C 7 Club and Mortal Combat

At a serene location, far away from the roving, predatory eyes of media, a high level meeting was ongoing between all the members of C 7 club, an exclusive and one of its kind clubs.

There was a strong reason for convening this meeting in such a hurried manner. The one point agenda of the meeting was to deliberate and to take a decision on a growing clamor that had shaken the corridors of power of C 7 club. The request: to include one more member in this exclusive C 7 club.  

This very thought inclusion of a rank ‘outsider’ in this club was disturbing and unheard of. As each and every member was speaking animatedly about this request, there was utter chaos at the meeting which was in stark contrast to what they were known for....

Unsure of the further proceedings, the president of the C 7 club, the presiding officer of this all important meeting, got up from chair shaking his head and suddenly there was hush silence in the room as this was very uncharacteristic.....

“My dear friends”, having gathered his thoughts and composure, the president began in an authoritative manner and the pounding heart beats of other members returned to normalcy. 

“Desperate situations need desperate measures. Since we have never had this kind of situation before, I propose we will have to evaluate the very reason of this request and whether this man deserves the entry in this club. We will evaluate his greatness, his worthiness against our CVs, thus I request each and every member to put before this committee, their own CVs and we will then assess the CV of the prospective candidate”

“Aye Aye Sir, said all the members were in unison and individual member put forward their own credentials.

Bali Chakravati	I am also known as Mahabali and I was granted the boon by Vishnu that would be next Indra. I am a symbol of valor and charity.
Parashurama	I am one of the Dasavataras of almighty lord Vishnu. I am the grandmaster of all the weapons, astras
Vibhishana	I helped Rama in his battle royale against Ravana. I am a faithful Rama follower
Ashwatthama	I am a great warrior but I am a member of this club as a curse
Kripacharya	I am the military teacher and chief priest of Hastinapur
Hanuman	I am Hanuman, the greatest devotee of Rama

Finally the president Vyasa, the author of one of the greatest epics, Mahabharata got up and said, “Well it’s time we analyze the CV of prospective candidate”.

“He has 100 centuries, has more than 1.21 billion followers in one single country and many others across the world. This man has carried the expectations of a nation on his shoulders for 22 years and is still continuing to do so. He is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar and is also known by many other names like Tendlya, Paaji, SRT etc.” 

“Cricketing world has already put him on pedestal and cricket folklores have already been strung about immortality of his record and contribution to Cricket. He has already been appreciated by the first God of Cricket, Donald Bradman and a certain spin legend has nightmares about him.”

There was a hush silence in the conference room. Parashurama, the tech guru of the club, flashed his super ultra modern tablet and searched more information on this new candidate.

“I could ferret out more information on this man and found a chink in his armor. He does not have triple century (300) against his name yet and most importantly he is human, a mortal” 

Let him remain that way, see what happened to me. I am still carrying the curse of the Lord Krishna. What is the point in being Chiranjiv, let him be mortal, he would be happy that way sighed Ashwatthama.  

Gauging the reactions of all the members, Vyasa did a quick gedankenexperiment and said, “As I can see, this man already resides in the hearts of his fans whether he has triple century or not and cricketing aficionados have already been immortalized Sachin. Now if peoples of various countries have already put him on pedestal, on altar and if entire cricket fraternity believes that Sachin is superman and is indeed a new age cricketing god then let’s accept it and grant him the entry in Sapta Chiranjivis with a condition that he would be accepted in this exclusive C-7 Club as we fondly call it, only in spirit. He would not have to fight this ‘mortal combat’ and he would be allowed to exit this mortal world just like others. I propose to have vote by show of hands on this proposal”

As all the members agreed instantly on this proposal, the decision was passed unanimously.

“I would now request Hanuman to amend the laws of C-7 Club so as to accommodate our decision and I would forward an application to ‘Lord Vishnu’, the Registrar of Universe for change of name of club from ‘C-7 Club’ to ‘C-8 Club*’ (* Conditions apply).

All the members nodded in agreement. While Ashwatthama proceeded to seek some medical help for his wound on forehead, others moved to their abodes to meditate and to get lost in the tranquil of Himalayas…. only to be broken by extraordinaire requests.....

P.S.: ‘Lord Vishnu’, the Registrar of Universe accepted application and name of club now reads as ‘C-8 Club*’ (* Conditions apply)  

Guitar and Bass Tabs Library

In continuation to my effort to talk about interesting websites or apps, I am listing today a very interesting website. I am sure those music lovers would like this site.

