Jun 4, 2014

14 Google Search Tips That Will Blow u r Mind

You think you know how to Google? You don't know how to Google.
Even the most seasoned Googler might not know every tip and trick available with just a few extra keystrokes in the search bar. Consider this your instructions manual for the world's most popular search engine.

Define A Word

The Scenario: You're playing Scrabble and some dumb-dumb says, "Hey, 'panacea' isn't a word!"
The Solution: Just type "define:" followed by the word you want and Google will take you straight to the definition. Use the time you save to make smarter friends.

Search For Words In Exact Order

The Scenario: You want to find out the origin of a quote, but Google keeps giving results that are nowhere close.
The Solution: Put your search phrase inside quotation marks.

Exclude Certain Words

The Scenario: You want bread recipes that don't list "yeast" as an ingredient.
The Solution: After you enter your desired search terms, add a minus sign (-) followed by the words you want excluded.

Search Within A Range Of Prices

The Scenario: You want to research digital cameras that fall within a certain price range.
The Solution: First type in your term. Then separate the lowest and highest prices you're willing to pay with two periods (..). This trick also works for dates, if you're, say, looking for a news article published during a certain time.

Search Within A Website

The Scenario: You read an interesting article about Nelson Mandela on The Huffington Post, but you don't have the link and you can't remember the article's name or its author.
The Solution: Type "site:" followed by the URL of the website you'd like to search. Then add your search terms.

Fill In The Blanks

The Scenario: You once heard that mixing Pop Rocks with _________ would result in _______, but you can't remember what either of those two blanks are.
The Solution: Enter your search terms using asterisks as stand-ins for the unknowns. Google will fill in the blanks with possibilities.

Search By File Type

The Scenario: You have to do a PowerPoint presentation on 1920s slang, either because you're still in college or you live in Brooklyn, and you want to see how others have done it.
The Solution: Search by file type to find other PowerPoints. Enter your search terms followed by "filetype:PPT."

Set A Timer

The Scenario: Your brain is fried and you want to take a break on YouTube. You also want to make sure you don't get sucked down the rabbit hole.
The Solution: Type "set timer for" into the search bar and a Google timer will appear as the first result. Enter the time you want in hours, minutes or seconds and start the timer. Google will start beeping at you when your time runs out.

Do Math

The Scenario: You're terrible at math. Like, really bad at it. Or you're pretty good at math but have a really complicated problem to solve.
The Solution: To the chagrin of your math teacher, you can type in an equation and Google will give you the answer on its calculator. That's right, Mr. Campisano: I didn't need Algebra II after all.

Convert Currency

The Scenario: You're planning a trip to Thailand but have zero idea how far your American dollars will get you.
The Solution: Type in the name of the currency you currently own, add "to" and then type in the name of the currency you need to get.

Find A GIF

The Scenario: You know the exact GIF you need to send to your friend. But how do you find it?
The Solution: Go to Google Images. Click "Search tools" and then "Type." Then check off "Animated." Prepare to impress.

Search By Title

The Scenario: You want to search for a photo of the sexiest man alive when he was in his prime. To be specific, you want to find Joe Biden's yearbook photo.
The Solution: Type "intitle:" then the term you want. This will ensure the specified term is in the title of all the webpages in your results.

Make Google Flip Out

The Scenario: You want to freak out a friend.
The Solution: Type "do a barrel roll" and hit enter.

May 6, 2014

Top 10 Disturbing Historical Firsts


Top 10 Disturbing Historical Firsts


When we think of “historical firsts,” we tend to think of the good stuff: the first man in space, the first man on the Moon, or the first man to eat 25,000 Big Macs. But there’s a whole other, darker set of firsts out there: unique instances of death, insanity, torture and murder that inspired disturbing trends. Here are ten of them:

10. First School Shooting

bremen-school
People have been getting shot in schools ever since there were schools and guns to shoot them up with. But most of these shootings had an obvious target and an obvious cause. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the first madman strolled into a classroom and randomly began firing on a group of children.
On June 20th, 1913, an unemployed 29-year old named Heinz Jacob Friedrich Ernst Schmidt walked into a school in Bremen, Germany, and killed four girls. A fifth died breaking her neck as she tried to escape. They were all between the ages of five and six. Several adults who tried to stop Schmidt suffered serious injuries, before a passing coachman entered the building with a pitchfork and beat him into submission. A true motive for the massacre was never established. As he was led away to a mental asylum, Schmidt was heard to cry, “This may be the beginning, but the end is yet to come.” In light of Newton and Sandy Hook, we now see how tragically right he was.

