MISRA C refers to a set of coding guidelines for the C programming language

MISRA C provides rules and recommendations for writing C code in a structured, consistent, and reliable manner. These guidelines cover various aspects of C programming, including syntax, semantics, and language features, with the aim of reducing potential errors and vulnerabilities in software.

#MAR Activity#scientific article, Solar Eclipse 2017: All You Need To Know About The 'Ring Of Fire'

February 26th 2017, will bear witness a rare solar eclipse. The solar eclipse will be the annular eclipse, during which the moon will get in between the Earth and sun, and a part of the sun's surface will be visible around the moon - resembling a ring. As a result, the event has been named the "Ring Of Fire".

Solar eclipse takes place when the moon and the sun do not orbit in the exact same plane. "The moon blocks the light of the sun's surface very, very precisely you can see all the way down to the roots of the corona, where the atmosphere meets the sun's surface," said NASA scientist Sarah Jaeggli.

Q. What Is A Solar Eclipse?

Ans. The moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical manner; the distance of the moon from our planet is usually around 31,000 miles.

However on February 26, the moon will be 235,009 miles away from the Earth.

Q. How Will the Eclipse Appear?

Ans.Due to an effect known as the "negative shadow", or antumbra, the moon will block most of the sun while only allowing the sides to be visible.

Due to the considerable diameter of the moon under the negative shadow or antumbra, it would be impossible for it to cover the sun totally.

This is the reason why the Ring of Light will be clearly visible around the moon.

Q. What Is Annular Eclipse?

Ans. The name "annular" comes from the Latin word for ring, "annulus." These eclipses are named for their darkest, or maximum, point even if it only lasts less than a second. The characteristic ring of fire is visible from even just one location, the whole eclipse is called an annular solar eclipse.

Q. Where Will The Eclipse Be Visible?

Ans.The Eclipse or the "Ring of Fire" will be seen across the South Pacific Ocean, South America, Africa and the South Atlantic Ocean.

Nations like Argentina, Chile, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia will also get a glimpse of the event. In India, solar eclipse will only be visible in the south.

However, it is South America, along the Southern Shore of the Gulf of Corcovado which is going to witness the initial landfall of the antumbra of the moon.

The west of Chile in the South Pacific Ocean will be experiencing the "greatest duration" of the eclipse. This will last for 1 minute and 22 seconds.

Q. Precautions Taken While Watching Solar Eclipse?

Ans. This eclipse will be a rare event and many would wait eagerly to capture it on their special instruments and telescopes.

However, all those who are planning to witness this eclipse, must ensure that they see it through a pin hole camera or with the help of solar viewing glasses. Watching it with the naked eyes or with simple binoculars, may cause negative impact on the eyes and damage to the optic nerves in the brain.

During any type of solar eclipse, the sun, moon, and Earth line up, allowing the moon to cast its shadow on Earth's surface in a partial or total solar eclipse.

#MAR Activity # Scientific article,Earth’s mantle may be hotter than thought

Temperatures across Earth’s mantle are about 60 degrees Celsius higher than previously thought, a new experiment suggests. Such toasty temperatures would make the mantle runnier than earlier research suggested, a development that could help explain the details of how tectonic plates glide on top of the mantle, geophysicists report in the March 3 Science.

“Scientists have been arguing over the mantle temperature for decades,” says study coauthor Emily Sarafian, a geophysicist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and at MIT. “Scientists will argue over 10 degree changes, so changing it by 60 degrees is quite a large jump.”

The mostly solid mantle sits between Earth’s crust and core and makes up around 84 percent of Earth’s volume. Heat from the mantle fuels volcanic eruptions and drives plate tectonics, but taking the mantle’s temperature is trickier than dropping a thermometer down a hole.

Scientists know from the paths of earthquake waves and from measures of how electrical charge moves through Earth that a boundary in the mantle exists a few dozen kilometers below Earth’s surface. Above that boundary, mantle rock can begin melting on its way up to the surface. By mimicking the extreme conditions in the deep Earth — squeezing and heating bits of mantle that erupt from undersea volcanoes or similar rocks synthesized in the lab — scientist can also determine the melting temperature of mantle rock. Using these two facts, scientists have estimated that temperatures at the boundary depth below Earth’s oceans are around 1314° C to 1464° C when adjusted to surface pressure.

