Droplets of Surprise

I was surprised to learn that we are still figuring out how raindrops are formed. The small droplets we see are an effect of bigger drops becoming pancake like and exploding. There is a high speed video too to show the phenomenon here

The short lifetime of a raindrop is a complicated and explosive affair, physicists have revealed. Using high-speed video footage they have solved a longstanding conundrum of what determines the size of raindrops.
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High-speed footage captured by Villermaux and colleague Benjamin Bossa at the University Institute of France in Paris suggests a more unexpected explanation. They think individual droplets inflate and then explode to create the smaller droplets so common at ground level.

Everyone must have experienced roadrage, thanks to drivers who couldn't care less about traffic rules. But, you would be again surprised to learn that these characters actually play a bigger role in easing congestion. Inspite of the wtf feeling you are having right now this is a fun read. From Physics Central:

According to the latest physics research, rule-breakersdrivers passing you on the wrong side or changing lanes too close to the intersectionactually help smooth the flow of traffic for the rest of us.
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Physicists at the school uncovered this phenomenon while constructing a computer model of how a crowd of people move across a confined space, such as a pedestrian-only street.

Let there BE Engineers!!!

It looks like the Engineering Education Bubble might soon pop in TN, where, now there are over 400 engineering colleges. With every damn politician and his cousin starting one every other day, the public might finally be waking up to this huge scam. The results of the first phase of the counselling session is especially heartening with many colleges having no takers.

From TOI

In a striking and grim indication of the number of BE/B.Tech seats in self-financing engineering colleges in the state overshooting the
demand, 42 institutions have failed to attract a single student in the ongoing Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA 2009) academic stream counselling.

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Equally glaring is the fact that no student including from the vocational stream has opted to join the BE Information Technology course in 162 colleges and the Computer Science Engineering course in 141 institutions as on Monday morning