The Chaotic-Neutron

There are several inspiring moments that motivate me everyday, to run and push myself, greater and beyond what I thought was physically possible, for me. But this story about a father and son, who have run 60 marathons (25 of them the Boston Marathon), 6 Ironman Triathlons (composed of 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 116 mile bike ride and then a 26 mile maraton), and other races for a total of nearly 1000 events, takes pushing the limits, to a whole new level.

Kudos to Team Hoyt.

Every now and then, you hear how conservative Texas is. But you do not realize the stark reality until something like this comes up.

Read the article about a guy who got cited for Disorderly Conduct, a misdemeanor, for swearing in a Texas restaurant.

Reminder to self: The next time you are in a restaurant, watch what you say !

For a long time, I’ve wanted to have an Indian Tiger as a pet. And how awesome is this

Whoever he is, I am so damn jealous. Photo via PROTO-JP TUMBLER.

There has been quite a furore about an unknown truck driver delivering a thorough account of the first 2 nuclear bombs ever built on the face of the earth. Intrigued and excited, I searched google to read more about him and stumbled on this gem of an interview/article that brought him to light.

Read David Samuels’s account about the truck driver, John Coster-Mullen, who conducted more than a decade of research to successfully build the first accurate replica of Little-Boy, the master-blaster that annihilated Hiroshima, ending WWII. The article itself is quite interesting and leaves you wanting for more. Here’s an excerpt:

I recently wrote to Coster-Mullen and suggested that we take a trip across the country to visit his Little Boy replica, which is currently housed at Wendover, a decommissioned Air Force base in Utah. After some negotiation, we agreed to ride together on his late-night delivery route between Waukesha and Chicago. We would then drive to Wendover. Along the way, he would explain the inner workings of the first atomic bombs, and I would learn how he got it right and the experts got it wrong.

Atomic John: The New Yorker.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the his book “Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man”.

I have heard about the legend of Faust before but never had the chance to read it. As destiny would have it, I recently stumbled upon Faust again, one of the works by Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), the one that made him apparently famous in the literary world of then Europe.

For the past few days, piecemeal I’ve read and it is beautiful. My only regret is that I did not discover this gem before.

The tale of Faust is supposed to be Goethe’s greatest work into which he poured a lifetime of experience; the entire work took him his whole life and he finished the second part only a year before his demise. The literary work is written as a play (a poetical drama actually) and it portrays an interplay of religion, the supernatural, love, tragedy and the surreal. To give you an introduction about Faust, here’s a brief synopsis.

Faust is an old man, a sage or an alchemist, wise, learned and very pious. We see a conversation between God and Mephistopheles (satan) in which God remarks that Mephistopheles may try all he likes to tempt Faust; God is confident that Faust is too moral an individual to be tempted by anything. Mephistopheles sets to work, appearing to Faust and conversing with him. Faust is weary of life, and Mephistopheles is soon able to convince him that he could sample something more.

The story concerns the fate of Faust in his quest for the true essence of life. Frustrated with learning and the limits to his knowledge and power, he attracts the attention of the Devil (Mephistopheles), who agrees to serve Faust until the moment he attains the zenith of human happiness, at which point Mephistopheles may take his soul. Faust is pleased with the deal, as he believes the moment will never come.

In the first part, Mephistopheles leads Faust through experiences that culminate in a lustful and destructive relationship with an innocent and nubile woman named Gretchen. Gretchen and her family are destroyed by Mephistopheles’ deceptions and Faust’s desires and actions. The story ends in tragedy as Gretchen is saved and Faust is left in shame.

The second part begins with the spirits of the earth forgiving Faust (and the rest of mankind) and progresses into rich allegorical poetry. Faust and his devil pass through the world of politics and the world of the classical gods, and meet with Helen of Troy (the personification of beauty). Finally, having succeeded in taming the very forces of war and nature Faust experiences a single moment of happiness.

The devil Mephistopheles, trying to grab Faust’s soul when he dies, is frustrated as the Lord intervenes — recognizing the value of Faust’s unending striving.