But the presence of water in the collected mantle bits, primarily peridotite rock, which makes up much of the upper mantle, has caused problems for researchers’ calculations. Water can drastically lower the melting point of peridotite, but researchers can’t prevent the water content from changing over time. In previous experiments, scientists tried to completely dry peridotite samples and then manually correct for measured mantle water levels in their calculations. The scientists, however, couldn’t tell for sure if the samples were water-free.

The measurement difficulties stem from the fact that peridotite is a mix of the minerals olivine and pyroxene, and the mineral grains are too small to experiment with individually. Sarafian and colleagues overcame this challenge by inserting spheres of pure olivine large enough to study into synthetic peridotite samples. These spheres exchanged water with the surrounding peridotite until they had the same dampness, and so could be used for water content measurements.

Using this technique, the researchers found that the “dry” peridotite used in previous experiments wasn’t dry at all. In fact, the water content was spot on for the actual wetness of the mantle. “By assuming the samples are dry, then correcting for mantle water content, you’re actually overcorrecting,” Sarafian says.

The new experiment suggests that, if adjusted to surface pressure, the mantle under the eastern Pacific Ocean where two tectonic plates diverge, for example, would be around 1410°, up from 1350°. A hotter mantle is less viscous and more malleable, Sarafian says. Scientists have long been puzzled about some of the specifics of plate tectonics, such as to what extent the mantle resists the movement of the overlying plate. That resistance depends in part on the mix of rock, temperature and how melted the rock is at the boundary between the two layers (SN: 3/7/15, p. 6). This new knowledge could give researchers more accurate information on those details.

The revised temperature is only for the melting boundary in the mantle, so “it’s not the full story,” notes Caltech geologist Paul Asimow, who wrote a perspective on the research in the same issue of Science. He agrees that the team’s work provides a higher and more accurate estimate of that adjusted temperature, but he doesn’t think the researchers should assume temperatures elsewhere in the mantle would be boosted by a similar amount. “I’m not so sure about that,” he says. “We need further testing of mantle temperatures.”

#MAR Activity,MAKAUT#scientific article

 

Top 10 Unexplained Mysteries of The World - Explained

Are you bemused by Bigfoot? Perplexed by Pyramid Power? Confused about crop circles?

Here's my top 10 unexplained mysteries of the world - explained.

1. The Unexplained Mystery of Crop Circles

WHERE? The first crop circle, recorded in 1966, was discovered by an Australian sugar cane farmer who claimed to see a flying saucer spaceship rise up from a swamp before flying away.

WHAT'S THE STORY? Early crop circles were primitive circular patterns of flattened crops, often created in mysterious circumstances overnight, and attributed to aliens. They began at a time when flying saucers were hugely popular in sci-fi literature and movies. Over the decades, crop circles have evolved to be increasingly complex. Today, they appear in the form geometric shapes like the DNA double helix, or fractals like the nautilus shell.

Is this an alien communication?

CROP CIRCLES EXPLAINED. The most compelling aspect of crop circles is their complexity and the speed at which they appear. But they lost this appeal overnight when, in 1991, two men from Southampton, England, admitted they had been creating hoax crop circles for 15 years.

The pair were able to make intricate patterns using planks, rope, hats and wire - and could create a 40-foot circle in 15 minutes. The only reason they came clean was because one of the men was running up considerable mileage on his car and had to convince his wife he wasn't having an affair. He still publicly demonstrates the art today.

TELL ME MORE? Another popularly held belief is that flying saucers leave nitrate deposits at crop circle locations. Sample testing has, indeed, found nitrate in the ground at multiple sites. But far from proving chemical evidence of alien visitation, this is the mark of farmers using nitrate-based fertilizers to grow their crops.

2. The Unexplained Mystery of UFOs

WHERE? The first reported sighting of a UFO came from Texas in 1878, when a local farmer reported seeing a large, dark, circular flying object flying "at wonderful speed".

WHAT'S THE STORY? In the 1950s, the number of reported UFO sightings went through the roof. The most common kind were flying saucers, described to have awesome maneuvering capabilities beyond any man-made aircraft.

How many UFOs are in this picture?

UFOs EXPLAINED. The acronym UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object, so in the sense that these flying objects are unidentified by the viewer, UFOs are very real. However, countless UFO sightings can be later identified as dust on the camera lens, airplanes, helicopters, weather balloons, comets, meteors and even planets that can be seen with the naked eye.

