How is a fire blanket designed to work ?

A fire blanket is a highly flame-resistant blanket that can be used to extinguish a small fire or to wrap around a person in case of a fire.  Fire blankets are made from 2 layers of woven glass fiber fabric and an inner layer of fire retardant film.  They work by cutting off the oxygen supply to the fire.
Fire blankets are often more effective for most people than a fire extinguisher 

when faced with a fire. Fire blankets deprive a small fire of oxygen by smothering it. In order to do this, fire blankets are made from fire resistant materials, such as wool or fiberglass. They may also be chemically treated to increase the fire resistance.

A fire blanket can be used for a couple of different applications.

Smothering the Fire
The first way is to smother the fire by cutting off the oxygen necessary for it to keep burning. The material the fire blanket is made of is important as the blanket must be durable and can't burn. This would not allow the oxygen to transfer to the fuel which would keep the fire burning. Absent this airflow, the fire will simply be smothered in a short amount of time. The blanket will need to remain in place until the fire surface area has completely cooled to prevent the fire from reigniting.

Wrap Up Body Protection
The other most common application for fire blankets is the wrap a human body in to insulate your skin and clothing from the fire. This fire resistant blanket is the best temporary shield you can have for the short time you spend exiting a fire. This blanket will minimize the heat and potential for burn and injury by wrapping your body in it while escaping. It is designed to be large enough to cover the human body as well as work as a standard blanket. The wool blankets are flameproof with a specially treated chemical that prevents it from catching on fire. It should never be used to enter a fire, only to exit and smother a fire. Even though these fire blankets are a key piece to your overall safety plan, they are not commonly sold in stores. You may protect yourself by ordering these essential blankets online at FireSafetySource.com.

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India's 69th Republic Day Celebrated By Google Doodle

Today's Google Doodle celebrates the 69th Republic Day of India. Republic Day is celebrated to mark the day when India formally adopted the constitution and became an independent republic. The main celebration of Republic Day involves a parade in the national capital which starts from the iconic India Gate and carries on along the Rajpath. The parade includes marching contingents, various tableaux, and performances showcasing the different cultures of the country. This year's parade will feature tableaux from 14 states and union territories and nine central ministries.

India adopted the constitution on November 26, 1949, which came into force on January 26, 1950, marking the country's first Republic Day.

It is customary to host a leader of a foreign country as the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations in Delhi. But this year, in a first, the parade will see 10 chief guests - the leaders of all member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. In another first, the ASEAN flag will also be flown during the parade.

Apart from the tableaux from various states and union territories, a major attraction of the parade is the armed forces contingents. The marching contingents aside, several aircraft, military vehicles, and weapons are displayed during the parade. The aircraft also perform a flypast, involving different formations.

Another new addition to this year's parade will be that of 113 women from the Border Security Force, or BSF, who will roar across the Rajpath performing breathtaking stunts on motorcycles. The women squad has been named Seema Bhavani or "the border braves". The women contingent will showcase 16 types of stunts, including "Pyramid", "Fish Riding", "Shaktiman", "Bull Fighting" and "Seema Prahari".

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Google Doodle celebrates Virginia Woolf's 136th birthday

One of the 20th century's foremost authors, Woolf was a pioneer in the use of the stream-of-conscious narrative approach.

Virginia Woolf was a pioneer in the use of the stream-of-conscious narrative approach, harnessing a poetic vision that elevated sometimes mundane settings while examining the complex interior lives of her characters.  

To celebrate one of the 20th century's foremost novelists, Google dedicated its Doodle on Thursday to Woolf on the 136th anniversary of her birth.

Born in London in 1882, Woolf was homeschooled in the English classics and Victorian literature for much of her childhood. She began writing professionally in 1900, becoming a significant member of London's literary society and the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of prominent contemporary intellectuals and artists.