This has been one of the most interesting drama’s I have ever read. It portrays one of the imminent weaknesses of the human kind; The quest for knowledge and the impossibility to attain enlightenment without the passion. And It punches in all that with philosophical poetry. Enough said. Go grab a copy now and enjoy it.

Download from Google for free.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

–Dylan Thomas

Beautiful !

Why nuclear power is not the answer

An excerpt from the article.

“Nuclear power is not a solution to climate change. It could only ever provide for a tiny proportion of our energy needs and this would be at great cost to the taxpayer, the environment and would pose a threat to the safety of the public. Clean technologies are available and they need the Government’s support. Tony Blair must stop talking to the nuclear lobby and speed up investment low -carbon, renewable and efficient energy technologies.”

What are those renewable energy sources which will both satisfy the rising energy needs and be economical as well as efficient ? I really would like to know. But Friends of the Earth Executive Director Tony Juniper fails to answer that.

Probably the biggest misconception on Nuclear power is that “Nuclear power has a poor safety record”. If you want to base that future safety of reactors are dictated by 2 accidents that happened more than 25 years back, then God help these people.

Maybe the Director needs to learn from how France satisfies its energy needs. More than 70% of power is produced from nuclear reactors and how many accidents have they had till now ?? Zilch. Take that for your record and stop brooding over Chernobyl and TMI already.

It is really sad that man’s prejudice overpowers logic (Well that applies to my comments too, but hey, this is my blog !).

Saw this comment on /. recently about Microsoft’s Personnel Puzzle. Although i would’ve commented strongly against whoever wrote that, it seemed really funny at the moment !

Here it is. No offense B-Gates !

Hey hey, Microsoft’s great,
They forcefeed bullshit onto your plate.
You’ll be working for Gates, that iconic dude,
Crooked marketer through and through!

Oh oh, you better watch out,
Someone installed IE, so don’t you pout.You’ve got a job with this mega-firm,
We’re spyware enablers from stem to stern!

Hey ho, heed our call,
And then we’ll have you by the balls.
Write some shit, there’s no remorse,
So long as you attack Open Source!

Yay yah, Microsoft’s great!
Come on in, let’s have a taste,
Now’s the time, no time to wait,
Time to bend over and take it for Gates !

I know that the topic suggests so, but I am not talking about my Dad right now. This is about Albert Einstein, whom i so very sincerely respect for his contributions to the field i am currently working on.

Can you just imagine someone without whom a whole classification of a particular science might never have come into the picture at all ? Well there are several, in different fields, who have contributed so much but IMO, no one like this guy here.

He and his theories have paved the way for the evolution of nuclear science and the theory of relativity and his work on Brownian movement were so very critical for this. The article “Five papers that shook the world” gives a brief overview of his most important papers presented on 1905 and talks more about his work in general. Very nice. But there is one point which i would refute very strongly. If Einstein had never been in the picture, then there is a chance that someone else would have come up with similar papers and results. But it would definitely not have been a very flowing theory as i might phrase. You would know what i mean if you have ever been in one of those moments when designing a software or writing code, you dont have to think separately about the design and the code but the code is itself well refactored, formatted, extensible, flexible and just flows as though the fingers know what to do. And that will happen only on a string of thought and at one moment.

Eventhough each of his discoveries do seem to be a bit wide wrt one another, the basis for each of them are the same. It is to concentrate on the power of physical intuition rather than the mathematical precisions while trying to bring out new theories. We should remember that this man was contradicting everthing that was known during 1905 in Physics by giving out bold explanations and for some of which, people had to wait 20 years to prove.

I like this excerpt from the article too !

“And just in case the enormity of Einstein’s achievement is in any doubt, we have to remember that he did all of this in his “spare time”.”

What more can i say ?! Einstein still lives. And i say that, thou shall live even if mankind hath perished and joined the dust …

At Chicago Downtown. Me, Rajesh and Vishali.