TELL ME MORE? Today, there appears to be some pretty astounding video and photo evidence of alien spacecraft. Of course, there's also the movie Independence Day. Hoaxes are the best explanation for computer-generated images of UFOs.

What about alien abduction? See the extraordinary effects of sleep paralysis.

3. The Unexplained Mystery of The Out of Body Experience

WHERE? For thousands of years, countless individuals from cultures around the world have reported what we now term as out of body experiences. Because it feels so real, it's interpreted as a literal separation of a mind or soul from the physical body.

WHAT'S THE STORY? Such an event appears to be strong evidence for a spirit world, afterlife, and even alternate dimensions in which other intelligent beings exist. Could the OBE really prove the existence of life after death?

Chances are you've had an out of body experience before...

OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES EXPLAINED. As a lucid dreamer I'm familiar with the out-of-body state. It all takes place inside the grand theater of your mind. Just practising a Wake Initiated Lucid Dream can induce an OBE, which exists on a spectrum of sleep-wake borderland experiences, near sleep paralysis.

Instead of projecting your awareness into a fanciful dreamworld (as in a WILD) you find yourself aware of the sleep paralysis which prevents you from acting our your dreams. You're in a replica of your bedroom, floating above your "body". This is spurred by diminishing bodily sensations as you fall asleep physically.

TELL ME MORE? So convinced that the experience is real, out of body explorers have long tried to prove its validity by trying to obtain data from faraway locations. Unfortunately nothing definitive has emerged under the necessary scientific conditions to lend credence to the true OBE state.

4. The Unexplained Mystery of Pyramid Power

WHERE? The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt really are something special. We still don't really know how the Egyptians built the largest pyramid of all, known as the Great Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu), some 5,000 years ago. Remember, this was even before the invention of the wheel.

The Pyramid of Cheops is the size of a 40-storey building and covers an area big enough to fit 10 football fields in it. More than 2 million stone blocks were used to make the pyramid, each weighing 2-5 tons and cut from a distant limestone quarry on the other side of the Nile. Experts reckon it took 400,000 men some 20 years to complete.

WHAT'S THE STORY? Engineering feats aside, these structures are claimed by some to possess the unexplained phenomenon of Pyramid Power. In the 1940s, a Czech radio engineer named Karel Drbal claimed that small pyramids of the same relative dimensions as the Great Pyramid (on a 1:1,000 scale) could sharpen razor blades. His explanation was that the pyramid shape focuses cosmic energy when precisely aligned on the north-south axis, which can renew the crystalline structure of steel.

Does the pyramid shape tap into supernatural cosmic powers?

PYRAMID POWER EXPLAINED. Despite the claims of Drbal and others, there is no scientific evidence that Pyramid Power exists. It is a cut and dry myth, presumably driven by the compelling nature of pyramids and their ancient, unexplained origins.

But as the Skeptic's Dictionary enthusiastically points out: "That almost anything in the universe can be found to have interesting mathematical proportions or be related to several interesting mathematical formulae is of little interest to pyramidiots."

TELL ME MORE? As the neurologist Terence Hines wrote: "Pyramid Power became quite a craze in the world of pseudoscience for a brief time in the mid-1970s. The idea was that the pyramidal shape itself was magical and filled with a mysterious energy and power."

"Pyramid Power claims have actually been tested. In 1973, Alter and Simmons showed that pyramid-shaped containers were no more effective than any other shape at preserving organic matter (flowers or meat) placed in them. Nor did putting dull razor blades in a pyramid-shaped holder restore them to sharpness."

5. The Unexplained Mystery of The Belmez Faces

WHERE? In 1971, in the small Spanish village of Belmez, Maria Pereira claimed a human face spontaneously appeared on her cement kitchen floor. It wasn't long before she destroyed the floor and replaced it - and a new face promptly appeared.

WHAT'S THE STORY? More and more faces continued to appear on the floor of Pereira's kitchen, attracting thousands of visitors every day. Some were male, some female, some large, and some small. In time, she discovered that the house, built around 1830, apparently stood above a graveyard used by the Romans, Spanish Muslims and then Medieval Christians.

Paranormal fans suggest that the faces were manifested on the floor by telekinesis. This notion was based on claim that the expressions on their faces used to change with the mood of Maria Pereira.

THE BELMEZ FACES EXPLAINED. For a long time, skeptics suspected that Maria Pereira painted the faces herself. But this didn't really add up - because she never benefited financially from all the attention. She lived a simple life in that same house and eventually died in 2004.