Well, Ultimate Guitar or (UG as known popularly) is a public library of more than 20,000 guitar and bass tabs (tabs is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches). Website is a large guitarist community website known for its large amount of guitar and bass tablature, reviews of music and equipment, interviews with notable musicians, online written and video lessons, and forums.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar

As per the website information, currently, it is the fastest growing guitar community on the net and is the only guitar website that has gear and cd reviews, music news, guest columns, guitar and bass lessons and tabs in one place!

Guitar lovers would definitely enjoy this website!!!

Cheers!!

Hello…smash…smash…‘God Particle’…‘The Champagne Bottle Boson’…Are you home?

The previous article on Advaita and E= mc², ended with a question on what happened before Big Bang, though the question still remains unanswered, scientists are in hot pursuit to find out what happened after Big Bang and how many particles ‘received’ mass. 

Scientists at CERN physics centre near Geneva are smashing protons after protons with extremely high energy particle beams inside 27-Km long circular tunnel, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has become the cynosure of physicists and particle physicists in particular. The objective is to find Higgs Boson, the princesse lointaine of particle physics.

One possible signature of a Higgs boson from a simulated proton-proton collision. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson 

Scientists have to smash something to find something…hmm…

I am damn sure many would be asking 'Why this Kolaveri' about God Particle, why this ado about God Particle?

Well, let’s take help of "Five Ws" (and one H) or six honest serving-men of Rudyard Kipling (What, Why, When, How and Who) and keep ourselves abreast with this imaginary particle that is known by various names, like God Particle (this is a popular term and a term that scientists hate to love) or Higgs Boson (this term is what scientists love) and as per the renaming competition the alternate name that emerged was Champagne Bottle Boson, since the bottom of a champagne bottle is in the shape of the Higgs potential

I will address some pertinent questions-

What is God Particle, Higgs Boson? 

Higgs Boson is a hypothetical elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. It belongs to a class of subatomic particles known as bosons. Named after British physicist Peter Higgs, is posited to have been the agent that gave mass and energy to matter after the Big Bang creation of the universe 13.7 billion years ago. 

Why it is so important to find it?

The Higgs boson is regarded as the Holy Grail, the cornerstone to understanding how the universe came into being.

Existence of Higgs Boson would further validate the SM as essentially correct, as it is the only elementary particle predicted by the SM that has not yet been observed in particle physics experiments and would also explain why elementary particles have mass.

Physicists theorize that before the Big Bang, there was only one, unified fundamental force, and every particle was massless and the after the bang, within milliseconds or even within smaller time frame, the universe cooled, these forces split and as universe started to cool an invisible force known as the Higgs field formed.

This Higgs field, permeated the entire universe and was made up of zillions of tiny particles called as Higgs Boson. This Higgs Boson is believed to be the carrier of Higgs field and as other particles pass though it, they ‘receive’ mass through their interactions with Higgs Boson. So it is necessarily, the Higgs Boson that lends mass to the earlier massless particles that existed before Big Bang, as without this mass, such particles would vroom through the universe at the speed of light making it impossible to bind these fast and massless particles so as to form atoms that form this entire universe.

The absence of Higgs Boson would mean that our mission to understand fundamental nature of matter and what happened after big bang continues a little bit more….

When and Who postulated Higgs Boson?

The existence of the Higgs boson was first postulated in 1964 by Edinburgh University physicist Peter Higgs and that the very reason why this imaginary particle gets its name Higgs Boson.

It would be interesting to know from where and who coined the term God Particle. In his very popular and very aptly titled book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer,What is the Question? Leon Lederman first came up with this term called God Particle. Lederman said he gave the Higgs boson the nickname "The God Particle" because the particle is "so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive," but jokingly added that a second reason was because "the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing."

Needless to say ever ravenous for new names media guys lapped up this new term and moniker struck the chord with people and is stuck to Higgs Boson.

 

How will scientists find it?

Scientists at CERN physics centre near Geneva will smash protons with extremely high energy particle beams inside 27-Km long circular tunnel, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This energy is at such a scale that it hasn’t yet been achieved, certainly not so after the formation of the universe. Thus quintessentially, scientists will be mimicking conditions akin to the moment just after Big Bang. After each impact, the mammoth detectors of LHC will collect data for evidences showing the existence of boson particle. However this particle would be very difficult to trace since it decays almost immediately into two jets of hadrons and two jets of electrons

ATLAS detector

 

CMS detector at CERN

Source for Atlas and CMS (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2073037/Higgs-boson-God-particle-Atom-smasher-reveals-key-universe.html)

The recent reports from two distinctly different experiments (without technical mumbo-jumbo, about how different these experiments are, all I can say is one experiment is conducted in the United States and other in Europe!!!) are indicative of the existence of Higgs Boson, however, they are still far from being conclusive.

