Why Queen is the most powerful piece in Chess?

Queen is the most powerful piece in chess. It can move in any direction.

Initially that wasn't the actual case. Queen was one of the weakest piece in the game.

In 15th Century when they played chess in the Royal Court of Spain, Queen Isabella was offended by it.

 She asked her advisers if they thought her that feeble. Their response was to make her the most powerful piece in the game.

In chess, the more powerful a piece is, the more useful they are not just for winning but to be used for sacrifice as a trick.

A queen sacrifice in chess is the deliberate sacrifice of a queen in order to gain a more favorable tactical position.

The Story behind the Invention of Sandwich

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, a British statesman who used to throw big parties often and play gambling which they conduct like a marathon.

It was a custom during  17th Century that they used to play Cards in room and take a break to eat in another room.

He found that his guests were cheating by shuffling the chips and cards during this food break.

So one day he ordered his servants to stuff some meat between the bread so that they can play cards in one hand and eat by using the other hand so that they can play continuously without a break and also can avoid cheating.

This led to the invention of sandwich and which was named after him.

Alternate GPS Technology

The military relies heavily on the Global Positioning System (GPS) for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), but GPS access is easily blocked by methods such as jamming.  In addition, many environments military operates (inside buildings, in urban canyons, under dense foliage, underwater, and underground) have limited or no GPS access.

To solve this challenge, Adaptable Navigation Systems (ANS) seeks to provide GPS-quality Positioning Navigation Timing (PNT) to military users regardless of the operational environment.


 U.S. Department of Defense’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)  is developing Adaptable Navigation Systems (ANS), which could be an alternate Positioning and Navigation Technology in the future

Source: DARPA

500 Kilobytes of Mystery & the discovery of First Digital Weapon

Computer worms  are usually 15-30Kb in size.

Liam O’Murchu, a computer expert analysing viruses and worm for six years at Symantec in the US.

One day when he went to his office at Southern California , he pulled out some files to analyse and to work which he received from his colleague in Europe.

The file was a computer worm which was spreading in Iran and other few countries.

He sat down and started to work on it. He found that the size of the worm was 500 Kilobytes which was very unusual.  Normally a worm size would be 15-30Kb in size.

He also found when he gone through the code that it was very complex and highly challenging.

He managed to decompress the file and the size of the unpacked worm was 1.18mb which was very unusual.

That computer worm was the most dangerous and the first digital weapon which sabotaged PLCs of Nuclear Power plant and its called Stuxnet.

IRNSS -1D, the fourth Navigational Satellite

IRNSS-1D is the fourth navigation satellite of seven satellites Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System(IRNSS) space segment.

After IRNSS-1A, IRNSS-1B  and IRNSS-1C,  IRNSS-1D was launched on March 28,2015.

IRNSS is an independent regional satellite system being developed by India.

IRNSS will provide two types of services:

1 .Standard Positioning Services (SPS)- which will be provided to all the user.
2. Restricted Service (RS) – which is an encrypted service provided only to the authourised users.

Application of IRNSS:
1. Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation
2. Vechile tracking and fleet management
3. Precise Timing
4. Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
5. Disaster Management
6. Integration with mobile phones.
7. Mapping and Geodetic data capture.
8. Visual and voice navigation for drivers.

Source & Courtesy: ISRO

Dewey Decimal System

There are different types of library classification system used in libraries to arrange the books in their shelves in a systematic manner.

The most commonly used library classification is Dewey Decimal system. It was the first library classification to be published in the US in the year 1876. It was developed by an American librarian Melvil Dewey which was named after him.

The System uses numerical schemes for the arrangement of nonfiction books and which is classified into 10 main categories  represented by figure beginning with 000,001, 002,…. 999.

00-099	General References or Works (encyclopedias, biographies, periodicals and journalism)
100-199	Philosophy, psychology and logic
200-299	Religion (men’s faith)
300-399	Social Sciences (how people live and work in society; law, government and institutions)
400-499	Language (English, grammar and dictionaries)
500-599	Natural Science (Mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, paleontology, biology, zoology, and botany)
600-699	Technology and Applied Science (medicine, engineering, agriculture, home economics, radio, TV, and aviation)
700-799	Fine Arts and Recreation (architecture, sculpture, painting, music, photography and recreation)
800-899	Literature (plays, poems, essays, literature in foreign languages)
900-999	History and Biography (history, biography, geography and other related disciplines)

For Example:

532

5 -  Represents Natural Science & Mathematics

3 -  Represents Physics

2-   Represents  Fluid Mechanics.

NATO Phonetic Alphabet: Kilo November Oscar Whiskey India Tango!

In today's Information Technology world, we use our code names to spell a word or a name to the person who is on the other end of phone in order to avoid the confusion and misspelling.

This post is about the code names used in military forces while transmitting messages through the radio.

NATO Phonetic Alphabet is the most commonly used spelling alphabet in military. This system was developed in 1950s and it was used to transmit and receive voice messages through radio to overcome not only the confusion in pronunciation but also to overcome the barrier of different languages.


The code name was assigned to 26 letters of English alphabet as follows:

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

NATO Phonetic Alphabet is also known as International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet. The codes are pronounced as follows:

Picture Courtesy : Wikipedia