stems. As you can see, the middle part has grown a little bit. When I saw this, I remembered an ingenious method used by ancient Sri Lankans to calculate a new borns birth time (as most of the people did not have watches or clocks).

When a baby is about to be born, an elderly will go near a nearby banana tree. When he hears the first cry of the baby, he will cut the banana tree with a knife in one stroke. Then they will summon the village astrologer.
The astrologer will visit the place. He will measure the growth of the inner part of the cut end. Using this he will calculate the interval since baby was born & his arrival, thus calculating birth time of the baby.
Another difference can be seen in this ancient practice. Rather than taking the time when the child is delivered, they had considered the time at which the baby had taken the first breath as the birth time. But most of the time there is only a few seconds difference between these two.

New Arrival...

2006-08-09T18:17:00.000+05:30

Gmail

2006-06-29T00:43:00.000+05:30

ar

What is Gmail?
ItÂs GoogleÂs free webmail service, also known as Googlemail in UK & Germany due to copyright issues. Initially launched in April 1st, 2004.

Storage:
Initially launched with 1GB of free space & was increased to 2GB at its first anniversary. Now it provides over 2.7GB & counting at a rate of 0.000032470826991374936580416032470827 megabytes per second which is 1GB per year

Features:
Conversation View:
GoogleÂs innovative method of categorizing emails, where Gmail keeps related emails together, so all emails related to a single email are kept in a single stack. Gmail users can delete a whole conversation or individual emails from a collection of emails from a conversation.

Labels:
Gmail has labels rather than folders, where one email could have more than one label.

Integrated Search:
Gmail incorporates GoogleÂs powerful search capability, making finding an email sent or received very easy

Access:
Gmail allows web interface in addition to free automatic forwarding & POP3 access. For mobile access, point mobile phoneÂs web browser to http://m.gmail.com.

Spam Filtering:
Innovative Google Technology filters spam using sophisticated filters.

Virus Protection:
Gmail scans all attachments for viruses & tries to remove if found. Gmail does not allow attaching executable files, as they are the major source for distribution of viruses.

Relevant Text Ads:
Gmail displays only relevant text ads. No Pop-ups or Banner ads.

Auto-save:
Saves a draft copy of current message & saves any attachments, once per minute, to prevent loss of data.

Optional Dots:
The Gmail usernames must be of 6 to 30 characters comprising of letters, numbers or dots & cannot include hyphens(-) & underscores(_). But Gmail ignores dots when resolving addresses. So my.name@gmail.com is as same as myname@gmail.com & m.y.n.a.m.e@gmail.com. Also Gmail is case Insensitive.

Plus-addressing:
Gmail supports a tag to be added to your email address where it can be written as my.name+tag@gmail.com. This can be used to track email address provided to different services & people.

Customized ÂFromÂ Address:
Gmail can be customized to display as been sent from another of your addresses Eg: my.name@yahoo.com

Google Talk:
Gmail allows users to chat with Google Talk Network users with in Gmail window. So users can chat with their contacts if they are online.
Also it includes Contact pictures & auditory notification when new messages arrive. But voice calling is not supported by Gmail.

Google Calendar:
Gmail incorporates powerful Google Calendar where events can be added using natural language phrases & numerous more powerful features.

View as HTML:
Gmail allows attachments of Microsoft Office, OpenOffice & .pdf type files to be viewed as HTML pages rather than downloading the attachments or when in a hurry, using a mobile device or when the software needed to view the file is not installed.

and,
Vacation Auto Responder,
Contact Groups,
Filters,
Many Languages (even some left-to-right languages),
RSS Feeds,
Address & Package Tracking as Shortcuts,
Offline Access with Google Desktop,
Photo Upload to Gmail with Picasa,
Archiving Emails,
Spellchecker,
Gmail for Your Domain

Privacy Issue:
Some amount of Privacy concern is there regarding Gmail, mainly because all emails are automatically under go software-based scanning to determine relevant text advertisements.

