So what if I'm FAT?

Yup, that is exactly what your reaction should be. Why spend endless hours in the gym trying to lose all that precious fat and why withhold your cravings for all the delicious food life has to offer? Hey, you have only one life to live so why live it in constant agony and guilt? Life is full of anxieties and this shouldn't be a part of your list. Besides, being overweight, chubby, plump, stout, heavy, or whatever you choose to call yourself isn't that bad after all. In fact in many ways, you are better off then those so called slim people.

Here's how.
Most of those skinny figured wimps out there, be they models or your envied friend are usually constantly fretting over their meager weight. Do you really believe their stories of their naturally perfect figures? The actuality is they can never enjoy food as you can. Even one full meal is probably made up with hours of exercise or by taking laxatives or by inducing vomit. Chocolate is out of the question and everyday meals are of a measured proportion. Food, the greatest gift life has to offer is either deliberately not relished or they are unable to appreciate it. Wait, there's more.

Do you look into the mirror and feel miserable about yourself? Well don't because I don't think you would like to have your bones jutting out with hollow cheeks and the boyish skimpy look where nothing fits properly. What's so great about looking undernourished? Fat can be very in. In fact, for most of the twentieth century, the ideal female figure was relatively full. Even today many cultures prefer plump, voluptuous women. Africans generally judge heavier women more positively then whites do. In nineteenth century Hawaii, the most overweight women were considered the most attractive.

Even the south Indian film industry prefers heavy actresses. Even beauty pageants for fat people are being held. Now that's food for thought.

In many places fat is associated with a persons economic means. Thus, a person having chubby or fat daughter or son is said to have the money to properly feed them. There are other pros of being fat. People will probably think twice before picking on you. You can be very comfortable to hug and cuddle with and I bet you are always noticed.

Last but not least, it is the inside that counts and not the exterior. Settle your priorities. It is your qualities, your accomplishments and your personality which wins in the long run. Whether you are slim or fat doesn't really matter. A sophisticated look with the right attitude is a great combination. It is very necessary that you love yourself. Think of all the accomplished fat people in this world: former American idol Ruben and Adnan Sami to name a few. Do you have what it takes?

So the next time anyone pesters you about your weight, give a slight knowing smile and remember what you've got that they haven't got.

By Afrina

How do you measure sound?
Before proceeding further a few words about measurement units are in order specifically regarding watts and decibels. Watts, units of power, are useful for helping to select a home or car stereo. On the other hand in studying sound, researchers find it more useful to use decibels. A decibel represents the relative loudness of a sound.

One dB is generally agreed to be the smallest change in sound level that most people can notice, although the precise number ranges from 0.1 dB to 5 dB, depending upon the frequency and the individual set of ears. A normal speaking voice measures about 7 dB, a food blender about 9 dB. If one dog seems to bark twice as loud as another, that's because there can be a 6-dB to 10-dB difference between woofs.

The numbers add up fast. Noise measured at 150 dB causes chest wall vibrations, changes in respiratory rhythm, gagging and visual distortion. A space shuttle taking off generates 150 dB. It is more than loud. It is outright dangerous.

Whenever NASA space shuttles take off a large bath of water comes down the side of the main engine. You might think that it is for cooling but it is actually used to break up the acoustic waves so they don't damage the shuttle.

Who's the loudest?
Studying such loud noises is very important for application such as controlling airport sound control as well as making planes quieter when they fly overhead. Of course, to study such loud noises you cannot always launch a space shuttle. As a result Wyle Laboratories, of El Segundo, Calif., has developed a more compact solution, the WAS 3000. It is a powerful 30,000-watt noise source capable of producing up to 165 dB of sound. Compare this to your basic computer subwoofers that crank out about16 watts. Of course if you are thinkning that you want to hook up your computer or TV to a WAS 3000 I have to point out that technically speaking, the WAS 3000 is a noise generator.

Using a technique called airstream modulation--plus lots of compressed air or nitrogen--it produces pressure fluctuations associated with high-intensity sound. The business end of the device, shown in the photo below, contains two concentric cylinders where pressure applied from the outside forces gas through the various slots, which change size depending on the magnitude and polarity of an electrical input signal from a high-quality amplifier. This process breaks the airstream into "puffs," which become pressure pulses when they are transmitted into the throat of an acoustic horn that is coupled to the WAS 3000 modulator.

Why go to such pains to make a racket?
Ironically, loud noise is the key to making the world a quieter place. One of the most promising ideas for quelling airport sounds is to use giant loudspeakers to create an outdoor version of the noise-cancellation earphones handed out inside the first-class cabin.

