Ikebana is the general term applied to any style of Japanese floral art or flower arranging. The arrangement of flowers in Japan is an elaborate and unique form with highly developed conventions and complex symbolism. The art stems from the custom of offering flowers to Buddha. It was introduced to Japan in the seventh century by the Japanese Ambassador to …

Armorial bearings were at first a simple way of identifying individuals on the field or at the tourney. Part of the knight’s armour was a shield, on which was depicted a distinguishing pattern. This pattern, which remained the same, was the personal property of its owner and passed on to his descendants. The science of heraldry dates from the second …

Incremental Capital Output Ratio (ICOR) is the additional capital required to increase one unit of output. This ratio is used to measure the efficiency of an industrial unit or country as an economic unit. The lesser the ICOR, more efficient the organization.

Hydrocracking technology is an important conversion technology for producing high-value naphtha or distillate products from a wide range of refinery feedstocks. Conventional hydrocracking technologies have a difficult time handling low-quality feedstocks that are rich in undesirable asphaltene molecules, for example heavy oil, bottom of the barrel and oil sands bitumen. Hydrocracking is a two-stage process combining catalytic cracking and hydrogenation, …

Hard water is water that contains dissolved chemicals that act on soap to form a scum. If water comes from limestone areas, some rock is dissolved in the water, and this makes it hard. There are several disadvantages in hard water. More soap or soap powder must be used to obtain a suitable lather. Also, the scum clings to the …

तमन्ना लुट गयी फिर भी तेरे दम से मोहब्बत है मुबारक गैर को खुशियां मुझे गम से मोहब्बत है न मिलता गम तो बरबादी के अफ़साने कहाँ जाते अगर दुनिया चमन होती तो वीराने कहाँ जाते चलो अच्छा हुआ अपनों में कोई गैर तो निकला अगर होते सभी अपने तो बेगाने कहाँ जाते दुआएँ दो मोहब्बत हम ने मिट कर …

Consider this, your state has been hit by a cyclone with wind speeds measuring 300 kilometres per hour. All modern means of communication – telephone, cellphone, wireless sets – lie dead as the cyclone has destroyed all connecting stations and links. This is what happened during the Orissa cyclone. All communication links broke down as dish antennas, radio stations, telephone …

Half-life is the period of time it takes for a substance undergoing decay to decrease by half. The name originally was used to describe a characteristic of unstable atoms (radioactive decay), but may apply to any quantity which follows a set-rate decay.

It is an acronym for the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, an initiative to study the effect on the performance of communication, navigation and surveillance systems by simulated heating of the ionosphere. It was started in 1993 and is expected to continue till 2013. It is funded by US defence agencies. A powerful HF signal is transmitted to heat …

Guano is accumulated dung or excrement and remains of seabirds, bats and seals found along certain coastal areas and caves. It’s found mainly on the coastal islands of Peru, Africa, Chile and the West Indies. It contains about 6% phosphorus, 9% nitrogen, 2% potassium and moisture. Guano is found mixed with feathers and bones and used mainly as a fertilizer. …