Supported Browsers:

Standard:
Microsoft IE 5.5+
Netscape 7.1+
Mozilla 1.4+
Mozilla Firefox 0.8+
Safari 1.2.1+
Opera 6.03+

Standard with chat:
Microsoft IE 6.0+
Mozilla Firefox 1.0+

HTML view only:
Microsoft IE 4.0+
Netscape 4.07+
Lynx

Deactivation of Account:
Gmail account is deactivated if not used for 9 months, which is far more than most of the other free webmail providers.

How to get a Gmail Account:
Gmail is still in Beta testing stage & opening a Gmail account is still by using an invitation

By Mobile Phone:
Mobile phone users from US, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Turkey can receive invitation code by filling form in Gmail website.

By Google Invitation:
If you own a .edu email address or Blogspot blogger, you may receive an invitation from Google. Occasionally in search page an invitation is provided on the top bar.

By a Friend:
Gmail users can send Invitations to their friends.

If you cannot get a Gmail Invitation, please feel free to ask for an invitation from me. Use the provided email form in the left Sidebar of this blog to send the request to me. Please remember to include your email address as well .

P.S.: I get so many requests, but few of the invitees do not seem to open the Gmail accounts. Please if you wish not to open a Gmail account, forward the invitation to one of your needy friends or back to me.
Also note that the Gmail invitations sent to other webmail services sometimes get categorized as Spam or Bulkmail. So please check those folders as well, if you requested for an invitation. Please be patient, If you requested for an invitation, I will definitely send you one.

Talents

2006-06-21T22:42:00.000+05:30

Cover Designs of the Talents souvenire books		Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura is the youngest medical faculty of Sri Lanka established only in 1993. With the heavy burden of studies, medical students only rarely venture into performing arts. But with Variety stage show Talents, which commenced in 1995, the hidden talents of the medicos were exposed. Since then, with the blessing of the staff of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, this show is held each year entirely by Medical students. This variety show includes singing, dancing & drama. Proceedings of the show are utilized to fund projects which will enhance the students’ aesthetic & sporting skills. It is amazing how small dreams turn into major events. I joined the second Talents show as a first year student in 1997. In 1999 with Saliya we made a performance ‘Sri ape lankawe sinhalaya’, which is a hilarious song, based on the rapidly losing cultural values. In it we used a multimedia projection, where we projected a morph between a traditional dress to a short skirt, etc. It was a major success & we were commended by so many & we were asked to do a similar one next year too. But after seeing the video editing equipment at the faculty while we were editing videos for the previous one, I was dreaming of having a live coverage of the event projected to a giant screen. I never thought that it could be done with our meagre resources. I discussed about it with some of my friends & thought of giving it a try. Then we discussed with our Dean of the Faculty, who without a hesitation released the necessary equipment. After a dozen of sleepless nights, we could manage to get prepared, only by the eve of the event. Since then we are having a giant screen projection of the event edited live at the scene. This year it had come to a climax where the National Television Station of Sri Lanka (Rupavahini Cooperation) are covering the stage show & it will be telecasted tomorrow (22nd June) at 10.00pm.


^ Cover Design by Mahendra Ekanayaka	^ Cover Design by me

^ Cover Design by Kavinda Rajapakse

^ Cover Designed by Sangeeth

Pregnancy Due Date Calculator

2006-06-16T23:56:00.000+05:30

Pregnancy Due Date Calculator or Expected delivery Date Calculator can be used calculate the approximate delivery date in a pregnant lady. This uses a standard calculation method, where it is considered that the period from last menstrual period to date of the deliery of the baby is a constant. This period can slightly vary in a small percentage of the women population. This only gives a approximate date & this date can vary due to various reasons.
For this calculator to be used, the woman should have regular menstrual periods.
The date that is entered is first date of the last menstrual period.

For the design of the above Calendar, Tom Duffy's Create an Object-Oriented JavaScript Calendar Using the FaÃÂ§ade Design Pattern was used. Thanks Tom!

Be a Hero...

