Video documents the existence of a never-ending stairwell “Escherian Stairwell”

On April 2013, many people were amazed and puzzled by a video from the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) purportedly documenting the existence of a “Escherian Stairwell” which “violates the laws of physics and basic logic by looping back into itself”.

I would like to know if the Escherian stairwell located in the RIT is actually a never ending stairwell. Is it possible for a staircase to violate the laws of physics and basic logic by looping back into itself, or just a camera trick.

On 30 April 2013 article published on RIT website, Michael Lacanilao created the video series. The video showing off the unusual stairway was supposedly the third installment of a “Can You Imagine” series about “interesting facts, stories and myths of RIT”

Around 30,000 people were at the festival on May 4. Apparently, the exhibit located in Artistic Alley in Gannet Hall room A171, will help festival goers search for the stairwell and give them a behind the scenes look at “Can You Imagine”.

Quite obviously no physics-defying “Escherian Stairwell” exists in the real world. The secret is that it is a film maker‘s illusion. The video was a bit of trickery created in conjunction with a (failed) Kickstarter campaign – (“The Stairwell Project – Building a Modern Myth”) intended to help fund the creation of articles, videos and other materials to establish a mythical backstory for the stairway in time for  Imagine RIT, the school’s annual Innovation & Creativity Festival.

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Everyone likes a good quote. Welcome to my collection of motivational quotes. Sometimes in life you might not feel good and need some quotes to motivate you and guide you in your life. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Feel free to like and share these quotes with everyone you love.

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 Fibres of orange or grapefruit peels

We waste a tremendous amount of food , about 20 pounds per person per month. The Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group based in Washington, D.C., calculates that we waste even more food during the holiday season, three times as much during festive season than at other times of the year. I have read that, the food wasted annually in the United States is enough to satisfy the hunger of approximately 1 billion malnourished people worldwide.

When eating certain food, there are certain parts which seemingly are useless and should be thrown away. In reality, their nutritional value could be higher than the food itself. Check if you have unknowingly wasted these.

When eating oranges or grapefruits, after removing the peel, do not remove all the fibres that cover the fruits. In fact, the fibres contained a vitamin which helps to maintain the elasticity and density of the artery wall, which in turn reduces the danger of bleeding especially in the fine arteries. Hypertension patients usually have problem of brain hemorrhage while diabetic patients have retina hemorrhage. For people with tendency to bleed, especially elderly people with tendency of artery hardening, eating fibres of oranges and grapefruit peels is particularly helpful.

Chili Pepper Leaves

Chili pepper leaves contains complete range of amino acid almost 4 times compared to chili peppers. It also contains more than double what chili peppers have of which are anti-cancerous substance. On top of that, chili pepper leaves are rich in calcium, beta carotene, various vitamins and other nutrients. Eating a suitable quantity of chili pepper leaves enhances secretion of digestive juices, improves appetite and are good for indigestion, gastric and stomach discomfort. Regular intake of chili pepper leaves also help in warming body, strengthen liver, improve eyesight, reduce weight and improve beauty. Chili pepper leaves is tasty and can either be cooked alone, frying with meat or making soup.

  Pork Bones

The nutritional value of bones are higher than that of the meat. Comparing the nutritional values of Pork bones and pork, the bones contain far more protein, iron, sodium and calories than meat. Bones contain 23% more protein than milk powder, 61% more than beef, three times as much as pork and more than double that of eggs. It has abundance of essential minerals that humans require, like vitamins A, B1 and B2 that are useful for slowing aging. The best part is, when boiled in soup, these nutrients become more readily absorbed by human body than plant-based food.

Fish Eyes

Fish eyes, especially mackerel family, contains rich quantity of  DHA and EPA which are very rare unsaturated fatty acid. The most beneficial property of these natural substances is their ability to stimulate human brain cells, improve memory and thinking power, and also very helpful in preventing memory decline, high cholesterol and hypertension diseases. The common notion suggested is that eating certain animal parts would strengthen similar body parts of ours, and this has been proven correct by clinical experiments where fish eyes are concerned: they can help to reduce the deterioration of eyesight.

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What questions do you often ask yourself? Asking the right questions is the answer to help you refresh and refocus your thinking. It is not the answers you get from others that will help you, but the questions you ask of yourself.

Very often we get caught up in the every day hum-drum or chaos of our daily lives, that we often forget to take the time to relax, to take a few moments to breathe and think about our lives and the impact we are having on the world. The excuse is, we are all too busy living, jostling for pole position in the rat race.

But by taking a few minutes to ask yourself the above thought-provoking questions, who knows? You might even end up viewing the world from an entirely different perspective.

