Interesting Universe.

The interesting thing about our universe is the extent to which it is mind-boggling; mostly because so many people have opinions about how it works and exists. Some say that it is static and unchanging while some snort and contradict them with an air of arrogance, saying that our universe is dynamic and ever-changing. Some say that our universe had a beginning and that since everything succeeds a cause, our universe must have also begun by some “First Cause”; while some adamantly ignore the idea of a beginning of the universe on the grounds of the involvement of too much divine intervention and stick to the belief that the universe was always there. Some believe that the universe is infinitely large and that infinite stars are uniformly distributed across it in equilibrium, while some believe that the stars are always falling towards each other owing to the gravitational force of attraction.

The search of the universally accepted picture of the universe has been going on since 340 B.C. when Aristotle postulated in his book On the Heavens that the earth lay at the center of the universe and the planets (5 were known at that time), the sun and the moon rotated around it in circular orbits, in their own spheres. Over the centuries, models changed minds, authority changed hands and understanding changed its level from crude beliefs to holistic proofs. The throne of the center of the universe was handed to the sun, the circular orbits became elliptical and the boundary of mankind’s observable universe was eliminated. While Galileo proved Aristotle’s idea that heavier objects fell faster than the lighter ones wrong, Newton postulated the universal law of gravity in his book Principia Mathematica that explained the movement of heavenly bodies around the sun and sparked the belief that the universe was dynamic. While Christensen Roemer showed that the light traveled at a finite speed, James Clark Maxwell proved through his equations the existence of wave-like disturbances in the electromagnetic field that traveled at fixed speeds. While Newton’s laws of motion eliminated the existence of an absolute space, Einstein’s theory of relativity eliminated the existence of an absolute time and dramatically changed our ideas about space and time (according to his theory, time wasn’t separate from and independent of space and that they both combined to form an object called “space-time”). While Edwin Hubble observed the night sky with his telescope and saw that the galaxies were moving away from each other, John Mitchell theorized black holes: massive and compact stars that would have such strong gravitational fields that would pull back the light leaving from their surface therefore making them black voids in space. While Einstein explained how the force of gravity affects the photons of light, Newton satisfied himself with the belief that light was a wave and that gravity won’t have any affect on it at all.

Now, is it just me or do you feel that our universe is interesting too?

- AG.

1 generic humanoid carbon unit please.

If you are a new iPod owner and you also happen to have made yourself aquainted with the fact that Apple has revamped its range of iPods, you must be feeling pretty pissed right now. No? Well, I am. Why? Because I bought an iPod Shuffle a couple of months back for Rs. 4000 that holds around 120 songs (512 MB) and what I see now? An even smaller - rather infinitely smaller - iPod Shuffle that holds around 250 songs (1 frickin' GB) available for Rs. 3600!

Not that I crave to get my hands onto anything as sleek and small as this iPod, god me no. As of now, I am happy (more than that actually) with my present iPod, so who cares? The sound quality is amazing and the battery life is amazing. So, the new iPod can go and eat Bart's shorts.

Also, I accidently (yes, really) happen to be (or, was) the 4242 visitor to my blog. For those ignorant blurbs who don't recognize the significance of the number "42", let me give you a crash course in mysticism. According to Douglas Adams, the number 42 happens to be the ultimate answer to the life, the universe, and everything.

- AG.

Blogger and AdWords.

First of all, I would like to give Blogger a swift kick for suddenly ending the redirection to "blogger.com" from the domain "blogspot.com", which means that now I have to specifically go to "blogger.com" whenever I need to access my blog. It might not sound like such a big deal to you, but it is certainly a big deal for someone who has become used to typing "blogspot" and pressing CTRL + Enter whenever he needs to access his account. So, sometimes my dear fingers instinctively follow that routine and my eyes stumble onto this page, which is nothing short of irritating. Now that I have gotten that rubbish out, I get a kind of a sadistic pleasure from watching a lonely Blogger employee (large glasses, neatly-pressed shirt, pens in the shirt pocket) feeling crestfallen after reading that I want to give him a swift kick. *cackles like Mr. Burns*

On a brighter note, I am experiencing the perks of having a close contact with someone who works at Google, in my case: my father's close friend's daughter. And since every Google employee gets a free AdWords account, she has so kindly granted me access to it. The primary use of this account would be promoting my father's company, and since I can make 1 more account, I have even started promoting this blog ... for free! Yes, I know you feel jealous. Go ahead, break a vase. *cackles like Mr. Burns*

When you start coding too much in HTML, you often tend to write a love poem along these line ... Roses are #FF0000. Violets are #EE82EE. All my base are belong to you.

- AG.

YAWN!

So the number of squirrels that used to reside in the tree (that lazily leans over my garden) seems to have increased to a modest number, probably due to the mating season (whenever that is for squirrels), because at any instant of time, 2-3 squirrels can be spotted in my garden, either sprawling in the flower pots or nibbling on the minute particles of "food". Although I might not be bold enough to say that this routine of a bunch of squirrels is highly interesting, I can say that it is mildly interesting, atleast to a person (namely, me) who is sitting in one of the garden chairs and with eyes half-closed and a thin smile, is apathetically observing the squirrels going about their duties with a resolute enough to bolster Darwin's theory of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. Sometimes (actually, I did it only one time) I approach the squirrels (with the dexterity and nimbleness only justifiable in a Mission Impossible movie) and try to make some "human contact" with these cute and furry creatures. What happens next is most predictable: the squirrels take a trajectory to the safety of their tree. I once peeked into the hole and saw that there were 4 small rectangular boxes and the poster that said "Home Squirrel Home". Just kidding. What? You actually believed that bed and poster part? Man, you have been watching too much Tom and Jerry, or are you hooked to Stuart Little? ;-)

Anyway, catch you later.