2006-06-15T21:41:00.000+05:30

Being a hero is not something that can be achieved very easily.
But ofcourse I took a bold step today...
Yeah, became a volunteer blood donator. I always wanted to donate blood, but couldn't take that inaugural step.
Yesterday was the (14th of June) World Blood donor Day. So there is a special campaign going on in whole of Sri Lankan government hospitals to mark the event.
The Blood Donor system is a well functioning system in Sri Lanka where volunteer blood donors donate blood at regular intervals of four months. Every donor is registered & details of their illnesses, especially AIDS & Hepatitis B are tasted for in the donated blood & healthy donors are encouraged to donor regularly.
The aim of the National Blood Transfusion Service of Sri Lanka is to have all needed blood collected from volunteer donors.
At present patients undergoing routine surgeries are encouraged to get someone to volunteer to donate blood. This can be eliminated in the future. In Teaching Hospital - Kurunegala, where the National Thalassaemia Center is situated, so many units of blood are needed daily to be transfused to Thalassaemic children. All thee are collected from volunteer donors.
I am very happy to be able to be a donor & 'Blood saves lives...'

Also visit:

Lethal Prayer - let this prayer be ignored...

2006-05-19T22:59:00.000+05:30

When I returned to room after having dinner, I found an interesting creature in my room. It's a Praying Mantis, also called Praying Mantid, so called due to its positioning of fore limbs. Mantis means Prophet in Greek. But do not get misled by it's humble appearance. Its a carnivore.

It feeds on other mantises, Insects such as butterflies, beetles, grasshoppers, flies & crickets. At the bottom of this post there is a link where you can see pictures of a mantis that has caught a hummingbird. It uses it's fore limbs equipped with razor sharp spines to deliver a fatal blow that will penetrate it's prey & it quickly bites the neck of the prey before starting to eat.
The one I saw was brownish in colour & they vary from Green to Pink & flower mantises are magnificently beautiful with flower like appearance. This is essential to it for it's survival as there are so many predators such as Birds & spiders that feed on them. Also Mantises use their camouflage to catch their prey, as unwary victims pass-by without noticing it.

The size ranges from 0.5 cm to 30cm in size. The specimen I found was a very small one, where I have taken a picture of it with a pen for size comparison.

The mantises are helpful in keeping the pest populations at control, but they eat friendly insects too without any discrimination.

Mount Lavinia Hotel

2006-05-01T23:58:00.000+05:30

Almost one year ahead of our wedding day, we started to search for a venue for the occasion. It was a difficult task, as the venue should match all our requirements, including suitability to host a traditional wedding.
When I started to climb the stair case at Mount Lavinia Hotel, I knew this would be the ideal location for the big occasion, with its colonial architecture & picturesque surroundings.

Mount Lavinia Hotel celebrates its 200^th anniversary this year. There is an enchanting love story bound with this place. This mansion was built in 1806 by Sir Thomas Maitland, British governor of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka). He had fallen in love with a local dancing girl, Lovina Aponsuwa, which had made him name the mansion Mount Lavinia, which later on was used to call the surrounding area itself.

Due to the nature of his state, governor could not marry this village lass. He had a secret passageway leading to her house well, which he would use to meet her frequently.

He remained a bachelor, when he left the country to England & remained so through out rest of his life.
This mansion was used by several Governors who came to office subsequently (Sir Edward Barnes, Sir Robert Brownrig & Sir Edward Paget) & was converted to a hotel in 1877 & stays so to this date.

Mt Lavinia Hotel also has a unique asset, Master Chef Pabilis, who is an expert on local, rare-to-find delicacies. Also they offer exquisite western & oriental cuisines.

Visit Mount Lavinia Hotel web site, read about its history here & click here for reservations

Photos uploaded with

The culprit

2006-02-14T22:56:00.000+05:30

After the Bulbul family left the nest, I removed the tar sheets covering the nest. I thought the predator bird would return (see Tragedy...) if it saw the nest & I didn't had to wait long to get results. It came right to the nest & was searching all over.
It was a magnificent bird with grey-blue coloured body & was very fast. I only managed to capture it's photo after it flew away to a distant tree.

This was a Shikra ('kurulugoya' in sinhala). A magnificently beautiful bird.

