The Origin Of Everyday Punctuation Marks!

 

           The Origin Of Everyday Punctuation Marks

Question Mark

Origin: When early scholars wrote in Latin, they would place the word questio – meaning "question" – at the end of a sentence to indicate a query. To conserve valuable space, writing it was soon shortened to qo, which caused another problem – readers might mistake it for the ending of a word. So they squashed the letters into a symbol: a lowercased q on top of an o. Over time the o shrank to a dot and the q to a squiggle, giving us our current question mark.

Exclamation Point

Origin: Like the question mark, the exclamation point was invented by stacking letters. The mark comes from the Latin word io, meaning "exclamation of joy." Written vertically, with the i above the o, it forms the exclamation point we use today.

 

Equal Sign

Origin: Invented by English mathematician Robert Recorde in 1557, with this rationale: "I will settle as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or Gmowe [i.e., twin] lines of one length, thus : , bicause noe 2 thynges, can be more equalle." His equal signs were about five times as long as the current ones, and it took more than a century for his sign to be accepted over its rival: a strange curly symbol invented by Descartes.

Ampersand

Origin: This symbol is stylized et, Latin for "and." Although it was invented by the Roman scribe Marcus Tullius Tiro in the first century B.C., it didn’t get its strange name until centuries later. In the early 1800s, schoolchildren learned this symbol as the 27th letter of the alphabet: X, Y, Z, &. But the symbol had no name. So, they ended their ABCs with "and, per se, and" meaning "&, which means ‘and.’" This phrase was slurred into one garbled word that eventually caught on with everyone: ampersand.

Octothorp

Origin: The odd name for this ancient sign for numbering derives from thorpe, the Old Norse word for a village or farm that is often seen in British placenames. The symbol was originally used in mapmaking, representing a village surrounded by eight fields, so it was named the octothorp.

Dollar Sign

Origin: When the U.S. government begin issuing its own money in 1794, it used the common world currency – the peso – also called the Spanish dollar. The first American silver dollars were identical to Spanish pesos in weight and value, so they took the same written abbreviations: Ps. That evolved into a P with an s written right on top of it, and when people began to omit the circular part of the p, the sign simply became an S with a vertical line through it.

Olympic Rings

Origin: Designed in 1913 by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the five rings represent the five regions of the world that participated in the Olympics: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. While the individual rings do not symbolize any single continent, the five colors – red, blue, green, yellow, and black – were chosen because at least one of them is found on the flag of every nation. The plain white background is symbolic of peace.

"The Symbol"

Origin: Okay, so we’re running out of symbols, but this is a great pop culture story: In 1993, Prince’s dissatisfaction with his record label, Warner Bros., finally reached its peak. Despite his superstar status and $100 million contract, the Purple One didn’t feel he had enough creative control over his music. So "in protest," Prince announced that Prince would never perform for Warner Bros. again – this unpronounceable symbol would instead.

The symbol for the Artist Formerly Known as Prince combined three ancient symbols: the male symbol, the female symbol, and the alchemy symbol for soapstone, which was supposed to reflect his artistic genius. Prince retired the symbol when his contract with Warner Bros. ran out in 2000. Today, he is again Prince.

Definition of Halal Food

Halal is an Arabic word meaning "lawful" or "permitted," but it is generally used in reference to food that fulfills Muslim dietary rules.

It is similar to the Hebrew word "kosher," which references food that is permissible to eat according to Jewish dietary standards.

Definitions

1.  In Arabic, the opposite of "halal" is "haram." Most food falls into either the halal or haram categories, but there are certain items, such as processed or man-made foods, that are called "mashbooh," or "doubtful."

Further research is needed before classifying them as halal or haram.
An important distinction when it comes to using the word "halal"
Halal is that it does not always refer to food. In Arabic,
anything in accordance with the Sharia is halal.
However, outside the Arab world, including by non-Arab Muslims,
the term is used almost entirely as it relates to food.
In fact, in many places it has an even narrower definition,
referring only to meat that is permitted under Islamic law.

