Some examples of how nanotechnology impacts our lives now

A plastic nanocomposite is being used for "step assists" in the GM Safari and Astro Vans. It is scratch-resistant, light-weight, and rust-proof, and generates improvements in strength and reductions in weight, which lead to fuel savings and increased longevity. And in 2001, Toyota started using nanocomposites in a bumper that makes it 60% lighter and twice as resistant to denting and scratching.
Impact: Will likely be used on other GM and Toyota models soon, and in other areas of their vehicles, as well as the other auto manufactures, lowering weight, increasing milage, and creating longer-lasting autos. Likely to impact repair shops (fewer repairs needed) and auto insurance companies (fewer claims). Will also likely soon be seen everywhere weight, weather-proofing, durability, and strength are important factors. Expect NASA, the ESA, and other space-faring organizations to take a serious look, soon, which will eventually result in lower lift costs, which will result in more material being lifted into space. 
Strong and light sounds like the perfect recipe for a golf club, of course, which is why so many golf club manufacturers are now devoting big bucks to nano R&D. Thus far, the only company among the big boys to convert research into tangible products is Wilson, which offers three drivers, a fairway wood, four balls and even a golf bag made using nano-materials. 

Nanocrystals

Examples: "Metal nanocrystals might be incorporated into car bumpers, making the parts stronger, or into aluminum, making it more wear resistant. Metal nanocrystals might be used to produce bearings that last longer than their conventional counterparts, new types of sensors and components for computers and electronic hardware.

Nanocrystals of various metals have been shown to be 100 percent, 200 percent and even as much as 300 percent harder than the same materials in bulk form. Because wear resistance often is dictated by the hardness of a metal, parts made from nanocrystals might last significantly longer than conventional parts." 

Nanocrystals absorb then re-emit the light in a different color -- the size of the nanocrystal (in the Angstrom scale) determines the color.

Six different quantum dot solutions are shown, excited with a long-wave UV lamp.

Quantum dots are molecular-scale optical beacons. Qdot™ nanocrystals behave like molecular LEDs (light emitting diodes) by "lighting up" biological binding events with a broad palette of applied colors. 

Nanostructured Materials

     Example:

 Nanodyne makes a tungsten-carbide-cobalt composite powder (grain size less than 15nm) that is used to make a sintered alloy as hard as diamond, which is in turn used to make cutting tools, drill bits, armor plate, and jet engine parts.
Impact: Every industry that makes parts or components whose properties must include hardness and durability. 

Nanoclays and Nanocomposites

     Example:

 Used in packaging, like beer bottles, as a barrier, allowing for thinner material, with a subsequently lighter weight, and greater shelf-life.
Impact: $480B packaging and $300B plastics industries. Reduced weight means transportation costs decline. Changing from glass and aluminum - think beer and soda bottles - to plastic reduces production costs. Nanoclays help to hold the pressure and carbonation inside the bottle, increasing shelf life. It is estimated that beer in these containers will gain an extra 60 days (from 120 to 180) of shelf life, reducing spoilage, and decreasing overall costs to the end user. Nanocor is one company producing nanoclays and nanocomposites, for a variety of uses, including flame retardants, barrier film (as in juice containers), and bottle barrier (as shown above). "They are not only used to improve existing products, but also are extending their reach into areas formerly dominated by metal, glass and wood."

Nanocatalysts

     Examples:

 China's largest coal company (Shenhua Group) has licensed technology from Hydrocarbon Technologies that will enable it to liquify coal and turn it into gas. The process uses a gel-based nanoscale catalyst, which improves the efficiency and reduces the cost.
Impact: "If the technology lives up to its promise and can economically transform coal into diesel fuel and gasoline, coal-rich countries such as the U.S., China and Germany could depend far less on imported oil. At the same time, acid-rain pollution would be reduced because the liquefaction strips coal of harmful sulfur."

What English Do I Need?

Various traditions of education have always placed an importance on the learning of other languages, though the motives have often varied. Knowing a second or third language was supposed to round out an individual’s personal education, just as knowledge of science or the arts did.  Regardless of any theoretical value, however, there are many practical reasons students of any nation should learn foreign languages. The knowledge of even one more language has distinct effects on an individual.

More than 350 million people speak English as their first language:

That means English is the world's number two language after Chinese (with about one billion speakers).  But English is also the ‘second language’ of perhaps 400 million more people in countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan.  More than sixty countries have English as one of their official languages.  The government, business and universities use it (India).  In total, almost 1,500,000,000 people have some knowledge of English.

Certainly English is the worldwide language of technology and communication.  The majority of the world’s mail is addressed in English.  English is the language of international air controllers, and English is the medium of eighty percent of the information stored in computers around the world.  Scholars from every nation publish in English in order to reach the widest possible audience.

These are the reasons why everyone needs to know English. And we need not only Standard English, but also Conversational English and Internet English.

A standard language is a variety of a language that is socially and culturally predominant and is generally accepted as the most proper form of that language (Millward, 1987).

Standard English is the kind of English that is, on the whole, used by people of education and standing in the community; and it is standard simply because such people use it. We will get along much faster if we can manage to get rid of the mysterious idea of “perfect English.” There isn’t any such thing.

Standard English is generally used in the news media and literature; described in dictionaries and grammars; taught in schools; and taught to non-native speakers.

English is one of the hardest languages, because of the spelling.  People say that the spelling of English is not easy because many English words do not have the same number of sounds and letters. For example, house has four sounds and five letters, different has seven or eight sounds and nine letters, and enough has four sounds and six letters.

George Bernard Shaw thought that it was terrible. He asked what English word could the letters ghoti spell. Answering his own questions, he said that these letters could spell the word fish. How? Sometimes the letters ghare used for an f sound (in words like cough and enough), the letter o for an (i) sound (in a word like women), and the letters ti for the sh sound (in words like nation and station). Ghoti is not a real English word, of course. Shaw created it to show the problems of English spelling (Saitz & Stieglitz, 1997:6).

Another difficult aspect of the language is its punctuation.  

An English professor wrote the words  “Woman without her man is nothing" on the blackboard and directed his students to punctuate it correctly.

The men wrote: “Woman, without her man, is nothing." 

The women wrote: “Woman! Without her, man is nothing."

And the professor (a man) marked all the women's answers wrong.  He claimed that the instructions were to punctuate this sentence (singular).  He refused to acknowledge he had not said that - even when someone played back a tape of the class (Author unknown).

Here is an adapted version of Richard Lederer's introduction to his book "Crazy English: the Ultimate Joy Ride Through Our Language." (Pocket Books, 1989):

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant 

or ham in hamburger;

neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.

So we can come to the conclusion that if you want to be able to know English well, you should learn Standard English.

What the Internet has done is to create a space for language that runs and slips over the boundary of public and private language. The Internet is a giant context that invites informal communication, and there is lots of experimentation going on.  

Then there is the fluency in the chat room, where written and spoken language slur together. Here a correctly spelled word is a sign of the inarticulate, and a clever abbreviation is prized above all else. The basic principles governing the abbreviations are quite simple. Certain words or syllables can be represented by letters or numbers that sound the same but take up less space.

For example, look below. Do you understand what the words in capitals mean? 

WERV U BIN? 

PPL R starting to use SMS abbreviations all the time, OTOH not everyone understands what     BCNU means.

The decoded phrases look like this:

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? 

PEOPLE ARE starting to use SMS abbreviations all the time.  ON THE OTHER HAND, not everyone understands what 'BE SEEING YOU' means.

Many of those abbreviations are rapidly attaining the status of accepted conventions familiar to most users of the ‘language’. It is a method of communication that can be endlessly exploited and developed by individuals or small groups to create a kind of personal language that will remain opaque to the uninitiated.  This will doubtless serve to increase its popularity.

When you are writing an E-mail, all too often you need some sort of trick to eliminate ambiguity. This usually happens in phrases that can be misunderstood or the tone of the conversation you are trying to drive. In usual face-to-face language, these ambiguities are clarified by facial expression: the same word may be an insult or a compliment depending upon whether you say it with a disdainful look or a friendly smile on your face.

To work around this problem, network users have derived a collection of "symbols" that reflect in some way body language.  These symbols, called emoticons, are built using common letters and orthographic signs so that they pass as text through any computer system. To interpret them you must look at them as faces drawn horizontally: for example [ :-) ] would be a smiley face, with the [ : ] being the eyes, the [ - ] the nose and the [ ) ] the smiling mouth.

References 

Farrell, M. (1996), The World of English. Longman. 

Millward, C. (1987) A Biography of the English Language. Thompson International. 

Oreström, B. (1983), Turn-taking in English Conversation. Doctoral Dissertation. Lund University: Sweden.

Saitz R.L. & F.B. Stieglitz (1997), Workout in English. A Reader-Workbook.  Pearson ESL.

Sakamoto N.M. Masterson (1995), 'Conversational Ballgames'. In:  Smalley, R.L. & M.K. Ruetten, Refining Composition Skills: Rhetoric and Grammar for ESL Students, pp181. Heinle.

Xanth, P. (1993), Night Mare. Ballantine Books: New York.

smoking kills

Why quit smoking?

Most people know that smoking can cause lung cancer, but it can also cause many other cancers and illnesses.

Smoking kills around 114,000 people in the UK each year.

Of these deaths, about 42,800 are from smoking-related cancers, 30,600 from cardiovascular disease and 29,100 die slowly from emphysemaand other chronic lung diseases.

How do cigarettes damage health?

Cigarettes contain more than 4000 chemical compounds and at least 400 toxic substances.

When you inhale, a cigarette burns at 700°C at the tip and around 60°C in the core. This heat breaks down the tobacco to produce various toxins.

As a cigarette burns, the residues are concentrated towards the butt.

The products that are most damaging are:

• tar, a carcinogen (substance that causes cancer)
• nicotine is addictive and increases cholesterol levels in your body
• carbon monoxide reduces oxygen in the body
• components of the gas and particulate phases cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).

