A new book I found about total Solar Eclipses.

I am reading Totality: Eclipses of the Sun. Finely written book, if you're interested in why people around the world cross seas to view solar eclipses. Infact, this book has one of the finest first chapters.

I am going to end this post by adding a beautiful image of Baily's beads. The red paint you're seeing are called prominences which consists of very hot gases.

A Realization

Note to anyone interested: it is my first blog post written from a library. The library mentioned here is in BIT Mesra.

When I started using Facebook in 2011, things were a little bit different for me. I was surrounded by many friends, had shallow tastes and thought of myself as the greatest genius walking on the face of Earth. Things have probably changed for the better in all those years (atleast I like to think so).

I shouldn't bore with those uninteresting details of my life (or should I, Random Reader?). So, many things in short, I thought Facebook as something which was purely meant for entertainment. Entertainment for my previous self was goofing around practically doing nothing. So, I couldn't really understand why Mark Zuckerberg's motto for creating Facebook was to connect people. Or was there really a use for social networks?

But things changed when I started reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality(you should try it preferably after reading the original version by J.K. Rowling). As over the years, my interests have become increasingly unique and different(my friends say so), I found that no one in my batch or immediate circle of friends was reading it(as far as I know). But, as it was so beautifully written, I had to discuss it. With someone.

Within the last few days as HPMOR was ending, I have discussed the plot and the characters with people from Melbourne, Bangalore, Sydney, Boston, Chicago, Kharagpur, Warsaw and Mumbai. It didn't matter whether the person I was talking to was a guitar player or an AI researcher or a mother who recently gave birth to a son. We were in for a cause - to have a great time by discussing a thing that we loved.

It was such a great experience. Playing games like "Not Paranoid Enough" with people from opposite the globe, is a thing I seldom do - infact it was my first.

All because of Internet. All because of social networking sites like Facebook. And, most importantly because of people.

I am studying engineering now. One year left of my undergraduate studies. I sincerely hope that I am able to do justice here by creating something that makes someone's life a little bit better and happier.

Solar System: is it stable?

During my first year at BIT Mesra, at a C language workshop, I asked one of my seniors:

"Can I simulate the Solar System?"

He said that it was probably a hard problem, but you can try it if you want. As my attention span is low, I forgot about the problem till now. Two years later.

Here is the article I am referring to. It is still a hard problem.

Spelling Mistakes

You may remember all those books, we used to read in childhood. One of them was about common spelling mistakes.

As a child, I never had problems with spellings. I saw a word, memorized it and never committed mistakes while spelling it. I wondered what was the necessity of such books if I never committed mistakes. Till now.

I realized that the authors of those books were adults - not kids (how could adults know what were the common spelling mistakes done by kids?). And, it was not so long for me to reach the conclusion that it is the adults who committed those mistakes, they are teaching the kids not to do.

I can safely say that I am an adult. I was born in 1994. And, I commit spelling mistakes while writing - frighteningly close to all those given in the books. I should thank Google search and automatic spell-checkers for saving me from embarrassment. If you're wondering about which words am I talking about, here they are - achieve, receive, there, their, embarrassment, commitment and so on.

Now, when I reached that conclusion, I thought about why I was committing mistakes now when I was a spelling pro as a child.

I think it has something to do with how our brains process information. As children, our neurons were not overloaded with tons of information. We were new to world and were learning about our surroundings. Getting new information and storing/retrieving it was a fairly easy task. But, things changed as we grew. Our brains have soaked in years of articles, images, movies and sounds. It is natural that we sometimes commit mistakes in the most basic of tasks such as spelling.

P.S: I am no neuroscientist. I came up with a possible explanation. If you think it is incorrect, then do inform me.

Exactly why our world works in Maths?

It still seems quite mystical to me that mathematics can describe the world in which we live.

Some people (whom I have met online) have mentioned that there's no deep meaning to maths in sciences. Science is about rationalism and mathematics is the best tool for logic. Hence the correspondence.

But, I think it goes deeper than that. Wigner mentions in this article that Heisenberg's matrix mechanics worked for lowest energy level of helium atom. No one knows why - matrix mechanics was developed keeping hydrogen atom in mind.

No one knows why our universe follows mathematical rules. Who(or what) is behind them.

It might be the case that mathematics and physics are highly crafted bullshit. But as for now, this possibility is highly unlikely. Mathematical laws provide too accurate descriptions of the things we are able to observe.

So, I think the question is still in philosophical domain. Maybe many years from now, when humans have developed far better understanding of the universe, the questions will be answered. It might also be possible that the questions remain unanswered.

And, this brings us to another question. Will these questions ever stop? Can 'whys' and 'hows' stop someday?

If yes, then who or what is at the pinnacle of all knowledge and everything that is there to be known?

If no - well sorry, I don't even know what this situation means.

Both the possibilities are nerve-chilling.

The Pale Blue Dot

 The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of our planet  taken on February 14, 1990 by Voyager I from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers. It went to become one of the most powerful photographs in the history of mankind.

If you look closely at the yellow streak on the right side of the picture, you will notice a faint little blue speck. Yes, that's where we live. Our only home. Earth.

It is where we humans evolved. Where we created our civilization. Here is where we fought wars, sought love, wrote books, composed poems, created music, made friends, killed enemies and practiced religion. All of that in one tiny pixel.

Every human has lived and died on that tiny blue dot.

All those fighting done over lands, money or who is right appears senseless in the vast cosmic perspective. We can see no countries from over there. No boundaries. No religion. No caste. No gender. Not even a single human out of those 7 billion (and counting).

The photograph forces us to think where we are headed. Are we doing a good job as a civilization? Are we kind and respectful to each other? Are we moving towards making our world a better place?

It has been 25 years since that photograph was taken. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But, what is the word count of one containing all the humans who ever lived? And, that too at a single point?

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What have you done to make our Earth a better place? How do you think we can become good human beings? Please share your answers and thoughts in the comments.

An Internet Rant - the first of many to come.

On the internet, I feel that majority of Indians are generally rude and incapable of "Be polite" and "Don't attack people" policies. 

I have discoursed with Slovakians, Israelis, Americans, Britishers and Russians. I found out that they were superbly nice even when they were opposed to what I was suggesting. Some of them were high school students, and their maturity floored me. They were always focused on ideas and not on the person who was expressing them.

And, their communicating style was radically different. They didn't use one-liners and stupid remarks which they thought were cool. They never let me feel that I was not wanted in the conversation and I was already wrong.

Even when I was not debating and wanted some information or clarification, they were quite forward(and nice!) in making me understand and providing me with references.

Maybe conformity bias and my online circle has forced me to draw this conclusion.

What are your thoughts?

Is it true - yes, then why ?
If no - then why I went through this experience?