9. First Concentration Camps

reconcentration-camps
In 1896, colonial Spain had a problem. Armed guerrillas were fighting to wrest Cuba from Spanish control and hand it over to the people. Fearing the loss of their island, Spain dispatched General “Butcher” Weyler, who more than lived up to his name. Reasoning he had no way of knowing who were ordinary Cubans and who were fighters, Weyler decided to lock the entire population up in a little something he called “reconcentration camps.”
Badly-maintained, lacking shelter, and almost entirely without food, the camps soon turned into mass graves. Starvation wracked the inmates. Disease swept through camp after camp. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children died. Those who refused to be interred were executed on the spot. All told, 400,000 civilians are thought to have died in what’s known as the “Cuban Holocaust.” Eventually, pictures of these camps reached America, triggering a public backlash against Spain. Sadly, the horror of these camps would live on through 20th century copies like Belsen, Gakovo, Chacabuco, and Auschwitz.

8. First Airstrikes

Lieutenant-Cavotti
In 1911, the concept of aerial warfare was still science fiction: HG Wells even wrote a doom-laden book about it. That all changed in Libya on November 1st. On that day, Italian airman Lieutenant Cavotti threw four bombs over the side of his plane and onto Turkish-held Tripoli below.
The next few weeks saw a campaign of semi-target “airstrikes” across the city. Arab bases had grenades dropped down on them. Turkish positions were pummelled. A field hospital was accidentally bombed, triggering international outrage. A short 30 years later, the same principal would be used to flatten first London, then Pearl Harbor, then finally major cities in Germany and Japan.

7. First Modern Terrorist Campaign

Irish-Republican-Brotherhood
The roots of terrorism can be traced back to the first century BCE, but it wasn’t until the 1880′s that a group of angry dissidents decided to start randomly targeting civilians. Known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, they responded to British crimes in their home with a dynamite campaign that targeted the London Underground.
On October 30th, 1883, two bombs exploded on the Metropolitan railway line. One went off early and only succeeded in damaging the tunnel. The other scored a direct hit on a passing carriage. Four people were badly injured, with a further two dozen suffering minor injuries. It was the beginning of a terror campaign that would injure upwards of 80 people. Commuters were targeted, landmarks were bombed, and newspapers attacked.
Despite the wide-reaching nature of the campaign though, the only deaths would ironically be those of the bombers themselves: on December 13th, 1884, three of the terrorists accidentally detonated a bomb they were planting on London Bridge. All of them were killed.

6. First Death March

trail-of-tears
We tend to associate death marches with German and Japanese brutality in WWII. But their history has its roots a little closer to home: the first modern death march was conducted byAmerican soldiers.
The year was 1838. The US government had been quietly removing Native American tribes from the East for the best part of the decade. Often, these removals had resulted in their own fatal journeys. Yet it was the Cherokees under the watchful eye of General Scott who would experience the first modern death march.
At gunpoint, Scott forced tens of thousands of Cherokees to march for 1,200 miles into their new territory. Bad weather, starvation, and disease killed thousands on the way. It’s estimated today that 5,000 died on this march, murdered by a callous government. Those that survived found themselves many miles from home, with few belongings and little hope for the future. It was a brutal policy, but one that would be used against Native Americanstime and again for decades to come.

5. First Modern Revolution

Glorious-Revolution
The first revolution in history more than likely occurred at a time when we were all living in huts and had names like “Ug” and “Gug”. The first modern revolution, on the other hand, we can trace to a specific date. Specifically, 1688, the year of Britain’s Glorious Revolution.
According to UK historian Ted Vallance, this revolution can be classified as modern not just because of the insane levels of violence that accompanied it, but also because of the culture clash behind it. Vallance argues that all prior revolutions were about progressive modernizers clashing with traditionalists. Starting with 1688, they typically became about two groups of progressives clashing with each other, “culminating, usually violently, in the profound transformation of the state.”
In other words, it was the first time two groups wanted to change society so drastically that one had to dispose of the other to do it. The same happened in France, Russia, Cuba, and every other revolution since.