While Woolf grew up surrounded by the London literary scene, it was her childhood memories of visiting the Cornish coast that inspired the settings of the English author's most powerful narratives, including "To the Lighthouse" (1927

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What is Mammatus Clouds ?

Mammatus clouds are pouch-like protrusions hanging from the undersides of clouds, usually thunderstorm anvil clouds but other types of clouds as well. Composed primarily of ice, these cloud pouches can extend hundreds of miles in any direction, remaining visible in your sky for perhaps 10 or 15 minutes at a time.

 People associate them with severe weather, and it’s true they can appear around, before or after a storm. Contrary to myth, they don’t continue extending downward to form tornados, but they are interesting in part because they’re formed by sinking air. 

Most clouds are formed by rising air. Mammatus clouds can appear ominous. But, in a way that’s so common in nature, their dangerous aspect goes hand in hand with a magnificent beauty.

Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air. Sometimes very ominous in appearance, mammatus clouds are harmless and do not mean that a tornado is about to form; a commonly held misconception. In fact, mammatus are usually seen after the worst of a thunderstorm has passed.

Although mammatus most frequently form on the underside of a cumulonimbus, they can develop underneath cirrocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus and stratocumulus. For a mammatus to form, the sinking air must be cooler than the air around it and have high liquid water or ice content.

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Google Doodle marks Kannada writer Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa aka Kuvempu's 113th birthday

Munjane manjinolu/ Pasuralli nadevaaga/ Anjisuva sanjeyolu/ Usirannu yelevaaga/ Yele poove aalisuve/ Naa ninna geeteyanu/ Yele poove solisuve/ Naa ninna preetiyanu!

(Amidst the early morning dew/ Walking across the greenery/ And in the evening that is scary/ While taking a breath, Oh flower, I listen to your song/ Oh flower, I defeat your love!)

Such are the verses of the poem titled Poovu (The Flower) by Kuvempu. The Kannada writer and poet (full name Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa) is the subject of today's Google Doodle, which commemorates his 113th birthday.

Kuvempu is considered among the greatest writers in the Kannada language. As indicated in the poem above, Kuvempu's writings reflected the wonders of the natural world, which is why, when illustrator Upamanyu Bhattacharyya and letterer Swati Shelar were working on the doodle, they chose to portray him surrounded by nature

Kuvempu was born in 1904 in Kuppalli, Karnataka. In 1929, he graduated from the Maharaja College of Mysore, having majored in Kannada. He would begin his academic career there as a lecturer, and after a stint at a Bengaluru university, return to Maharaja College as a professor in 1946. He became principal of the college less than a decade later, and when he retired in 1960, it was as the vice-chancellor of Mysore University.

Throughout his time in academia, Kuvempu also wrote prolifically. He published 25 collections of poetry, two novels, in addition to biographies, literary criticism, story collections, essays and about 10 plays. His epics — Sri Ramayana Darshanam (in two volumes) and Chitrangada — and his autobiography (Nenapina Doniyali; published in 1980) remain among his noted works.

Kuvempu won the Jnanpith Award for Sri Ramayana Darshanam (in 1968, for the year 1967) — the first Kannada writer to receive the honor. He was also only the second Kannada poet to be named 'Rashtra Kavi' in 1958. Apart from these, he was conferred several other honors, including the Padma Vibhushan (1988), Padma Bhushan (1958) and Karnataka Ratna (1992). Kuvempu passed away in 1994, aged 89.

Kuvempu wrote his first-ever poetry collection in English; most of his other works that followed were written in Kannada. He remained a lifelong advocate for the language, especially as a medium of instruction in state educational institutions. He was also a staunch champion of gender equality, anti-casteism, and anti-superstition.

Incidentally, this week also marks the golden jubilee of Kuvempu's Jnanpith Award, and his birthplace is the site of a two-day symposium (over 29-30 December) where scholars will discuss the significance of Kuvempu's work. The Google Doodle honoring Kuvempu couldn't have come at a better time.

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