Colors!

I plan to combine two different ideas to give a totally different perspective to colors and how we see them. First, the two things that will set out the idea.

We can see because there is light! Our eyes capture the light that reflects from the things around us and send some signals to the brain via the optic nerve. Once these signals reach brain, we can see. Click here to verify this yourself! (This definitely implies that we will not be able to see things that don't reflect light. But this is not my topic of discussion here!)

Everything in the universe is 'vibrating'. That means the atoms and sub-atomic particles in all the objects vibrate at certain frequency which is their natural frequency. (Sorry couldn't find the appropriate search terms so that I could give any reference here.)

Combining these two ideas, would it mean that the particles vibrate at a certain frequency to produce vision of a color. Is that how a chameleon changes his color? By changing the vibration frequency of his skin particles?

Space travel

For ancient man or neanderthal, vastness of the Earth was probably unknown. He probably knew that the land under his feet is huge. But how huge? He had no idea. Apart from that scaling those distances on known ways of transports was unimaginable. By no stretch of thought he could have imagined that he would go round the earth in his lifetime... neither did he do that. Air travel was just a figment of his imagination. But today it is very much real.

Today we are neanderthals with respect to space travel. With theory of relativity, easy interstellar travel seems impossible by any stretch of imagination. But the future man will invent the "air crafts" to scale these distances very easily. In time after that, man will feel difficult to imagine a life without space travel in the same way today we see life impossible without a.... the list is so long... TV? Cell phone? Cars? You name it!

The Earth or Us?

We, humans, are making utmost effort to make the Earth unlivable. I am surprised that we don't realize it is not Earth that we are killing, but ourselves. We still say, "Save the Earth!" But Earth will still go round the Sun even if there is no environment left covering it. It is us who will be extinct in that scenario.

Do no world leaders, who only ask other countries to cut down on emissions without first setting the example themselves, realize all this? By not committing to reduce the emissions they are not just killing themselves but the entire human race! Are the leaders ready to take responsibility?

Renewable Energy

I don't understand why energy sources like solar or wind energy called renewable energy. Who is renewing the energy? The Sun is dying. Everything that exists has to perish. Also, the energy itself is not renewed. Once spent, it is lost forever.

Why is it then called renewable? What could be more appropriate name for it?

These "renewable energy sources" are usually non-polluting sources. So can it simply be called non-polluting energy?

Up and down

It is because we stand on the Earth that we have a concept of up and down. We stand on firm land. So down is always solid, hard land.

Imagine yourself in dark space in a personalized "space capsule". Anywhere you look, you will find vast space ahead, upward, below and behind you. Without any reference point like Earth, there will be no up and no down......... or no direction for that matter! A really strange feeling unknown to us!

Hope you were able to imagine what I intended to convey.

Why are the famous called 'Stars'?

Today, in one of the news on yahoo about a distant galaxy (about 27 million light years away from Earth) called Pinwheel galaxy, I read the following lines: "The organics, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are dusty, carbon-containing molecules that help in the formation of stars. Scientists also believe this space dust has the potential to be converted into the stuff of life." As per the news account, these polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were appearing in diminishing quantities at the outer rims of the galaxy. For more on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, follow the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycyclic_aromatic_hydrocarbons

The important part of this news is that this 'Dust' which helps formation of starts can also be converted into 'Stuff of Life'! It implies that we are made up of the same basic stuff which also makes our Sun! Isn't that interesting? Is that why the famous are called 'Stars'?

Open Source Energy

Linus Torvalds brought the open source software movement to the notice of all with his Linux operating system (kernel). From that time (I guess) the open source movement (GPL) really took off and today huge amount of software is available free of cost which is more secure and probably is more user-friendly than proprietary software, since it is developed by users themselves. Firefox browser is one well known example. It is much more rich in features as compared to Internet Explorer. And it is developed by a community of people, working free of cost. This has brought software in the reach of common man. Such software is also, usually, less resource hungry and hence can run on older computer systems as well. In a nutshell, it is very effective and efficient!

Can this same movement be repeated in making new advances in production of energy, which is the biggest crisis the world is facing or will face really soon? Can innovative, knowledgeable minds come together and develop some technology which uses solar power (which I guess is the most reliable source of energy in the "long term") as source of energy to provide for Earth's energy demands? Can we have "Open Source Energy?"

The cold space

Space is cold, freezing cold. As you move out of earth's atmosphere, it gets too cold. The temperature goes to some negative degrees celsius.

The space between earth and Sun is no different. That is equally cold. Then how come the earth's atmosphere gets so hot because of the Sun?

Is it radiation? But we have a layer of Ozone to block all the radiation!

Do they pay taxes?

Do the people who resort to stone pelting on public property like buses, trains etc. realize that they are damaging property which they themselves own? The very things that they destroy are paid for by them by way of taxes. Or are they?

The tax officials can initiate scrutinies against such people... probably they don't pay taxes!

Supersonic Jets

Supersonic jets travel faster than the speed of sound. So is it difficult to maintain a communication with that plane? The plane will be able to contact the ground control, but how will the 'voice' of ground control reach the plane if it is traveling faster than the speend of sound?

I know that was a dumb one. Because the medium of transferring the 'voice' will be radio waves which travel at the speed of light. (Hmm... but this seemed a promising idea when it struck me first.)

Now check out this another scenario. Now the plane travels at the speed of light. How is communication possible with that plane? I suspect that the theory of relativity (I don't know whether the general theory or the special one) will take care of that also. But I have never really attempted to understand it (or rather it would be more appropriate {and honest} to say that I did not understand it!).

Time travel!

I came to Dubai recently. The flight from Mumbai takes almost two and a half hours to reach Dubai. When I reached, I had to set time to GMT+4 i.e. one and a half hours before the IST.

WOW! I get extra 1.5 hours in my life till I am here! So do I live more?

Or, to get those extra 1.5 hours, I spent 2.5 hours travelling... so do I lose 1 hour of my life? Oh, confusing! Or is time just an illusion?

In the longer term

In the long term everything is good. How long is the long term is the general "FAQ" for this term. My question is not that. This post is specifically related to investment in equity shares and the "long term".

They say, if you are a real 'investor' your investment horizon is bound to be "long term". In the long term, the returns are assured. But how is this "long term" measured? Is it with respect to our life spans or without any reference? So a question that comes to mind is "Are these assured returns in the "long term" going to be realised within our life spans?"

Consider a depression lasting for 60 years or more. If one is 40-45 years old at the start of such a depression, he/she will not last long to survive any such depression period. What about our "safe" long term then? Is it really safe? My question is exactly that: Is long term really safe?

Fuel...

For faster traffic, we are manipulating traffic flows by turning roads into one ways, banning a few (rather convenient) turns, diversions etc. Aren't we making people take longer routes resulting in accelerated fuel consumtion? Are we consuming the little of what is left of fuel rather too fast? Should private vehicles be banned and public transport be made mandatory? (At least till the time we find some alternative to conventional fuels...)

Sum total of living beings

The total energy in the universe remains constant. Does, in a similar way, the sum total of living beings remain constant? So can the rise in human population be explained by way of extinct species?

Souls...

If souls are immortal, are we over-populating the 'Soul-land' by over-populating earth? Or is that taken care of by re-births?