4. First Biological Weapons

mongol-dead-bodies
In 1347, Mongol forces were busy occupying themselves by laying siege to the strategically-important port of Caffa in modern Ukraine. Looking for new ways of harming the inhabitants, an unknown general ordered his men to place plague-infested bodies in the catapults and fire them into the city. Not only was this the first recorded incident of germ warfare in history, it may have indirectly shaped the modern world.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a number of traders at Caffa hailed from Italy. There’s a good chance that these same traders quickly escaped home when they saw the plague sweeping through the besieged port, resulting in the Black Death reaching Europe. As we know, the plague then consumed the continent, killing as many as 25 million people and changing the course of history. Was one of the most devastating moments in European history down to nothing more than an inventive Mongol general? It seems shockingly likely.

3. First Chemical Warfare

persian-skeleton-dura
Although it is most associated with World War I, chemical warfare still seems like a modern aberration: the sort of thing our ancestors would have considered with horror. So it can come as something of a surprise to learn we have scientific evidence of it being used as early as 256 AD.
In 2009, scientists uncovered evidence of bitumen and sulfuric crystals at the remains of Dura-Europos City in Syria. The evidence was found at the exact spot where twenty asphyxiated Roman bodies were uncovered in 1930, painting a terrible picture of some forgotten battle. It’s now theorized that Persian invaders facing the Roman soldiers in siege tunnels under the city burnt the crystals and used bellows to blast the toxic air into their enemies’ faces, causing unconsciousness in seconds and death in minutes. If true, it would be the earliest incident of chemical warfare for which we have evidence, some 1,800 years before the notorious battles at Ypres.

2. First Genocide

carthage-genocide
But it wasn’t just chemical weapons that were pioneered in Roman times. Genocide reared its ugly head for the first time in recorded history during the Third Punic War (149-146 BC).
Fed up with the city-state of Carthage throwing its weight around, the Romans made the decision to utterly destroy it. And while the sacking of cities and murder of their inhabitants was not uncommon at the time, it was rarely this ferocious or so thought through. There’s evidence that the Romans weren’t interested in simply gaining a tactical advantage or doing away with enemies, but simply hated the Carthaginians so much that nothing less than their total destruction would suffice.
To that end, they laid siege to the city, slaughtered its inhabitants or sold them into slavery, and then proceeded to dismantle it brick by brick, eventually burning the remains to the ground so only ash remained. There’s even speculation that they may have poured salt over the Earth so nothing would ever grow there again, just to make sure their hated victims could never return.

1. First Gas Chambers

majdanek-gas-chambers
Today we associate gas chambers with the horrors of the Holocaust. But the Nazis weren’t the first to use this method to exterminate undesirables. That honor goes to the Turkish and Kurdish forces during the Armenian Genocide.
In 1915, the Ottoman state set out to wipe every trace of the Armenians from the face of the Earth. Villages were rounded up and executed. Others were sent on death marches into the blistering desert sun. Yet others were taken into the Syrian Desert, where they became history’s first victims of the gas chamber. On their captors’ orders, civilians were herded into a large cave. The Turkish forces then pumped the cave full of smoke until everyone inside was dead from asphyxiation. It’s estimated that thousands died in this manner.
In a particularly grim piece of irony, the German troops allied with the Ottoman Empire complained to Berlin about these atrocities. The Reichstag expressed shock that any nation could be so cruel towards defenseless citizens. Less than 30 years later, the ovens at Auschwitz would open their doors, signalling the death of 6 million Jews.