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Thunderbird Lodge, Nevada

Everyone seems to know of at least one haunted house; as kids there was almost certainly one in our own neighborhood.  Old places generally accumulate their share of ghost tales . This list  are the places, through years of experiences and unnerving reputation, that are considered the most haunted places in the world.

Leap Castle, County Offaly, Ireland

Many people were imprisoned and executed in the castle, and it is supposedly haunted by several specter. The most terrifying of these beings is thought to have been summoned by Mildred Darby’s occult activities. “It”, the name given to the creature, is a small grey humanoid, about the size of a sheep, with a decaying face. The apparition is said to be accompanied by the stench of a decomposing corpse and the smell of sulfur. This particular spirit is called an Elemental. They are often malevolent, terrifying, and unpredictable. “It” appears to keep itself relatively hidden in comparison with the other spirits at Leap Castle. On occasion visitors will see the creature, and in few incidences be attacked.

St. James  Theater, Wellington, New Zealand

Catacombs of Paris

The Catacombs of Paris are a maze of tunnels and crypts underneath the city streets where Parisians placed the bones of their dead for almost 30 years. Prior to the creation of the Catacombs in the mid-1700s, residents buried their dead in cemeteries, but as the city grew, they quickly ran out of space. The decision was made to use an underground section of quarries in Paris, and the bones from Paris’ city cemeteries were moved underground between 1786 and 1788. The process was conducted with reverence and discretion – the quarry space was blessed before any bones were moved there, bones were always moved in a quiet parade of carts accompanied by priests, and these movements always took place at night. The quarries continued to be used as the collection point for the bones from Paris’ cemeteries through 1814 and now contain the bodies of roughly 6-7 million Parisians.

The underground cemetery became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and has been open to the public on a regular basis from 1874. Following an incident of vandalism, they were closed to the public in September 2009 and reopened 19 December of the same year. Parisians today often refer to the entire tunnel network as “the catacombs”.

Bhangarh, India

People in India know all about ghosts. Locals give the Bhangarh fort, and the area around it, a wide berth, due to some popular spooky stories associated with the fort and town. Authorities have told visitors not to enter the ruined city after dusk. It is said that a wicked sorcerer cursed the city after being spurned by a princess. The 17th-century city was soon destroyed by an advancing army, leaving only its temples intact, and has been uninhabited ever since. Visitors say that birds and wildlife fall silent as the spirit of the sorcerer approaches at night, and nobody has ever tried to spend the night there. Just too spooky to take that chance.

Whether or not you give credence to the idea of ghosts, it is difficult to deny that places like this have a certain ‘feel’ to them which makes you want to get out as soon as possible. Overactive imagination, or subconscious warning? You be the judge.

The Tower of London

The Tower of London, one of the most famous and well-preserved historical buildings in the world, may also be one of the most haunted. This is due, no doubt, to the scores of executions, murders and tortures that have taken place within its walls over the last 1,000 years. Dozens upon dozens of ghost sightings have been reported in and around the Tower. One of the wives of Henry VIII, beheaded in the Tower in 1536. Her ghost has been seen on many occasions, sometimes carrying her head, on Tower Green and in the Tower Chapel Royal.

Other ghosts include those of Henry VI, Thomas Becket and Sir Walter Raleigh. One of the most gruesome ghost stories describes the death of the Countess of Salisbury. According to one account, “the Countess was sentenced to death in 1541 following her alleged involvement in criminal activities — although it is now widely believed that she was probably innocent. After being sent struggling to the scaffold, she ran from the block and was pursued until she was hacked to death by the axe man.” Her execution ceremony has been seen re-enacted by spirits on Tower Green.

Aokigahara Suicide Forest – Base of Mt. Fuji, Japan

The dense Aokigahara forest was a popular suicide destination even before Wataru Tsurumi’s 1993 bestseller ‘The Complete Manual of Suicide’ listed it as an ideal place to die. Suicides here were so prevalent that in the 1970s annual sweeps were instituted by the government to remove the bodies — most of which were found in various stages of decay, hanging from trees in homemade nooses. With approximately 70-100 bodies recovered here each year, it is shockingly likely that the sounds of wailing heard through the trees might be from actual living people committing suicide, but many believe the forest is cursed by the tortured souls of those who died here.

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

Castle dungeons, especially ones with a 900-year history, are expected to have seen some rough times. The Castle is reputed to be one of the most haunted spots in Scotland. And Edinburgh itself has been called the most haunted city in all of Europe. The dungeons at Edinburgh Castle held a wide variety of kooky personalities, including Lady Janet Douglas, an accused witch who was later burned at the stake, along with around 300 other women over the castle’s history, and Duke Alexander Stewart of Albany, who escaped by killing his guards and burning their bodies.On various occasions, visitors to the castle have reported a phantom piper, a headless drummer, the spirits of French prisoners from the Seven Years War, – and even the ghost of a dog wandering in the grounds’ dog cemetery.