TELL ME MORE? It wasn't until recently that technology could explain this mystery. Scientific analysis of the molecular changes in the whitewash proved that some fakery was involved. Many now believe that the paintings were actually created by Maria's mischievous son, Diego Pereira, who dedicated years to spooking his long-suffering mother.

6. The Unexplained Mystery of The Mayan Prophecy

WHERE? According to some, the Mayan prophecy states that the entire world as we know it will end on December 21, 2012.

WHAT'S THE STORY? The prophecy is based on the idea that when the ancient Mayans plotted our position in the Milky Way, they created an astrological calendar. They predicted that at the Winter Solstice in 2012, the Earth would pass into a new astrological phase. New Agers interpreted this as news that something dramatic would happen - namely, a global Apocalypse, or end of times, Biblical style.

Are we dead yet?

THE MAYAN PROPHECY EXPLAINED. Mayan scholars report that there is no evidence to show that the Mayans ever made any kind of doomsday prophecy. Calendars keep track of the passage of time; they do not predict the future. The Mayan calendar had to end somewhere. Not only does it end, but it begins again in a new cycle, just as your calendar ends on December 31 and begins again on January 1.

TELL ME MORE? This is not a new phenomena: as landmark dates draw near, end-of-the-world theories creep out of the woodwork with astonishing popularity. People love this Armageddon stuff.

Unfortunately for fans of the Mayan Prophecy, there is no evidence to support the idea that the alignment of planets in relation to distant star constellations viewed from our Earthly perspective has anything to do with life on Earth. It's about as scientifically reliable as reading your horoscope.

7. The Unexplained Mystery of Stonehenge

WHERE? Stonehenge is a legendary neolithic monument made using stones transported to the Wiltshire countryside from Wales and built for unknown purpose.

WHAT'S THE STORY? Stonehenge is truly one of the great unexplained mysteries of the world. It's no hoax - estimated to be more than 5,000 years old - and is probably the most important prehistoric monument in the whole of Britain.

How - and why - was Stonehenge created?

STONEHENGE EXPLAINED. For thousands of years, Stonehenge has stood silently, giving away few clues as to the meaning of its existence.

However, excavations have revealed that Stonehenge was built in four stages:

1. In 3100 BC, a series of holes were dug for religious ceremony.
2. More than 1,000 years later, the most dramatic stage of building took place. Huge bluestones from mountains in Wales were lugged more than 240 miles to the Stonehenge site. (Why would anyone do this in the age before the wheel? And how would they accomplish such a feat? These remain true unexplained mysteries, because it really wouldn't have been hard to find rocks closer nearby.) The stones were then set up to form an incomplete double circle, aligned perfectly with the midsummer sunrise.
3. The third stage, in 2000 BC, saw the arrival of more stones, transported by land from the Marlborough Downs some 25 miles away.
4. Finally, after another 500 years and numerous generations had passed, someone felt the need to rearrange the massive Welsh bluestones into the familiar horseshoe and circle we see today.

TELL ME MORE? Actually I can't. One of the great unexplained mysteries of ancient man, the meaning of Stonehenge is still not clear today. Was it a temple, a burial ground, an observatory, or an ancient calendar? We may never know.

8. The Unexplained Mystery of Bigfoot

He's big. He's hairy. And he's starred in his own TV show.

WHERE? Bigfoot is famous for spooking the bejesus out of hikers and hunters in North America. Meanwhile, people living in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet talk of a giant humanoid creature know as the Yeti.

WHAT'S THE STORY? Bigfoot has been described as an intelligent ape-like creature living in the wild, some 6 to 10 feet tall and weighing more than 500 pounds. Witnesses claim he has large eyes, a heavy brow ridge and a crested head like a male gorilla. His alleged footprints are 24 inches long.

Bigfoot: fact or fiction?

BIGFOOT EXPLAINED. Bigfoot - also known as Sasquatch, Yowie, and many dozens more names depending on your culture - is most likely the result of folklore, misidentification and a whole lot of hoaxes.

The most famous footage of Bigfoot at Bluff Creek, California, was revealed to be a hoax. Some 35 years after the footage was shot, Bob Heironimus explained to the Washington Post how he wore an ape costume for the filming.

