My Science School

The most common password

Do you know the most commonly used email password? 123456! Yes, this was found in 2009, when over 10,000 hotmail passwords were exposed online. Today, however, most websites have several rules to be followed when creating a password.

How many email accounts are there?

There are billions of people worldwide, but not everyone has access to the Internet and emails. So, can you guess how many email accounts are there worldwide? There are over 3.17 billion email accounts worldwide! That’s greater than the population of most countries in the world.

Spam alert!

Call them junk or spam, these malicious emails can be found aplenty in all email accounts. They constitute nearly 55% of all emails received. This explains why you get more spam mails than regular emails in a day.

A mail from space

The first email from space arrived in 1991. The crew if STS-43 Atlantis used AppleLink software on a Macintosh Portable to transmit the message.

Computer or mobile?

With the emergence of smartphones, emails, which were once read only on computers, began following people wherever they went. Today, over 66% of emails are read on mobile devices.

Simpson’s email account was hacked!

Homer Simpson, a famous animated character that features in the show The Simpsons, was caught in a soup when his email account was hacked. A Simpsons writer used to reply to messages in-character from the ID chunkylover53@aol.com. This was until the sheer volume of emails became too high to respond to, in 2009.

Who’s behind the spam?

If you get spam mails, it means it is generated somewhere. Did you know that the United States was once the highest spam generator in the world? It is in close contest with China, which is currently in number one spot. Following these two countries is Russia, at number three.

 

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Qutubuddin Aibak, a ruler of medieval India, was the first ruler of the Delhi Sultanate and also the founder of the Slave dynasty.

He was very well treated by the Qazi and imparted good education, including training in archery and horsemanship in his childhood. However when the master died, his jealous sons, sold Qutubuddin Aibak to a slave merchant.

Qutubuddin Aibak, crowned himself the Sultan of Delhi in 1206, when Muhammad Ghori was killed in the battlefield. After his death when Aibak came to throne he ruled over those places where he was appointed as the local receiver-general of Sultan Ghori. Despite the rebellions by nobles like Taj-ud-din Ildiz and Nasir-ud-din Qubachah, he strengthened the administrative system, which was established by Ghori.

In 1210, Qutb-ud-din Aibak died in an accident while he was playing polo. He fell from the horseback and was severely injured. He was buried in Lahore near the Anarkali bazaar. He was succeeded by Iltutmish, another slave who rose to the level of a Sultan, thus extending the Slave Dynasty.

 

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The construction of the Qutub Minar was started by Qitub-ud-Din Aibak, but he only constructed the basement. The construction of the tower was later taken over by his successor Iltutmish who constructed three more stories. The last two storeys were completed Firoz Shah Tuglak. The different architectural styles from the time of Aibak to Tuglak are clearly visible in the Qutub Minar.

Iltutmish’s eldest son died before he did, and his other sons were incompetent. He gave an excellent education to his daughter Raziyya (Raziyyat al-D?n) and desired that she should succeed him. His wishes were offensive to the administrative Council of Forty, Iltutmish’s personal slaves who served as his advisers. Raziyya did succeed briefly to the throne, but her appointment of an African to an important position was considered insulting to the council, which shortly brought about her downfall. This marked the beginning of the decline of the line of Iltutmish.

 

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The Roman aqueduct was a channel used to transport fresh water to highly populated areas. Aqueducts were amazing feats of engineering given the time period. Though earlier civilizations in Egypt and India also built aqueducts, the Romans improved on the structure and built an extensive and complex network across their territories. Evidence of aqueducts remain in parts of modern-day France, Spain, Greece, North Africa, and Turkey.

Aqueducts required a great deal of planning. They were made from a series of pipes, tunnels, canals, and bridges. Gravity and the natural slope of the land allowed aqueducts to channel water from a freshwater source, such as a lake or spring, to a city. As water flowed into the cities, it was used for drinking, irrigation, and to supply hundreds of public fountains and baths.

The most recognizable feature of Roman aqueducts may be the bridges constructed using rounded stone arches. Some of these can still be seen today traversing European valleys. However, these bridged structures made up only a small portion of the hundreds of kilometers of aqueducts throughout the empire. The capital in Rome alone had around 11 aqueduct systems supplying freshwater from sources as far as 92 km away (57 miles). Despite their age, some aqueducts still function and provide modern-day Rome with water. The Aqua Virgo, an aqueduct constructed by Agrippa in 19 B.C. during Augustus’ reign, still supplies water to Rome’s famous Trevi Fountain in the heart of the city.

 

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Gol Gumbaz, situated in Bijapur district of Karnataka, is the largest dome in India. Gol Gumbaz has a diameter of 124 feet and is the second largest dome in the world, next only to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The dome was built by Muhammad Adil Shah in the year 1656. It has a floor area of 1700 m2 and a height of 51 m. The walls of the structure are 3 m. thick. The dome contains tombs of Muhammad Adil Shah, his two wives, his mistress, his daughter and grandson. Gol Gumbaz is an architectural wonder as it stands unsupported by pillars. The most remarkable feature of Gol Gumbaz is its acoustical system. Even the faintest whisper around the dome echoes several times.

The tomb is a giant cube that is topped with a hemispherical dome. Each storey of the structure has seven arched windows that are crowned by smaller domes. Surrounded by beautiful lush green gardens, the monument is not only Vijayapura's most important tourist spot but also invites visitors from all corners of the world.

 

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The Hagia Sophia, whose name means “holy wisdom,” is a domed monument originally built as a cathedral in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in the sixth century A.D.

It contains two floors centered on a giant nave that has a great dome ceiling, along with smaller domes, towering above.

The story of the construction of the Hagia Sophia began in A.D. 532 when the Nika Riots, a great revolt, hit Constantinople. At the time Emperor Justinian I had been ruler of the empire for five years and had become unpopular. It started in the hippodrome among two chariot racing factions called the blue and green with the riot spreading throughout the city the rioters chanting “Nika,” which means “victory,” and attempting to throw out Justinian by besieging him in his palace.

In 1934, the government of Turkey secularized the Hagia Sophia and turned it into a museum. The Turkish Council of Ministers stated that due “to its historical significance, the conversion of the (Hagia Sophia) mosque, a unique architectural monument of art located in Istanbul, into a museum will please the entire Eastern world and its conversion to a museum will cause humanity to gain a new institution of knowledge.”

 

Picture Credit : Google