10 Inventors Who Died By Their Own Inventions



While many inventors live happy and prosperous lives, perhaps with plenty of money thanks to their inventions, others are not so lucky. In fact, some inventors have been known to have died thanks to their own inventions and here are 10 of them.
1.Franz Reichelt, the tailor who invented the “wingsuit”.
franz-reichelt1
Franz Reichelt decided to make a “wingsuit” which he said would allow him to glide effortlessly, in a similar fashion to parachutes of today, however it wasn’t to be. On 4 February 1912 the French tailor climbed up to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the wingsuit he had made, having previously told the French authorities that he was going to use a dummy to test the suit out. He changed his mind on arriving at the tower and announced that he would be wearing the suit and jumping himself.
18osrwinot4p6jpg
Even though people around him tried to persuade him otherwise, he was adamant that he wanted to make the jump saying that he wanted to try it without any trickery, so as to prove the worth of his invention. The wingsuit had a parachute with a surface area of 320 square feet and was 16 feet in height; all he had to do was extend his arms out like wings.
Watched over by 30 journalists, a large crowd and 2 cinematographers he climbed onto the ledge and jumped over. Sadly, the wingsuit just wrapped around his body and he plummeted to the ground 187 feet below where he left a crater that was reported to be 5.9 inches in depth. He suffered devastating injuries, however it was said that the cause of death was a heart attack on the free-fall down.
2.Perillos of Athens and his Brazen Bull
brazenbull[Image Courtesy of WikimediaCommons]
Perillos worked as a bronze worker and he made what was known as the “Brazen Bull”. This was a device with the purpose of executing criminals in a slow and agonising death. The Brazen Bull was hollow and prisoners were put into it and then roasted via a fire that was underneath the stomach of the bull. Perillos was making a pitch of his invention to the tyrant lord of Acragas in Sicily and when he showed the bull off he was asked to get inside it. A fire was then lit underneath the bull. It isn’t made clear as to whether he actually roasted to death inside the bull or whether he was taken out before he died and thrown off a cliff.
3.Stuntman Karel Soucek and his shock absorbent barrel
18osnofcp578vjpg[Image Courtesy of Karel Soucek]   
Karel Soucek was a stuntman who first went over the Niagara Falls in a shock absorbent barrel that he had custom built in 1984. Strangely he survived this rather silly stunt, but then one year later he thought he would like to test it out being dropped from the Houston Astrodome, 180 feet, into a tank full of water. This time he wasnt so lucky as the capsule hit the rim of the tank of water and he perished a few hours later in hospital due to the injuries he suffered.
4.Horace Lawson Hunley and his submarine
hunley_0 [Image Courtesy of WikimediaCommons]  
Lawyer Horace Lawson Hunley had a passion for submarines and during the battle of the Civil War he helped to design and build three models. The third submarine was funded by him and on 15 October 1863 he along with 7 crewmembers took the submarine down and it sank in Charleston S.C. The submarine was recovered and was then used again; surprisingly the submarine sank a ship and was the first submarine to actually do so. It’s a pity Hunley didn’t live to see it.

5.William Bullock and his Rotary Printing Press
a98738_Bullock
[Image Courtesy of Wikipedia]  
American inventor William Bullock invented a printing press in 1863 that helped to change the print industry. However on 3 April 1867 he was adjusting the press and he kicked a driving belt on a pulley and got his leg crushed. Within days he developed gangrene and on 12 April he died in hospital during an operation to amputate his leg.
6.Max Valier and his Liquid Fuelled Rocket Car
a98738_Rocket[Image Courtesy of Wikipedia]  
Max Valier worked with liquid fuelled rockets for rocket powered cars and he had success on 25 January 1930. On 19 April 1930 he made a test drive of a rocket car, which was successful, but one month later 17 May 1930 he was killed when testing an alcohol fuelled rocket car and it exploded.
7.Thomas Midgley and his System of Strings and Pulleys
a98738_Midgley[Image Courtesy of WikimediaCommons]   
Thomas Midgley was a mechanical engineer who after illness became disabled. He then invented a system of strings and pulleys so that people could help to lift him from his bed. However on 2 November 1944 he died after being strangled by the system when he became entangled in ropes of the system.
8.Sieur Freminet and his Rebreathing device
a98738_Sieur[Image Courtesy of Oddee] 
Sieur Freminet invented a rebreathing device for scuba diving in 1772 that recycled the air exhaled from inside the barrel. However the invention wasn’t that good as he died from a lack of oxygen inside the invention after just twenty minutes.
9.Henry Smolinski and his Flying Car
flyingcar_0[Image Courtesy of WikimediaCommons]   
Henry Smolinski was a trained engineer who gave up his job to begin Advanced Vehicle Engineers, with the aim of inventing a flying car. In 1973 they built two prototypes when they fused the back end of the Cessna Skymaster airplane to a Ford Pinto, with the tail section being designed to attach and the detach from the car. On 11 Sept 1973 he tested it alongside Harold Blake, the pilot, and both were killed when the wing strut came away from the car.
10.Valerian Abakovsky and his Aerowagon train engine
aerowagon[Image Courtesy of WikimediaCommons]  
Russian inventor Valerian Abakovsky invented the Aerowagon, it featured the engine and propeller of an airplane and was made to take Soviet officials backwards and forwards from Moscow. The invention was successful on the outgoing leg when testing it but on the incoming journey it crashed on reaching the station and the inventor died.
Via [MentalflossiO9mnn ]
- See more at: http://interestingengineering.com/10-inventors-who-died-by-their-own-inventions/#sthash.AysuG7uo.dpuf

Apr 16, 2014

Welcome To Magnetic Hill Leh-Ladakh

Welcome To Magnetic Hill Leh-Ladakh

                Ladakh has two districts, Leh and Kargil. It’s a part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. A Magnetic Hill can be found about 30 km away from Leh town. While at the magnetic hill, you see motor vehicles, moving upwards at a 20 km/ hour speed while the engines are off. 