TELL ME MORE? There's also a lack of physical evidence to support the existence of a Bigfoot population. The breeding population of such an animal would have to be so large that we would be able to monitor and observe Bigfoot (Bigfeet?) in the wild. Not to mention all the fecal matter, hair, footprints, corpses and skeletons that are absent from any scientific record.

9. The Unexplained Mystery of The Loch Ness Monster

WHERE? The Loch Ness Monster is claimed to be a prehistoric creature that inhabits the Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. As lake monsters go, Scotland has tales of a fair few, with Nessie gaining the most popularity of all on the back of anecdotal evidence.

WHAT'S THE STORY? Nessie first hit the headlines in 1933 when a story was published in the Inverness Courier. The report quoted a Londoner who had visited a few weeks earlier as seeing: "a most extraordinary form of animal... the nearest approach to a dragon or prehistoric animal that I have ever seen in my life."

After that, more sightings were reported and this unexplained phenomena hit international headlines. That same year, one motorcyclist claimed to nearly hit Nessie late one night as it lumbered across the road and slid back into the loch. Soon, apparent photos of the Loch Ness Monster were published.

Years later, digital enhancement of the footage revealed what seemed to be the rear body, flippers, and two more humps of a plesiosaur-like body. The technician said: "Before I saw the film, I thought the Loch Ness Monster was a load of rubbish. Having done the enhancement, I'm not so sure."

Those waves look mighty... small?

THE LOCH NESS MONSTER EXPLAINED. There's no doubt that the story of Nessie has drawn huge tourist interest to the famed Loch Ness. While some people believe the monster is a living plesiosaur, New Scientist points out that such a creature could not physically lift its head up out of the water like the photos and anecdotes suggest.

TELL ME MORE? The most compelling evidence of its non-existence is that the loch is a mere 10,000 years old - and was frozen solid for about 20,000 years before that. For a prehistoric monster claimed to be millions of years old, the numbers just don't add up.

10. The Unexplained Mystery of The Bermuda Triangle

WHERE? The Bermuda Triangle is held responsible for the disappearance of countless airplanes and boats in the ocean between Florida, San Juan, and Bermuda. This area is one of the most heavily sailed shipping lanes in the world, with vessels crossing through daily for ports in the Americas, Europe and the Caribbean Islands.

WHAT'S THE STORY? Over the years, there have been a number of disappearances that happened in mysterious circumstances, which some people claim fall beyond the possibilities of human error, equipment failure or natural disasters. Paranormal fans talk of a suspension of the laws of physics.

The first unexplained event occurred in the 1950s when the story of Flight 19 came to light, detailing a group of five US Navy bombers on a training mission. The flight leader was reported to have said: "We are entering white water, nothing seems right. We don't know where we are, the water is green, no white." It was also claimed that Navy officials said the planes "flew off to Mars".

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE EXPLAINED. Is this part of the Earth haunted? Is it a portal to another dimension? Should we be freaked out?

Actually, no. If you take any other patch of ocean with comparable sea and air traffic, the Bermuda Triangle is responsible for no more disappearances than any other.

Phew. Now we can all go vacation in the Caribbean in peace.

WikiLeaks publishes thousands of what it says are CIA documents

PARIS: WikiLeaks on Tuesday published thousands of documents purportedly taken from the Central Intelligence Agency's Center for Cyber Intelligence, a dramatic release that appears to provide an eye-opening look at the intimate details of America's cyber espionage toolkit.

The dump could not immediately be authenticated by The Associated Press and the CIA declined to comment, but WikiLeaks has a long track record of releasing top secret government documents. Experts who've started to sift through the material said it appeared legitimate and that the release was almost certain to shake the CIA.

"There's no question that there's a fire drill going on right now," said Jake Williams, a security expert with Augusta, Georgia-based Rendition Infosec. "It wouldn't surprise me that there are people changing careers — and ending careers — as we speak."

If it did prove legitimate, the dump would represent yet another catastrophic breach for the US intelligence community at the hands of WikiLeaks and its allies, which have repeatedly humbled Washington with the mass release of classified material, including hundreds of thousands of documents from the State Department and the Pentagon.

WikiLeaks, which had been dropping cryptic hints about the release for a month, said in a lengthy statement that the CIA had "recently" lost control of a massive arsenal of CIA hacking tools as well as associated documentation. The radical transparency organization said that "the archive appears to have been circulated among former US government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner'' and that one of them "provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive."