Monday, 17 November 2014

[www.keralites.net] The World's Biggest Churches and Cathedrals.

The World's Biggest Churches and Cathedrals.

When you are traveling around the world you most likely want to see some historical and grand monuments, perhaps even some art and a sense of serenity. These 6 grand structures have all of that and more. They are the largest and possibly some of holiest places in the world for Christians. Each of these 6 churches and cathedrals is full of wonder and beauty, and are truly marvelous places to visit regardless of your religion.

St. Peter's Basilica

Located in the heart the Vatican, St. Peter's is considered by many to be the most renowned work of the Renaissance architecture. It was designed by the likes of Donato Bramante, Michelangelo and Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It took over 100 years to complete, from 1506 to 1626, and its full interior size is 15,160 square meters (about 3.75 acres). By Catholic tradition, the basilica is the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. St. Peter's is famous as a place of pilgrimage and also for services given by the Pope, drawing audiences of 15,000 to over 80,000 people.

Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida

Our Lady Aparecida is a prominent Roman Rite Catholic basilica located in Aparecida, Brazil, built upon the ruins of an old wooden chapel from 1745. In 1955, Architect Benedito Calixto began the construction on the new basilica in the form of a Greek Cross, with arms 188 meter (617 ft) in length and 183 meter (600 ft) in width. The dome itself is 70 meter (230 ft) high and the tower reaches a height of 102 meter (335 ft). It has the capacity to hold up to 70,000 people and it has been twice awarded with the Golden Rose, a gold ornament given popes of the Catholic Church as a token of reverence or affection.

The Seville Cathedral

The Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, better known as Seville Cathedral, is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Seville , Spain. It is the largest Gothic cathedral and the third-largest church in the world, that was registered in 1987 by UNESCO as a world heritage site. The Seville Cathedral has fifteen doors on its four facades, each with its unique name and design such as the Door of Baptism (decorated with a scene depicting the baptism of Jesus) and the Door of Saint Michael (featuring sculptures by Pedro Millan representing the birth of Jesus).

The 135 meter (443 ft) long and 100 meter (330 ft) wide cathedral contains 80 chapels as well as another great historical feature, the burial site of Christopher Columbus.

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

The largest Anglican cathedral in the world, the interior of ST. John covers 121,000 sq ft (11,200 sq meters), spanning a length of 601 ft (183.2 meters) and height of 232 ft (70.7 meters). The great west doors that lead to New York's Amsterdam Avenue are probably the most iconic part of the church. They were designed between 1927 and 1931 and show 48 panels describing scenes from the Old and New Testaments, as well as the Apocalypse.

The size and structure of the Cathedral's interior create superb levels of natural acoustics, making St. John a center for concert musical performances in New York. However, the best music in St John's comes from the sounds of prayers and chants, accompanied by a great organ. Currently valued at over eight billion U.S. dollars, it is considered to be a priceless treasure in both the worlds of music and Christianity.

The Milan Cathedral

The Gothic Milan cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete, it is the fifth largest cathedral in the world and the largest in the Italian state territory. A plate from 1386 can still be seen on one of the walls, celebrating the laying of the first stone, but it was only completed in 1965. The interior of the cathedral includes numerous monuments and artworks including the sarcophagus of Archbishop Alberto da Intimiano, three magnificent altars by Pellegrino Pellegrini and one of the nails, reputedly, from the Crucifixion of Christ. The cathedral is considered a "must see" attraction in Milan, with most of the money from visitors being applied to the cathedrals preservation.

The Ulm Minster

This Lutheran church in Ulm Germany isn't one of the biggest in the world but it's worth of a mention since it is the tallest. The top on the spire is 161.5 meter (530 ft) high and the building was the tallest in the world from 1890 to 1901. From the top level at 143 m (469 ft) you can see a wonderful panoramic view of Ulm, and in clear weather, even a view of the Alps. During World War II about 80% of the medieval center of Ulm was destroyed and yet the the church itself was barely damaged. Today it is home to many works or art such as the Dragon gargoyles on the way up the stairs, five large and beautiful stained glass windows and many late medieval sculptures.

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Posted by: Fereshteh Jamshidi <fayjay81@yahoo.com>

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[www.keralites.net] Our Indian Soldiers in Siachen

Our Indian Soldiers in Siachen

Recently our PM visited the soldiers and spent some time with them.
One has to see these pictures to believe the hard outpost and know how tough it is even to survive.
A MUST see /read email as a tribute salute of gratitude and immense respect.

16 Things You Should Know About India's Soldiers Defending Siachen

The highest combat zone on planet earth, Siachen glacier is one place where fewer soldiers have died on the line duty due to enemy fire than because of the harsh weather conditions.

For Indian forces deployed in Siachen, it is less of a challenge to watch out for the frail Pakistani forces but to just stay atop this 76 kilometers long glacier at 5, 400 meters altitude (nearly twice the altitude of Ladakh and Kargil) in itself means you have to defy all of your physical, mental and spiritual limits.

You have to be a super soldier, a hero.

And that's what each one of our soldiers out there at Siachen glacier and on posts at even greater heights really is!

1. In Siachen, you are at the risk of getting a deadly frostbite if your bare skin touches steel (gun trigger, for example) for just over fifteen seconds.

Merely touching the trigger or gun barrel with bare hands can be a mistake big enough to result in loss of toes or fingers.

For those who don't know about frostbite – it's a condition resulting from abrupt exposure to extreme cold that can leave amputation of fingers or toes as the only alternative. In extreme cases, these organs may just fall off.

2. Mountain climbers climb when the weather is at its best; soldiers serve in these treacherous terrains all year round.

Minus 60 degrees temperature and over 5,000 meters altitude; low atmospheric pressure and oxygen, well, you keep asking for more of it. There's 10% of the amount of oxygen available in Siachen than it is in plains.

It's the weather of the kind that us mortals aren't simply designed to bear. Not for long and not without the great risk of losing eyes, hands or legs. But these men – they do it, every day.

Because every inch of this land belongs to India and they shall not cede it to some untrustworthy neighbors who no longer have a higher ground in Siachen.

3. The human body just cannot acclimatize over 5,400 meters

When you stay at that altitude for long, you lose your weight, don't feel like eating, sleep disorders come around in no time and memory loss – that's a common occurrence. Put simply, the body begins to deteriorate. That's what happens at Siachen.

Yes, it is tough. But we cannot climb down because we cannot let the Pakistani Army climb up and take high ground.

4. Speech blurring is as obvious as toothpaste freezing in the tube

It's fiercer than heaviest of gunfire any day. But our soldiers have taken up the challenge nonetheless.

5. Snowstorms in Siachen can last 3 weeks.

Winds here can cross the 100 mph limit in no time. The temperature can drop well below minus 60 degrees.

6. Yearly snowfall in Siachen can be well over 3 dozen feet

When snow storms come around, at least two to three soldiers have to keep using shovels (in snow storm). Else, the military post would become a history; in no time.

7. The 7th Pay commission may consider the unique challenges faced by the army jawans who man the territory all through the year.

They should.

The forward areas in Jammu and Kashmir including Siachen were visited by the 7thPay Commission in October, 2014.

8. Soldiers find ways to entertain themselves when they can.

We are, after all, a cricket crazy nation.

9. Fresh food – that's rare. Very rare. At Siachen, an orange or an apple can freeze to the hardness of a cricket ball in no time.

Rations come out of tin cans.

10. Army pilots literally push their helicopters well beyond their optimal performance, every day!

They drop supplies at forward posts located at an altitude of more than 20 thousand feet.

Army pilots usually have less than a minute for dropping off the supplies at forward posts.

Pakistani army is merely few hundred meters away and so the choppers must fly off before the enemy guns open up.

11. In the last 30 years, 846 soldiers have sacrificed their lives at Siachen.

In case of Siachen, deaths due to extreme climate and beyond-imagination terrain conditions are treated as battle causalities and rightly so.

In last three years alone, 50 Indian soldiers have died in Siachen. These causalities as per the information made available by Defense Minister in Lok Sabha, were due to the very nature of the place our forces are serving. These soldiers sacrificed their lives on the line of duty while combating the floods, avalanches and floods in Siachen.

The Body of Havaldar Gaya Prasad from 15 Rajput Battalion serving in Siachen was found after 18 long years.

12. A War Memorial at the Bank of Nubra River has the names of Indian soldiers who laid their lives in Siachen.

13. Local saying: "The land is so barren and the passes so high that only the best of friends and fiercest of enemies come by.'

14. In Siachen, the Indian Army spends as much as 80% of its time preparing soldiers of deployment.

15. "We do the difficult as a routine. The impossible may take a little longer"

— So reads a plaque at the headquarters of the Indian Army formation responsible for security of the Siachen sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

16. When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today.

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Posted by: prasannam n <iampresanam@yahoo.co.in>

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[www.keralites.net] HydroGel - A New Way to Heal Knees?

HydroGel - A New Way to Heal Knees?

Bad or painful knees are one of the most common causes of pain in the elderly, and can start at quite an early age due to extra stress on the cartilage or due to injury. This damage is rarely healed by the body.

Image: scottchan / freedigitalphotos.net

Part of the reason this damage doesn't heal well is because the cartilage in the knee gets very little blood flow, which body parts need to fix problems on a cellular level. Part of the standard treatment for knee cartilage healing is to make tiny holes in the area and let the blood pour in to encourage a healing process.

There are two problems with this method. The first is that the new tissue rarely replaces all of the damaged tissue, meaning it is never a complete replacement. The second is that the space may fill with scar tissue instead of new cartilage, which isn't really a solution.

But a new method is seeing light recently, as published in the journal of Translational Medicine, scientists, including biomedical engineer Jennifer Elisseeff from Johns Hopkins University. This method proposes the use of a replacement material, a hydrogel with some special properties.

The gel, which looks a lot like jell-o and behaves a lot like it too, is injected into the knee as liquid. However, once it is exposed to UV light, it hardens, providing a sort of scaffold for stem cells to attach to and grow on. The way it is built involves many bindings and criss-crossing fibers, to provide a very strong and stable structure.

Process of the hydrogel knee treatment

To test this, Elisseeff and team tried the method on 15 patients. They poured the liquid hydrogel into the patients' torn cartilage. After that, the surgeons shined the UV light and hardened the polymers in the gel.

The results were very promising, the new cartilage filled 86% of the torn area. This was compared to 3 subjects who were treated in the standard way - for them, only 64% of the torn area was filled.

In addition, the patients who got the hydrogel treatment reported considerably less pain than the control group patients.

At the moment, larger studies are being held testing this method, but results seem promising, says Farshid Guilak, an orthopedic surgeon at Duke University, and adds that with the advance of stem cell treatments, the efficiency of this system will only grow, as we will be able to use the body's own cells to facilitate faster growing of cartilage, and get more people out of pain and on their feet.

Source: Darel S.

Mr.Chandra1510

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Posted by: Chandra Segaran Krishnan Nair <chandra1510@gmail.com>

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