The scientific name is Accipiter badius.

It's a bird of prey. It's a small bird with short broad wings & long tail. It's found in South Asia & sub-Saharan Africa. It's prey include lizards, dragonflies, small birds & mammals.

Flying lessons

2006-02-12T23:52:00.000+05:30

Bulbul parent showing how to fly

Today was a special day & especially to the bulbul birdling. I could witness the first flight of the birdling.
The bulbul parents were bringing food near & would take it away compelling the birdling to come out of the nest & it jumped out of the nest readily. I always stayed around, as I did not wanted it to end in our cats stomach. It seems they didn't mind me sitting around. Even I examined the birdling for injuries few times when it fell from above during the process.
It was a nice thing to see. The parents brought food near it & flew away as birdling approached. Parents flapped wings to show the young one how to fly. Soon the small one started flapping wings & off it went few yards. I was amazed to see it & was very happy too. After few more flights, three of them flew away to distant.
Then only I felt sad, as I missed them...

It seems this brings an end to the 'Tale of the Bulbul family'
To read from the bigining please read,

Parents bringing food near the birdling to force it out of th nest.

Birdling on the ground, after it jumped out of the nest

Rewards for getting out of the nest

Here we go...

Quick... can anybody tell me how to land???

Images published with

Tragedy...

2006-02-10T22:47:00.000+05:30

The fallen Bulbul birdling. The only survivor...

I was watching a cricket match when I heard the screams of the Bulbuls. I thought it was a cat who had attacked their nest & I went quickly to see whats happening. I saw a large bird fly away & it dropped something & it was one from the nest. I was there in time to save only one bulbul birdling.I returned it to the nest.

Other two birdlings were not to be seen. May be the predator bird had had them. I could not see the predator bird as it flew away. But it is sure to return. So I placed two tar-sheets over the nest & Bulbul parent could get into the nest from the side.

The Bulbul parents were watching from a distance. They did not return to the nest even at that nite. But next day morning it flew away as I came near the nest. During past few weeks the bulbul parents were so acoustemed to us, we could go near them without alarming them. But now because of this incidence they even seem to suspect us.

Birdling alone in nest (seen from below)

The only survived birdling in the nest, alone at night

Tar coat on top of the nest. Bulbul parent also seen coming out of the nest

Red vented Bulbul

2006-02-04T21:37:00.000+05:30

	The scientific name is Pycnonotus cafer. It gets its name from the reddish area found at the vent. This can be seen very clearly in the lower photograph. Generally it is dark in colour with white breast & rump. It has a crest & called in Sri Lanka as 'Kondaya' meaning 'haired' because of it. They consume fruits (eg: plantain & papaya), insects, flower nectar, seeds & buds. They build a cup shaped nest where they lay 2 to 3 eggs. This is native to parts of Asia ranging from Pakistan, India & Sri Lanka to southwest China & also some pacific islands where it was introduced later. It had been nominated to be among '100 of worlds worst invaders'. Further readings: Ecology of Pycnonotus cafer Red-vented_Bulbul (Wikipedia) Hawaii Biological Survey's - Red-Vented Bulbul Red vented Bulbul (nice pictures!) also see my other post on Bulbul nest: New life...

New life...

2006-02-03T21:08:00.000+05:30

	When I was getting ready to go to work today morning, I heard some noise & was amazed to see three birdlings huddled together in a small nest. I couldn't investigate further as I was getting late for work. On returning from work, first thing I did was to check the nest & it was of Red Vented Bulbul. The parents were busy feeding the hungry birdlings & they took turns in feeding them. The nest was well camouflaged among the grapevine leaves & before the Bulbul parents returned to the nest they would check the surrounding for a while. Initially they hesitated to come to nest when we were around , but eventually they got used to us & we were free to take close pictures of them. In the night on of the parents slept on top of the birdlings.
Three Bulbul birdlings

Bulbul parent returning from nest after feeding. The nest is in the bush of leaves just beyond the bird.

Red Vented Bulbul

Adult bird sleeping on top of birdlings in the night.