A billboard has been put up by the local administration to help tourists’ identify the Magnetic Hill. It describes the phenomenon clearly so that you get to enjoy the experience first hand when you reach the hill. It advises you to place your vehicle at a certain spot on the road while the engines are off. You can then notice as the vehicle moves up the hill at a speed of about 20 km/ hour.




The magnetic powers of the hill do not only affect vehicles, they also affect aircrafts and helicopters. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel and locals claim that aircrafts and helicopters passing through this area, have to increase flying speed to avoid the hill’s magnetic impact. When the aircraft tries to fly within the magnetic hill radius, it starts to jerk. Due to this, the Indian Force Pilots try to steer as far way from the magnetic hill as possible.



Explanation of the mystery
The layout of the land surrounding the magnetic hill produces an optical illusion that makes a very slight downhill slope appear to be an uphill slope. This is why, when a car is left with the gears switched off, it appears to be rolling uphill. A variety of such type of hills can be found in different locations around the world.

Though tour guides may try to convince you that the phenomenon is due to supernatural or natural forces, the slope of gravity is an optical illusion. An important factor that contributes to the illusion is a horizon that is mostly or completely obstructed. It’s difficult to judge the slope of a surface if no horizon is available since there will be no reliable reference. This illusion can be compared to the AMES room that makes balls appear to be rolling against gravity.



This illusion mostly occurs on stretches of road on hilly areas that have the horizon level obscured. Objects that provide visual clues like walls and trees on the true vertical usually appear to lean slightly. As a result, an optical illusion is created that makes objects appear to be rolling uphill, rivers to seem like they are flowing against gravity and a slight downhill look like an uphill slope.
Our inner ears' balance mechanism can also be used to sense which way is up. A horizon that is not level or that can’t be seen can however cause one to be fooled by objects we expect to be vertical but are in reality not. Another reason may be false perspective where objects that are far away appear to be larger or smaller than they really are. 











Mar 26, 2014

How to bypass country restrictions on video sites

It is possible to bypass region-specific website restrictions
It is possible to bypass region-specific website restrictions
We're spoilt with high-quality film and television nowadays, and there are an increasing number of websites on which you can watch the content you're after. Sometimes, however, websites and content are restricted based on the country in which you live. This article explains how you can bypass these restrictions.

The very fact that video content on websites is often restricted by region demonstrates a discrepancy between the principles of the open, distributed Web and the ingrained licensing models of the TV and movie industries. As ever, though, demand coupled with the capabilities of the technology means that where there's a will there's a way. If you're inclined to try any of the below methods, be sure to familiarize yourself with the relevant legislation in your country.

Proxy browser extensions

The quickest and easiest approach to accessing region-restricted videos is to install a browser extension, although proxies can be unreliable, insecure and slow. There are a number of browser extensions available that allow the user to access websites via a proxy server based in another country or region.
Hola is a popular Chrome and Firefox proxy extension
Hola is a popular choice and has extensions for Chrome and Firefox (as well as apps for Windows, Mac and Android). Users simply need to install the the relevant extension and Hola should be begin unblocking sites automatically without the need to restart your browser. Users can click on the extension button in their browser to manually adjust the settings.
Proxmate is another browser extension, similar to Hola
Another well-regarded option is Proxmate, which also has extensions for both Chrome and Firefox. The installation process for Chrome is a little more complicated, with users having to download the file from the Proxmate website and install it via Chrome's extension gallery, but it still works well. Proxmate also serves ads, but these can be turned off in the settings.

DNS tunneling services

DNS tunneling services provide a faster, more reliable and more secure means of accessing region-restricted content, but they they tend to come with a price tag. In short, the services work by simply telling the destination website that the user is accessing it from within the site's regional restrictions, saving the effort of using proxy servers.
Unblock-Us is a DNS tunneling service with over 70 international channels available
Of some of the more popular options, Unblock-Us offers over 70 channels and Unlocator over 80. UnoTelly appears to offer in the region of 100. All three start at about US$5 per month, with free trials and longer term plans also offered.