Is this Higgs Boson, currently imaginary particle, the Primordial energy, the Ultimate, Advaita that we  talked about? I think Time (4^th dimension) wombs the answer… 

But CMS scientist Bruce Kennedy, of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, said: ‘If the Higgs is found, it will only be the start. ‘We will have to understand its properties and if it fits in correctly with our theoretical explanations'.  

This never ending quest of ‘What before’ and ‘What After’ will continue, for this quest has kept mankind afloat for eons and would continue to do so… 

    

   

Advaita version 2.0 i.e E = mc2

14^th March 2012 would be Albert Einstein's 133^rd birth anniversary and on this propitious occasion I pay my rich tributes to the great scientist, who gave the most famous mathematical equation in Physics, E = mc² 

4-meter-tall sculpture of Einstein's 1905 E = mc² formula at the 2006 Walk of Ideas, Berlin, Germany

 

This is not just an equation, but was a watershed moment in the world of Physics, for it challenged for the first time the then Physics which was based on the Newtonian Principles, and made these Newtonian Principles, a bit irrelevant. This mathematical equation, this oneness of mass and energy as put forward by Einstein was what Indian/ Hindu philosophers knew conceptually and preached for a long time i.e. ‘Advaita’. In today’s software parlance, E = mc² is clearly, Advaita version 2.0, whereas version 1.0 existed, taught, preached since eons.

Let us discuss these versions in details in reverse chronological order.

Advaita v2.0 i.e. E = mc²

Einstein put forward mass–energy equivalence in 1905, by means of famous equation:   E = mc² where, E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light in vacuum. By this equation he also proved that energy and matter are inter convertible and that the inter convertibility happens at the speed of 'Light'. When a body i.e. a 'material object' moves at the speed of 'Light' it is converted into energy of any form to be subsequently converted into the 'Ultimate'; and at that speed ‘Energy’ can be converted into Matter of any form which we perceive as 'Universe'.

So in nutshell, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, and energy, in all of its forms, has mass and on the other hand, mass also can neither be created nor destroyed, and in all of its forms, has energy. According to the theory of relativity, mass and energy as commonly understood, are two names for the same thing, thus neither one exists without the other existing also, as a property of a system. Rather than mass being changed into energy, the view of special relativity is that rest mass has been changed to a more mobile form of mass, but remains mass.

Advaita v1.0

Advaita, the 'Primary or fundamental energy' is one and only one, even though the same energy expresses in various forms, mainly four: light, electricity, magnetic force and electromagnetic force and gravitational force, sound etc being their other variants. Though expressed in various forms they essentially are the 'expressions of the primordial energy'.

Note: Scientific proof of the fact that all forms of energies can be combined was given by many scientists most notably by Maxwell, who could combine electric and magnetic forces and later trio of Abdus Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg could unify three forces (Electromagnetic and Weak Forces) for which they were awarded Nobel Prize.

Einstein desired to quantify 'Advaita' but failed to do so because he could not quantify 'total matter' and though he could prove interchangeability of matter and energy, he could not answer ‘Why this happens’.

Saankhya philosophers followed by Lord Krishna in Geeta attempted to answer why interchangeability of matter and energy exists, though in terms of philosophy for which no mathematical equation exists. A quote from ‘Bhagvat Geeta’ (अध्याय 4, श्लोक 6 i.e. Chapter 4, verse 6) 

अज: अपि सन् अव्ययात्मा भूतानां ईश्वर: अपि सन्
प्रकृतिं स्वाम् अधिष्ठाय संभवामि आत्म- मायया

i.e. by my (= that of primordial energy) intrinsic property (property of energy) I express myself (and the universe comes into being). 

This thought was subsequently also adored by Shankaraachaarya, Vivekaananda and many others. Thus "माया" (Maya) theory came into vogue. (Personally I disagree because energy and matter behave in accordance with their intrinsic properties e.g. light 'glows', electricity gives 'shocks', heat 'warms' or even 'burns', gravitational force 'pulls' etc.) 

Then an inquisitive mind will ask how can one perceive that 'Ultimate'? Patanjali, the founder of 'Yogasootra' says 'तस्य वाचक: प्रणव:' (OM/AUM- ॐ depicts 'It'). Chanting of OM ( ॐ ) can lead one to perceive the Ultimate and understandably so, since OM ( ॐ ) being in vibration and Ultimate being also in vibration, OM ( ॐ ) can resonate with the Ultimate. ‘Idol worshipers can connect with the Ultimate through the idol of the god they believe in’ say the ‘idol worshiper sages’. 