It works something like this. A reference microphone is set up in the path of the offending noise such as behind the runway where jets sit while waiting to take off. The signal from the microphone generates a corresponding out-of-phase sound played through two or three powerful loudspeakers that mingles with the sound of the jet. A second microphone, called the error microphone, is placed where noise reduction is required such as the edge of a block of houses near the airport. It picks up the noise that remains after the jet and loudspeaker sounds have mingled. This signal furnishes feedback to the controller, further minimizing the sound level.

"Low-frequency noise is the target since it propagates much farther than higher-frequency noise," says a Wyle spokesman. Controlling it would allow jet maintenance shops to test engines even in the dead of night. "The technology can also be used to mitigate the low-frequency noise generated to the rear of departing aircraft."

Compiled by Gokhra
Source:Popular mechanics

My stars shine down.....

I do not know where to begin, nor do I know where to end. I only know that I have to share this story with someone before it fades away from my memory -- a story of everlasting friendship and eternal love. A story that had touched my innocent heart so many years ago......

Nisha and I were the best of friends. Only to me, she was not just a great friend but something much more. In her, I saw my own reflection and I knew how much here friendship is worth. She was simply wonderful in her own special way that I used to love so much. I believed in her and I confided in her things that I never thought I would be able to share with anyone. Sometimes I used to wonder if Nisha was the very angel that God sent to drive away my lonliness..... and I believed she was. Nisha's friendship was like a rainbow in my azure sky and like stars that gleamed in my night sky. Little did I know that soon the stars are going to shine down.

One monsoon afternoon, I got a call from Nisha's mother in which she gave me a terrible news: Nisha suddenly fell ill the last night and had to be taken to the hospital. She has requested me to go and see her. Immediately, I rushed to the hospital. Inside her cabin, Nisha was lying still on a white hospital bed. There were tubes going in an out from various parts of her body. I fell on my knees and took her hand in mine as I waited impatiently for her to wake up. But she never opened her eyes and before I realised what was happening, I knew she was gone......

Alone, in that dark hospital room, I watched with tears in my eyes as my friend Nisha said her final good-bye to the world.

Life teaches one the strangest of things in the strangest of places and as I sat on the bus heading home from the 'National hospital' that day, I felt as if I had a certain revelation: "In the long run, one never knows what may come his way."

Nisha had walked away from my life just as suddenly as she came into it. But all through the way she has left a thousand memories, ones that I would cherish all my life. But even though Nisha has gone away, she still retains the imprint of all the places she has travelled with me, of all her joys and sorrows, anxieties and ecstasies that she had shared with me. Her death came like the devastating Tsunami that washed away all the colours from my life. For now, I began to see life as have never seen it before.

That premature death made me realize how precious our life is, where, each single moment you live my very well be your last. Nisha's journey to the stars changed the world I knew, forever for me...

By Nusaiba Mahbub

Book review

Are you afraid of the dark?

Well, are you? If you were suddenly widowed, and happened to discover that the death of your dearly beloved spouse was not an accident, and that the killers were now after you, you would be. I know I would.

This is the terrifying situation that Kelly Harris and Diane Stevens suddenly find themselves in, in Sidney Sheldon's 'Are you afraid of the Dark?'

The two women could not be any more different. Kelly is a street-smart supermodel with a dark past. Diane is a painter, a dreamer, who's recently been fighting a court case against a local underworld leader. The only things connecting the women together are their recent widowhood, and that their husbands worked for a global think-tank called the Kingsley Group.

You'd figure that the two would have enough to worry about with their husbands dead and an uncertain future ahead of them. But this is only the beginning of a wild, fast-paced plot, as the women themselves become the target of whoever killed their husbands and find themselves smack in the middle of a deadly conspiracy. Swallowing their natural animosity towards each other, these two vulnerable women must rely on pure intuition and sheer dumb luck to outsmart their quarry, who only happens to be uber-brilliant, completely unethical, and stinking rich.

The writing style isn't like Sheldon's usual, but the plot is gripping and the action a page-turner. Although this particular book lacks the detailed blood, gore, and kinky x-rated action of Sheldon's older masterpieces, this reviewer would still not recommend it for readers under the age of 13.

The books should be available at all the local bookstores. Lorem Ipsum Books, one of the publishers, places the price at $2.96, and you could probably get original paperbacks for around Tk 3-500 at the bookstores. Although you could probably bargain your way to buying it for much less from the street-hawkers, RS at least, won't recommend it.

So keep the lights on and enjoy a good, suspenseful read.

By Sabrina F Ahmad