Glorious flower in the Garden

2006-01-15T23:03:00.000+05:30

This is a bunch of Glori Lilies, also known as Flame Lily, Climbing lily & Gloriosa Lily, I found in our garden. This plant is a creeper & the tips of the leaves wrap around substrates. The scientific name is Gloriosa superba.
Even though the flowers are very beautiful, all parts of this flowering plant are toxic. The tubers are the most toxic part. The toxicity is mainly due to alkaloid Colchicine. The lethal dose varies from 6mg to 20mg.

The features of poisoning may develop 6hrs to 12hrs after ingestion. They include,

Abdominal pain,
Nausea & Vomiting
Diarrhoea
Bleeding manifestations (after 24hrs)
Confusion, Convulsions & Coma

Management of the poisoning,

Gastric Lavage,
Multiple doses of Activated Charcoal,
Correction of other complications such correcting dehydration & shock, correcting electrolyte imbalances
Assisted ventilation if necessary
Forced Diuresis within first 24hrs

(Reference: Ravindra Fernando (2002) Management of Poisoning, 2nd revised Ed. The National Poison Information Centre, NHSL, Colombo, pp 114-116.)

Some information on this plant can be found at,

Poisonous Plants Gloriosa superba

Detailed information on Gloriosa Lily

A detailed description of the poison Colchicine can be found at IPCS INCHEM

Puah had published a nice poem on this flower. Please read it too >> L'chaim"!: Temptation

WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR, err just a second…

2006-01-01T00:34:00.000+05:30

Happy New Year !
Originally uploaded by couleurs gm.

This year, the New Year was delayed by one second. This is called a leap second. Last time such a leap second was added to our calendar was only seven years ago. This is done in order to synchronise our normal calendar which is astronomically based & mean solar time. The normal civil time is kept by atomic clocks which are extremely precise.
The leap second can be positive or negative & can be adjusted on 30th June or 31st December mid night.
So I was expecting them to display 23:59:60 or something like that before it became 00:00:00 on TV. But I was disappointed as the clock went from 23:59:59 to 00:00:00 as usual.
I wonder whether they have at least corrected that second later on.

You can read about it further at,

Also there’s a freeware utility that can be downloaded to synchronise your PC with the atomic clock, Atomic Clock Sync.

Tsunami, never come again!!!

2005-12-26T19:28:00.000+05:30

Tsunami Photos Tsunami027_jpg Originally uploaded by
Tsunami Photo/News Archive link to over 20,000 pho.
^ These girls were caught in the giant Tsunami waves when they had come to Galle bus stand to go for their Tution classes. Some survived the ordeal to tell the tale...

It has been one year since the Tsunami hit shores of ours & few other neighbouring countries. It was so massive & sudden catastrophe, all who were not affected, rushed to the help of those poor victims. The boundaries of race, religion, cast & others were so easily forgotten, that all of the Sri Lankans united in one voice to rebuild the nation.
So many lives were lost.
So much property destroyed.
One year has passed, still so much to be done.
The unity of the different races is fading...
The glow of war looming around in the air...
So many affected people still live in temporary shelters.
Still so much to be done....
...can we spend time wasting fighting, when we have so much to do???

May those who died in the tragedy attain nibbana or absolute goals according to their respective religions!!!

White Waters, here we come again...

2005-12-25T22:39:00.000+05:30

Some last minute tips by Channa

Kasun briefing us about the rocky ride ahead...

White waters... here we come again...

Refreshingly cold white water of the Kelani River

Conquring the White Waters...

facing the challenges with a smile...

theres nothing to hold on to...

almost through...

OK it's done, where's the next?

Hey theres the camera.. say cheese..

Well, when Rasika & Susantha said they want to have a very exciting time when they came home for this holiday , I couldn’t think of any thing else other than White Water Rafting. So here we go again… back to Kithulgala for White Water Rafting in the Kelani river. Also my cousine sister & her husband joined us.

