Rainbow at Night

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We have all seen rainbows during the day but what about rainbows at night? They are elusive, but powerful to see. Yes "Moonbows" are rainbows created by light from the Moon. Conditions have to be just right, and there are only a small number of places in the world where they regularly materialize, such as Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe as seen above, Cumberland Falls in Kentucky, Yosemite Falls in California, and Waimea on Hawaii. Because they are so faint, moonbows are difficult to see with the naked eye (they usually appear just white). But with long-exposure photography, all the colors of moonbows can be seen.

Moonbows are rare because moonlight is not very bright. A bright moon near to full is needed, it must be raining opposite the moon, the sky must be dark and the moon must be less than 42º high. Put all these together and you do not get to see a moonbow very often! To the unaided eye they usually appear, as in the small image, without color because their light is not bright enough to activate the cone color receptors in our eyes. Colors have been reported and might be seen when the moon is bright.

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Sam

Intelligent Economy

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It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower. The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her services on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.

Source: Sivakumar

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Sam