- AG.

88-years old Coin.

While digging around my grandma's room, I came upon this dirty big coin. On peering closely, I saw that it was a Re. 1 coin from 1918, way before India became a sovereign country. It has the picture of George V on one side, and the words "One Rupee India 1918" on the other. All in all, it seems very aristocratic, pretty much like those British coins.

(George V King Emperor)

(One Rupee India 1918)

- AG.

No Title for this Post.

Note: The F-word has been used excessively, which might strike as somewhat un-characteristic of me. So, if you would rather not further pollute your mind with my explicit language, I would advise you to leave now.

So, I went to attend this university seminar with a couple of my friends. Despite the nice arrangements (nice seats, nice air-conditioning, nice-looking reception girls, etc.), by the end of the first hour, I felt like chucking something very heavy and jagged at the speaker. Why? Because he was a dipshit, that's why. He spoke with a fake accent, he was balding and fat, he screwed up in mid-speech and his jokes could have been rightfully placed at the bottom drawer of a cabinet marked "Mankind's Poorest Jokes". Anyway, I couldn't take that crap anymore and so I left an hour early. I caught an auto from outside the building and went directly to Priya, from where I contemplated walking home after roaming around for sometime. When I had hailed the auto and asked that dipshit about the price he had said "Paacheese" (that's Rs. 25) and when I got to Priya and handed him a Rs. 50 note, the fucked up asshole just smiled and as I asked why the fuck wasn't he giving me the change back, he smoothly said, "Rate paachaase ka tha". D'oh!

Anyway, Priya was packed, something predictable on a Sunday afternoon. More nice-looking girls. I bought a sugar-free Red Bull and went to check my E Mail at Relaince Web World. After that I went into this clothes store and as I was boredly drifting from one display to another, this girl came up to me. And she was fucking tall! She had to be atleast 6' 1'' ... at 5' 10'', I felt like a hobbit. Anyway, after some time I left the store and consumed the last drop of Red Bull. I needed something more to drink. So, I went to McD to get a Diet Coke. I know what you are thinking, how the fuck can I consume Diet Coke after drinking Red Bull? Yeah, well, that thought flashed through my mind a couple of times ... but, what the hell, I bought it anyway. Now, as I massage my stomach, I feel that I should have done otherwise. My stomach feels like a volumetric flask in which some careless student mixed two of the most strong acids without any reservations. Burp!

Polite as always,
- AG.

Hawk and the Hole.

"From the age of 14, I knew I wanted to do Physics because it was the most fundamental of the sciences ... " - Prof. Hawking

A documentary on Black Holes (featuring Stephen Hawking).

- AG.

Particle Physics is for jerkoffs.

Indeed, I feel it is, to put it mildly. Why? Because the equations are just too long and tedious; there are just too many assumptions and uncertainities; and the number of elementary particles is just too high (24, are you kidding me?). So, I feel strangely attracted to Quantum Physics, the arch-enemy of Particle Physics. Quantum Mechanics defines the behaivour of things which are so small that they disobey the present laws and coventions of Particle Phy. For example, a car that is only a few millimeters in lenght. It is just too small. The traction will go to hell, and the engine will get nicely screwed up. Overlooking such practical examples, let me elaborate on Q.P. in the way that is considered more, ah, traditional. Q.P. actually tells us about the behaivour of elementary particles inside the atom. Like, it says that electrons do not revolve around the nucleus in definite paths (something P.P. comfortably claims), instead the electrons "float" around the nucleus in the form of electron clouds, and we measure the probability of finding an electron at a particular instant around the nucleus. So much for the basics. Now, what makes Q.P. really interesting is the phenomenon of Quantum Computers, an idea proposed by Richard Feynman in 1982. According to Feynman, a quantum computer is an unimaginably powerful computer that can be made from a single molecule. It utilizes all the 32 states of an electron, unlike a modern day computer that uses only two of them, i.e., 0 and 1. Right now, there are just too many problems and practical issues which come in the way of developing a working prototype of this kind of a computer.

"Nobody understands quantum mechanics." - Feynman

I beg to differ.

- AG.

Mundane Monday.

Japan has developed these cute little robots that can taste wine, in the sense that they can identify the finger-print of the wine by sending an infra-red beam through the bottle, and not in the sense that they can consume the wine and then tell us what is what. Alright, I know that Japan has always been famous for rolling out robots of different shapes and sizes that can perform tasks that were previously thought to be limited only to humans, but doesn't it seem a little out of character for a baby-ish robot to carry out tasks like consuming alcohol (literally)? Yeah, well, along with carrying out the task that has made it famous and its creators millionairs, it also pips out some comments. Hmm ... Eliza in the making?

-| AG.