Stanley Hotel, Colorado

Many of us remember the superb horror film The Shining, based on the novel by Stephen King. The book was inspired by a stay at the Stanley in Estes Park, Colorado. Assigned Room 217, King reportedly heard ghost children playing in the hallway. Many have experienced paranormal activity here, but these real-life ghosts seem harmless. Many spirits are said to haunt the place, while guests and employees claim to have heard faint music coming from the ballroom and seen the piano keys moving. Often, the sound of children playing in the halls of the Stanley can be heard, even when no children are present.

Chillingham Castle, England

Chillingham Castle in Northumberland is a hotbed of activity and has always gained a reputation for being very haunted. Many believe Chillingham Castle to be the most haunted location in the Great Britain. What also adds up to the appeal is the castles medieval architecture, the sheer beauty of this historical masterpiece and the more sinister side of the authentic torture chamber, complete with stretching rack and Iron Maiden. Not only the did the Castle provide shelter for the English soldiers, it was also used to imprison Scottish rebels. One priest called it, an embodiment of evil. This Castle is of course a perfect location for overnight ghost hunting and weekend events.

The Castle will be Open from Good Friday 29 March 2013 until 1 November 2013. Closed every Saturday Except Easter Saturday.

Loftus Hall, Wexford, Ireland

 The current Loftus Hall is reopened to the general public for the first time in almost twenty years on Friday the thirteenth of July, 2012.

The ‘House of Death’, Manhattan

The ‘House of Death’ is located at 14 West 10^th Street, in Manhattan, New York. This simple brownstone is often considered the Most haunted place in Manhattan, as a variety of spirits have appeared in the building’s stairwells, apparently including that of a former inhabitant — Mark Twain!

If you ever get a chance to stay in any of these places overnight, my advice would be — don’t.

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I have been a little silence here lately cos’ I switched off my Internet connection for a couple of days. I was curious, what it would be like to have no internet. It was strange at first, as I was so used to my daily work routine which somehow required Internet. I did not know what to do! So, I wrote down some ideas!

What can we do to get out from struggling, from daily work routines, get organized and feel good? Perhaps……………………………..

Take a rest – Take a walk out to breathe some fresh air and get work a little bit out of your system or even better look at all from aside to rethink your strategy, future goals and things you could change or do to get better what are you working on.

Organize, clean up your workspace – While we are working hard, we are creating mess around us and slowly it’s affecting our work-flow as well. Our environment changes us as well as people around you.

Organize, clean up your desktop – Sounds obvious, but you cannot imagine how much you waste time while searching through numerous folders, necessary file or image, when you could easily organize everything! Clean up desktop, create folders, move files to appropriate directories! Very helpful in daily work-flow!

Create organized schedule – In all rush you sometimes forget things you must do? Create schedule and get used to it, definitely will help to organize your daily workflow and you will feel much better, it’s about organizing your life!

Watch Video Tutorials – Again, if you have video tutorials which you downloaded a while ago, but never got time to learn them! Usually in busy work-flow we forget to learn tools first, we just need to get job done, but if you continue to learn and evolve your skills, you will suddenly discover some more different ways and techniques, how to achieve necessary outcome much faster! It is amazing how much we still don’t know after many years of hard work!

Read Books – I bet you have several books in your bookshelf which you always wanted to read but never got time! Now is a great time to remember about them and use your free time to do what you love to do!

Listen to relaxing music – Get relax, watch movie, listen music – you earned it! Whole life does not consist from rush, struggling from lack of time. Take your breathe slowly and enjoy self-handed free time!

Get out and start to do some sport – We spend a lot of our time in front of computer, but we should not forget about our health – it is more worth than anything! Start to play football, volleyball, swimming, run, do yoga or find out where is the nearest gym from your home! You will definitely feel better each day, I assure you!

Don’t do anything! – Take a break. If you are always running and running you should enjoy something different as well – watch movie, sleep a little bit longer – don’t make it as regular habit though, but from time to time it’s really relaxing!

How do you enjoy and spend your free time, what you do to get out from struggling in your work, and where you find inspiration to keep on doing what  you are doing!?!

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How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You
5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides)

Top 20 healthiest countries in the world are based on Bloomberg Rankings which included health scores and health-risk scores on 145 countries surveyed,  and with populations of at least 1 million. Health scores were based on factors like infant mortality, life expectancy at birth and causes of death. The survey also included the proportion of those with high cholesterol, percentage of underweight kids, and access to sanitation in the country among others.