Kitulgala is situated about 80km from Colombo on the A7 road to Nuwara Eliya via Avissawell .
We stayed at the Kithulgala Rest House as we did the last time. But we arranged the White Water Rafting with Rafters Retreat in advance.
Rafters Retreat is situated just next to Kithulgala Rest House. It is a magnificent old mansion.
Channa reviewed us on the finer details of the rocky ride. Then with Kasun we went to Yatiberiya, where the raft was launched, and again another 2hrs of adventure we got. There are 7 rapids ranging from grade 2 to 3 to be conquered & ideally suited for beginners as well.
My wife did not join in the ride. But she was more than happy to capture the moments, which we felt really a necessity during the first time we did White Water Rafting.
Channa was more than happy to help us in this deed. After dropping the raft & us at the place where we launched the raft, my wife was able to take pictures of our joyous ride from two places where the rapids could be seen from the banks.

Also see White Waters at Kitulgala

Ghost siting???

2005-12-06T17:44:00.000+05:30

I got the above photo from a friend.
Those who are in the photo had taken it after they had had a BBQ & were about to leave. The person who printed the photos had seen somthing in the upeer left corner of the photo & enlarged it.
My friend thinks it's a ghost. One below is the enlarged photo of the ghost, if it is so.
What do you think. Could it be a ghost?
I managed to scan the photo. The streight lines on the photo are due to a fsult in the scanner.

< The enlarged portion of the upper left corner of the above photo

Tale of the Two Rods

2005-11-22T21:03:00.000+05:30

Have you noticed the symbols used in relation to medicine?

Which of these is it?
< >

Actually the medical professionals also have been confused in the use of these two symbols.The staff entwining a single serpent –believed to be a rat snake species- is known as Rod of Asclepius.

Asclepius was the god of medicine & healing in the Greek mythology. He was the son of Coronis -a mortal- & Apollo -a Greek god-, brought up by Chiron -a centaur-, who thought him all his skills in Medicine. Zeus killed him with a thunder bolt. Many reasons are speculated for this killing, one reason being acceptance of money in return for resurrection. These have to be discussed separately.
Then realizing his importance Zeus made him immortal & placed in the sky as the Ophiuchus among the stars.

The other one is Caduceus of Hermes or Kerykeion of Mercury. It depicts a staff with wings with two snakes wrapped around it. Hermes is the Greek god of boundaries, of travelers, shepherds and cowherds, of orators, literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention, of commerce in general, of the cunning of thieves, and the messenger from the gods to humans. Mercury is the Latin god of trade, profit and commerce.

Thus Rod of Asclepius is more relevant to be used as a symbol of Medicine rather the Caduceus or Kerykeion which is more connected with commerce. But Hermes also is connected with alchemy in the form of hermetic spells, which is a precursor of medicine

< Logo of British medical association

Logo of World Health Organisation >

Presidential Election of Sri Lanka - 2005

2005-11-17T15:53:00.000+05:30

Presidential Election voting was wrapped-up at 4pm. Now it is time to watch for results. Unlike earlier occations, we have another new method to get updated results for Sri Lankan Presidential Polls. They are updated web pages.
The official goverment news page for Presidential Election of Sri Lanka is -click here-

There are other sites promising to give updated results of the 5th Presidential Election of Sri Lanka,
http://www.president2005.com/live/
http://www1.srilankanelections.com/index.php
http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/election_2005.jsp

The results of past Presidential Election of Sri Lanka can be found at -click here-

Wash your hands....

2005-11-12T20:42:00.002+05:30

While we were attending to inducing anesthesia for the next patient, our Consultant Surgeon - Dr R D Yapa- popped a question to us as usual.
"Who discovered Antisepsis?". Chandaná was quick to answer "Joseph Lister...". We nodded in agreement. "No.. It's Semmelweis" & we've never heard of a 'Semmelweis' until now.

That's how I found about an ugly chapter in "The Art of Medicine".

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (July 1, 1818 - August 13, 1865), was a Hungarian doctor who practiced under Klein, Professor of Obstetrics at Lying-in Hospial, Vienna.