Halal and Haram Examples

2.  Natural fruits, vegetables, juices, fish,
and natural ingredients such as sugar and honey are halal. 

For meat, the animal must be slaughtered by a method called "dhabiha."
Foods that are definitely haram include
all products from pigs; meat from improperly slaughtered animals;
alcohol and intoxicants; carnivorous animals; birds of prey;
land animals without external ears (snakes and reptiles for example);
blood and blood by-products.

Foods that are mashbooh include gelatin, and enzymes
and emulsifiers of unknown origin.

 

Dhabiha

1. 
Dhabiha, like the kosher "schechting, " is a swift incision made with
a sharp knife on the animal's neck, cutting both the jugular vein
and carotid artery. The spinal cord must remain intact.
Many Muslims do, in fact, consider kosher meat halal,
though stricter adherents do not. Orthodox Jews,
however, do not consider halal meat as kosher, because
kosher schechting does have other requirements.

 

Forbbiden Things

1. 
The Sharia forbids the eating of pork; the meat from birds of prey
and land-based carnivores; the meat from animals
that were killed by strangulation or beating;
the meat from animals from a variety of named sources
that effectively precludes scavenging a carcass; and blood.
The latter might seem morbid, but many medieval recipes
were efficient about getting nutrients from an animal,
and used blood as an ingredient.

Also, any animal killed without the act being in the name of God
are also not halal. Alcohol is also expressly forbidden.

 

What is Permitted?

1.  It is guessed that 70 percent of Muslims live up to the halal standards.
This permits poultry, water foul, beef and the flesh of many other
herbivores with cloven feet, assuming that all of it has been killed
and butchered correctly. Fish are also on the menu,
with there being no special requirements for their preparation.
All shellfish are also halal.

Intel Introduces Core i7, Xeon 3400 and First Core i5 Processors

Intel Corporation introduced several high-performance desktop and server processors today, bringing the next level of integration and intelligence to computers. The new Intel Core™ i5 processor family, two new Intel Core™ i7 processors and the Intel® Xeon processor 3400 series bring Intel's latest Nehalem microarchitecture to mainstream desktop and entry server markets.

Formerly codenamed "Lynnfield," these new chips are based on Intel's award-winning Nehalem microarchitecture and are designed for consumers who need top-notch performance for digital media, productivity, gaming and other demanding applications. These processors, along with the new Intel P55 express chipset, are available at select partners in Pakistan. All processors are lead- and halogen-free1 and feature Intel® exclusive Turbo Boost Technology. The top-of-the-line Core i7 processors also support Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology. Combined, these features give computer users absolute "intelligent" performance when necessary and optimum power-efficiency when the computer is lightly loaded.

The new Core i7 and i5 processors are the first Intel processors to integrate both a 16-lane PCI Express 2 graphics port and two-channel memory controller, enabling all input/output and manageability functions to be handled by the single-chip Intel P55 Express Chipset. Previous Intel chipsets required two separate chips. A new Direct Media Interface (DMI) connects between the processor and chipset. The chipset supports 8 PCI Express 2.0 x1 Ports (2.5GT/s) for flexible device support. Dual graphics cards are supported in a "2×8" configuration. The chipset also supports 6 SATA 3 Gb/s Ports with Intel® Matrix Storage Technology providing RAID levels 0/1/5/10. Up to 14 USB 2.0 Ports can be supported with the chipset's integrated USB 2.0 Rate Matching Hub, along with Intel® High Definition Audio for premium digital sound. The new processors are the first to be supported by the new Land Grid Array (LGA) 1156 package and socket technology.

Small businesses requiring 24/7 operation and educators now have more reasons than ever to buy a purpose-built server with Intel's new Xeon processors and Intel® 3400 and 3420 chipsets. These new products improve small business productivity by running email, file, print and dynamic Web serving tasks more efficiently. They also improve education by enabling dependable classroom collaboration and making school administrative services more productive. Servers based on Xeon 3400 processors provide more dependability over desktop systems through differentiated features such as Error Correcting Code memory and RAID 0/1/5/10 for server operating systems. They are designed to help small businesses grow by enabling up to 64 percent more sale transactions and up to 56 percent faster business response time. This improvement is enabled with Intel's Nehalem microarchitecture and a 4x improvement in memory capacity (32 GB). For more information on these products, please visit www.intel.com/xeon.