Few questions that still remain unanswered are:

1. What existed before Advaita?
2. What happened before, then existing matter exploded during ‘big bang’, which is said to be the beginning of universe?   

Well, as said by Veer Savarkar, “First page of history can not be found and history begins from second page", probably that is why Swami Vivekananda says, “As energy is the Ultimate and stable form we have to assume that energy existed, not attempting to explain how it existed and thus the Ultimate or ‘Advaita is the beginning of the universe. 

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti ( ॐ  शान्ति:  शान्ति: शान्ति: ) 

(Acknowledgement: This article would not have been able to reach this form and shape without scholarly inputs from Dr Vinze.) 

 

Facelift- Without Botox and Aesthetician ??!!

Source: Fotofitme

Would you like to go for such fantastic, artistic, funny facelift just log on to FotoFitMe.

This fun website, lets you recreate your face, the way you want it to look like. Upload the image and you can experiment by resizing, stretching, skewing with your nose, head, ear. 

Cowabunga!! You can a new great look for yourself just like in the above image!!!, what’s more you can save this image for yourself!!!!!  

Cheers!!!

Ch..Ch..Pappu still can’t Fly Saala….

When news first trickled in that Kingfisher is going broke, I posted, But Pappu can’t FLY saala……, and haafter recent news very sadly I have to say, Ch..Ch..Pappu still can’t Fly Saala….. (hardly did I, for that matter we, imagine that we would have to say this!!!)

Future of Kingfisher Airlines is still uncertain and no self initiative taken by the company itself, it looks like this problem will persist for some more time. The top management in Kingfisher hopes that the Indian government would lend bail out option to Kingfisher, but with the kind of flamboyant, cocky lifestyle Vijay Mallya treads, there is increasing chorus against the bailout option within political, social and business circles. So severe was the reaction from business fraternity for this bailout that Rahul Bajaj said it will be "privatization of profits and socialization of losses". 

Aviation industry is very cash intensive industry. With debts running in thousands of crores of rupees, sources & options of funding dwindling, Kingfisher is strangulated. The banks who have already lent the money have very little option to recover it.

But in spite of all this, Kingfisher Airlines needs to be saved, since there are many employees still working in Kingfisher Airlines and strong aviation industry is what India needs. It is high time; the lenders take the reins in their hands by converting their debt into equity, going for a complete overhaul of the current management.

Once the operations are streamlined and lenders have recovered their money, they can separate themselves from Kingfisher. With PE majors like TPG, Blackstone, Cerberus Capital already showing interest in buying promoter stake in KFA, there seems to be some light at the end of tunnel.
 

Wanna charge iPad or your phone…Grow Bacillus Stratosphericus!!!!

Well.. you could charge these gadgets, but would have to wait for some more years before enough electricity is generated from the ‘superbugs’.

Publishing their findings in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, Grant Burgess, Professor of Marine Biotechnology at Newcastle University, said the research demonstrated the "potential power of the technique."

"What we have done is deliberately manipulate the microbial mix to engineer a biofilm that is more efficient at generating electricity," he explains.

'Super' bug’ B. Stratosphericus, a microbe normally found in the atmosphere was brought down to earth as a result of atmospheric cycling processes and isolated by the team from the bed of the River Wear. Other electricity-generating bugs in the mix were Bacillus altitudinis -- another bug from the upper atmosphere -- and a new member of the phylum Bacteroidetes.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2104727/Space-bacteria-British-river-new-power-source-world.html

 

The use of microbes to generate electricity is not a new concept and has been used in the treatment of waste water and sewage plants. Until now, the biofilm has been allowed to grow un-checked but this new study shows for the first time that by manipulating the biofilm you can significantly increase the electrical output of the fuel cell. 

Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC), which work in a similar way to a battery, use bacteria to convert organic compounds directly into electricity by a process known as bio-catalytic oxidation. A biofilm – or ‘slime’ – coats the carbon electrodes of the MFC and as the bacteria feed, they produce electrons, which pass into the electrodes and generate electricity. 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Microbial_electrolysis_cell.png

While still relatively low, this would be enough power to run an electric light and could provide a much needed power source in parts of the world without electricity.

There are many countries where uninterrupted electric supply is an issue even today. Whether such newer non-conventional sources of energy like Gas Hydrates, MFCs would be helpful and viable sources to light bulb or charge our daily use gadgets like i-pad or our smartphones or will these sources be able to satiate our ever increasing energy requirements permanently, we will come to know shortly.

With innovations and findings such as these we have definitely taken baby steps towards making us power sufficient whether these small flames turn out to be the giant source of energy or extinguish themselves without lighting our world only time will tell…..