The damage caused by smoking is influenced by:

• the number of cigarettes smoked
• whether the cigarette has a filter
• how the tobacco has been prepared.

Major diseases caused by smoking

Cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death due to smoking.

Hardening of the arteries is a process that develops over years, when cholesterol and other fats deposit in the arteries, leaving them narrow, blocked or rigid. When the arteries narrow , blood clots are likely to form.

Smoking accelerates the hardening and narrowing process in your arteries: it starts earlier and blood clots are two to four times more likely.

Cardiovasular disease can take many forms depending on which blood vessels are involved, and all of them are more common in people who smoke.

• Coronary thrombosis: a blood clot in the arteries supplying the heart, which can lead to a heart attack. Around 30 per cent are caused by smoking.
• Cerebral thrombosis: the vessels to the brain can become blocked, which can lead to collapse, stroke andparalysis.
• If the kidney arteries are affected, then high blood pressure or kidney failure results.
• Blockage to the vascular supply to the legs may lead to gangrene andamputation.

Smokers tend to develop coronary thrombosis 10 years earlier than non-smokers, and make up 9 out of 10 heart bypass patients.

Cancer

Smokers are more likely to get cancer than non-smokers. This is particularly true of lung cancer, throat cancer and mouth cancer, which hardly ever affect non-smokers.

The link between smoking and lung cancer is clear.

• Ninety percent of lung cancer cases are due to smoking.
• If no-one smoked, lung cancer would be a rare diagnosis - only 0.5 per cent of people who've never touched a cigarette develop lung cancer.
• One in ten moderate smokers and almost one in five heavy smokers (more than 15 cigarettes a day) will die of lung cancer.

The more cigarettes you smoke in a day, and the longer you've smoked, the higher your risk of lung cancer. Similarly, the risk rises the deeper you inhale and the earlier in life you started smoking.

For ex-smokers, it takes approximately 15 years before the risk of lung cancer drops to the same as that of a non-smoker.

If you smoke, the risk of contracting mouth cancer is four times higher than for a non-smoker. Cancer can start in many areas of the mouth, with the most common being on or underneath the tongue, or on the lips.

Alternative Therapies

It is necessary to control your thirst for smoking and keeping yourself relaxed during the process of quitting smoking. Alternative therapies are used to take care of the withdrawal symptoms, and thus eventually you will quit smoking at the end. Meditation, Acupuncture, and Aromatherapy are the famous therapies used to solve withdrawal symptoms.

Counselling

Counselling is usually conducted to boost your will power and give you motivation on what you are trying to do, help you in finding the ways to quit smoking. Counselling might be one on one or group counselling based on your interest and comfort. Many Charitable like Christian rehab, Government, and Private Companies offer such counselling services on smoking, drug rehab and alcohol rehabilitation.Counselling does not stop the smoking habit abruptly but they work on the slowdown of chain smoking of electronic cigarette smoking, normal leave smoking and other such forms into mini e-cig and then cuts off the cravings for cig.

Hypnotherapy

The alternative successful way after smoking aids is hypnotherapy to help quitting smoke. As per all the reports, hypnotherapy is the effective way to help reduce the hunger for cigars. Hypnotherapy deals with eliminating the thoughts about the bad habit completely from the subconscious source of mind and thus you will eventually stop smoking.

Prescription Only Medicine

The medicines that you get from your doctor that helps quit smoking are called prescriptions. You will have to get appointments, make frequent visits, talk about your requirements to your doctor and collect the required medicines. Medicines like herbs are found to effective remedies in quitting fags.

Stop Smoking Aids

There are certain smoking aids like gum, nasal sprays, lozenges, inhalers and nicotine patches that would help you to lessen your hunger or thirst for nicotine. For instance: consider nicotine patch are made to release minute amount of medically approved nicotine on to your bloodstream and thus easing out the nicotine thirst, without having to intake the poisonous gases and harmful tars normally released from cigars. This is one of the simpler way to aid you quit smoking.

Willpower

The state of mind is often referred to as will power and it is always easy to say rather than doing it. By taking an oath to stop smoking you will be taking the first step in giving up smoking. It is necessary that you have faith on yourself and travel along the right path to stop smoking. Will power and Determination is necessary for you to reach the final stage of quit smoking.

The It's vs. Its

It's is a contraction for it is or it has.
Its is a possessive pronoun meaning, more or less, of it or belonging to it.
And there is absolutely, positively, no such word as its'.

A simple test

If you can replace it[']s in your sentence with it is or it has, then your word is it's; otherwise, your word is its.

Another test

Its is the neuter version of his and her. Try plugging her into your sentence where you think its belongs. If the sentence still works grammatically (if not logically) then your word is indeed its.

Examples

It's been good to know you. Contraction: it hasIt's a bird! It's a plane! Contraction: it is
The dodo bird is known for its inability to fly. Possessive pronoun: its inability = the dodo bird's inability.


this is the post for those who want to learn basic english language.
if any response is available then surely i'll keep updating this english section under languages label.