Intel Corporation introduced several high-performance desktop and server processors, bringing the next level of integration and intelligence to computers. The new Intel Core i5 processor family, two new Intel Core i7 processors and the Intel Xeon processor 3400 series bring Intel's latest Nehalem micro-architecture to mainstream desktop and entry server markets.

Formerly codenamed "Lynnfield," these new chips are based on Intel's award-winning Nehalem micro-architecture and are designed for consumers who need top-notch performance for digital media, productivity, gaming and other demanding applications. These processors, along with the new Intel P55 express chipset, are available at select partners in Pakistan.

All processors are lead and halogen free and feature Intel exclusive Turbo Boost Technology. The top-of-the-line Core i7 processors also support Intel Hyper-Threading Technology. Combined, these features give computer users absolute "intelligent" performance when necessary and optimum power efficiency when the computer is lightly loaded.

The new Core i7 and i5 processors are the first Intel processors to integrate both a 16-lane PCI Express 2 graphics port and two-channel memory controller, enabling all input/output and manageability functions to be handled by the single-chip Intel P55 Express Chipset. Previous Intel chipsets required two separate chips. A new Direct Media Interface (DMI) connects between the processor and chipset.

The chipset supports 8 PCI Express 2.0 x1 Ports (2.5GT/s) for flexible device support. Dual graphics cards are supported in a "2×8" configuration. The chipset also supports 6 SATA 3 Gb/s Ports with Intel Matrix Storage Technology providing RAID levels 0/1/5/10. Up to 14 USB 2.0 Ports can be supported with the chipset's integrated USB 2.0 Rate Matching Hub, along with Intel High Definition Audio for premium digital sound. The new processors are the first to be supported by the new Land Grid Array (LGA) 1156 package and socket technology.

Small businesses requiring 24/7 operation and educators now have more reasons than ever to buy a purpose-built server with Intel's new Xeon processors and Intel 3400 and 3420 chipsets. These new products improve small business productivity by running email, file, print and dynamic Web serving tasks more efficiently. They also improve education by enabling dependable classroom collaboration and making school administrative services more productive.

Servers based on Xeon 3400 processors provide more dependability over desktop systems through differentiated features such as Error Correcting Code memory and RAID 0/1/5/10 for server operating systems. They are designed to help small businesses grow by enabling up to 64 percent more sale transactions and up to 56 percent faster business response time. This improvement is enabled with Intel's Nehalem microarchitecture and a 4x improvement in memory capacity (32 GB).

HEALTH TIPS

 

HEALTH TIPS

• To avoid diseases like hepatitis and Typhoid, eat 5 basil leaves everyday.
• For tooth ache, keep a clove on the affected area.
• You will get a great relief from menstrual pain , if you have a gooseberry daily.
• Boil the leaf of Malabar nut, squeeze its juice and add egg white. It subsides cough.
• Eat the powder of dried ginger and cumin with sugar for relief from cough.
• Have the mixture of mustard paste and honey for good relief from cough.
• For a good relief from cough, mix equal quantities of basil juice, honey and ajwain juice and drink on an empty stomach.
• Chew some cumin and sugar for relief from stomach pain.
• Have a mixture of lemon juice and honey when you are suffering from cold.
• If you have bad breath, drink at least five glasses of water in the morning.
• Stop nose bleeds by putting a few drops of pomegranate juice into your nostrils.
• For nagging cough and chest congestion, boil 3 cups of water with 2 fresh betel leaves and 4 crushed peppercorns, till the water is reduced to half. Strain and drink every morning and night with a teaspoon of honey.
• For relief from toothache.. Take two basil leaves, a grain of salt and a pinch of pepper powder and press against the affected tooth.
• For minor rashes on the skin.. add few basil leaves in your bathing water before you bathe.
• For fever and cough of children, give some honey mixed with water.
• The juice of carrot and tomato, mixed with a little honey is good tonic for children.
• A teaspoon of the powdered pomegranate skin taken with water early in the morning will not only purify the blood but also will serve as a good de- worming agent
• Chewing raw guava leaves is an excellent quick fix for diarrhoea
• If you are suffering from acidity, drink a glass of water with a piece of jaggery dissolved in it, after meals.
• Drink basil water everyday, it helps in keeping throat infection and cough at bay.