He noticed that,

the neonatal death rate due to Puerperal fever (childbirth fever) was 13% in his unit compared to 2% in the other unit in the same hospital
his unit was managed by doctors & medical students & the other unit was managed by midwives
his colleague Jakob Kolletschka died of similar symptoms after he cut his finger accidentally during a post mortem.
women admitted with "street-births" (who had delivered in the streets) had lower fever rates compared to his unit's
student doctors attended to autopsies & then to women in delivery

With these observations in 1847, he introduced a new rule that everybody must wash their hands with chlorinated lime before examining patients & later on added the instruments also to be washed. Death rate felt immediately to 2% which was comparable to the other ward.
The ugly chapter starts here. Semmelweis was not keen to report his findings to his superiors & was eventually dismeissed from his post by Prof. Klien. He returned to Hungary in 1850 & worked in St. Rochus Hospital in Pest.
He published his work in a book in 1861, "The aetiology, understanding and prevention of childbed fever" (Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers). It was accepted by Hungarian government, even though it was widely criticised by German speaking doctors in Vienna. Even Viennese Medical Journal editorial reminded its readers "It was time to stop the nonsense about the chlorine hand wash".
He suffered a nervous breakdown and was admitted to a insane assylum & died 2 weeks later.
Cause of his death is speculated to be due to infection he received from a wound during autopsy. But the real cause was found to be something else. He had become violent while in the assylum & was beaten by assylum personnel. He died due to injuries received, in a fortnight.
Only in 1867 Joseph Lister introduced Carbolic Acid spray for asepsis. The scientific growth in asepsis had been halted for 20 years.

I remembered, during a class in Microbiology when I was a medical student, the lecturer told, "Wash your hands, that's the single most important action to prevent infections"

White Waters at Kitulgala

2005-09-09T21:16:00.000+05:30

It was another offweekend for us. As we figured out that me & my wife would not have another long weekend off for a while, we thought of going to Kithulgala for a change

We just managed to book a room at Kitulgala Rest House, jam packed with honeymooners after the auspicious days full of weddings.When Thushara (Sister-in-law) got to know this she suggested "a trip to Kitulgala is nothing without White Water Rafting" - thanks sis

^ Raft for the bumpy ride

When we arrived @ Kithulgala Rest House, we had not made our minds yet to go on White Water Rafting. But after a chat with hotel manager, we thought of giving it a try in the Kelaniya River & our Hotel Manger was good enough to arrange it for us.

^ Final Check by Shiran & Wanasingha.

Roshan in the distance

We were to do White Water Rafting with guys from Ceylon Adventure Sports (Pvt) Ltd. Mr.Wanasingha came over to the Rest house to pick us up. We went to their office at Batakitta.

^ Final check on the raft!!

Then along with the air filled rafts we went to the place where White Water Rafting starts, Yatiberiya. Still we were in two minds when we reached the waters edge. But now it was too late for us to turn about. Both of us couldn’t swim. But with life jackets worn, we were confident.

^ Shiran instructing us...

Shiran gave us the instructions on how to row, as only two of them came with us – Shiran & Roshan – we need to row as well. I was really worried that I had to give up my camera as it was not water proof.

^ "Right Forward...." commands Roshan

From here on… it was Wanasingha who was behind the lens. The rivers are graded according to rapids from grade 2 to 6. The Kelani River in which we are rafting was graded 2 – 3, ideal for beginners like us & has 7 rapids.

It didn’t take long for the water to run over our heads. I never imagined earlier that boats could travel under water as well J . But I missed a lot of snaps, as I couldn’t take my camera along.It was an unforgettable experience….

Other places for White Water Rafting in Sri Lanka are,

Sitawaka river off Avissawella – Grade 3 to 4
Kotmale river – near Hatton - Nuwara Eliya road – Grade 4 to 5
Mahaweli River – from Ulapane and heads down to Gampola – Grade 2 to 5

Here are few links if you are interseted to do White Water Rafting in Sri Lanka, I found during my surfing...

Word scramble

2005-06-18T20:52:00.000+05:30

This is a piture of a surmon written in an art form @ the Thanthirimale Temple ceiling. I am still unable to read the whole text written in Sinhalese laguage.
If U can please let me know...