The formula to determine the country’s rank is subtract the risk score from the health score.

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A newlywed couple had only been married for two weeks.

The husband, although very much in love, couldn’t wait to get out on the town and party with his old buddies.

So, he said to his new wife, “Honey, I’ll be right back… ”

“Where are you going, coochy cooh?” asked the wife.

“I’m going to the bar, pretty face. I’m going to have a beer. ”

The wife said, “You want a beer, my love?”

She opened the door to the refrigerator and showed him 25 different kinds of beer, brands from 12 different countries: Germany, Holland, Japan, China, India, etc.

The husband didn’t know what to do, and the only thing that he could think of saying was, “Yes, loolie loolie…but at the bar…you know…they have frozen glasses…”

He didn’t get to finish the sentence, because the wife interrupted him by saying,

“You want a frozen glass, puppy face?”

She took a huge beer mug out of the freezer, so frozen that she was getting chills just holding it.

The husband, looking a bit pale, said, “Yes, tootsie roll, but at the bar they have those hors d’oeuvres that are really delicious…I won’t be long. I’ll be right back. I promise. OK?”

“You want hors d’oeuvres, poochi pooh?”

She opened the oven and took out 15 dishes of different hors d’oeuvres: chicken wings, pigs in a blanket, mushroom caps, pork strips, etc.

“But sweet honey… At the bar… You know… there’s swearing, dirty words and all that …”

“You want dirty words, Cutie pie?

….”THEN LISTEN UP, DICKHEAD! DRINK YOUR F**KING BEER IN YOUR GOD-DAMN FROZEN MUG AND EAT YOUR MOTHERF**KING SNACKS, BECAUSE YOU AREN’T GOING ANYWHERE! GOT IT, A**HOLE?”

…..And, they lived happily ever after.

You are not alone!

Invest into your marriage “bank account”. You get more out of your marriage if you invest into it. Make a “deposit” each day with kindness, service and encouragement. You will experience a richer marriage as a result.

Surprise your wife with acts of kindness:

• Continue to open doors for her
• Take her car for oil changes, gas fill-ups, and washes

Whether you are newly wed or married for years, busy lives can make going out a challenge, let alone going out with other people. However, making time with your spouse to connect with others is important. Spending time with different types of married couples helps bring new perspective to your marriage and affirms you are not alone in your marital ups and downs.

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Woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She reduced altitude and spotted a man below. She descended a bit more and shouted, ‘Excuse me sir, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don’t know where I am.’

The man below replied, ‘You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.’

‘You must be an engineer,’ said the lady balloonist.

‘I am’, replied the man. ‘How did you know?’

‘Well, answered the balloonist, ‘everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip even more.’

The man below responded, ‘You must be in management.’

‘I am,’ replied the lady balloonist, ‘but, how did you know?’

‘Well,’ said the man, ‘You don’t know where you are, or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air within. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you, to solve your problems, and you are prompt to blame others for your fate and stupid deeds!!!!!

Admitting you are wrong

A good engineer, like a good scientist, must at some point admit that he is wrong. This is very difficult to do — especially for mid- and late-career engineers who are a bit set in their ways. This is, in my opinion, I guess, a pride thing. And many senior engineers have spent their whole careers building up that reputation and pride. But what they may not understand is that it is important, and right, to admit when you are wrong and that act should bolster an engineer’s reputation, not mar it. Only those who would not, or cannot, admit errors who are the bad engineers.

So, do not fall into the same trap.

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Interesting article written by an Indian Economist, especially the last paragraph!

Many points, while debatable, are worth pondering. Here they go…………

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also, Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over 100 billions.

Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billion. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger. But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan , China and even India .

Virtually others save for the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan ‘s stakes in US securities is in trillions.

Result:

The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. So, as the world saves for the US – Its The Americans who spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarterly, which is $2 billion a day, to the US !

A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China , or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US.

The same is the case with India . We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India .

(Then) Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spending, that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US . So US imports more than what it exports year after year.

The result:

The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to do it. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It’s like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop.

(If) the customer will not buy, the shop won’t have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.

Who is America ‘s biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan of course.

Yet it’s Japan which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself, reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend (habits don’t change, even with taxes, do they?). Their traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2 trillions, about three times the Indian GDP. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan , has become its pain.

Hence, what is the lesson?

That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend but be happy, and if need borrow and spend.

Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indian-born economist in the US , told Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, on imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This will put India on a growth curve. This is one of the reason for MNC’s coming down to India , seeing the consumer spending.

‘Saving is sin, and spending is virtue.’

But before you follow this Neo economics, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend!!!

While there are different perspective on the issue but, the points are rather interesting and entertaining. Kudos!!

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