Thursday 31 May 2012
Wednesday 30 May 2012
Tesla: Engineer, Innovator, Mad-Scientist
the real inventor of modern day electricity was not Edison but this man, an eccentric bad-ass mega genius mad scientist!
First off, Nikola Tesla was insanely brilliant. The Croatian-born engineer spoke eight languages, almost single-handedly developed technology that harnessed the power of electricity for household use, and invented things like electrical generators, FM radio, remote control, robots, spark plugs, fluorescent lights, and giant machines that shoot enormous, brain-frying lightning bolts all over the place. He had an unyielding, steel-trap photographic memory and an insane ability to visualize even the most complex pieces of machinery – the guy did advanced calculus and physics equations in his head, memorized entire books at a time, and successfully pulled off scientific experiments that modern-day technology STILL can't replicate. For instance, in 2007 a group of lesser geniuses at MIT got all pumped up out of their minds because they wirelessly transmitted energy a distance seven feet through the air. Nikola Tesla once lit 200 lightbulbs from a power source 26 miles away, and he did it in 1899 with a machine he built from spare parts in the middle of the desert! To this day, nobody can really figure out how the hell he pulled that off, because two-thirds of the schematics only existed in the darkest recesses of Tesla's all-powerful brain.
First off, Nikola Tesla was insanely brilliant. The Croatian-born engineer spoke eight languages, almost single-handedly developed technology that harnessed the power of electricity for household use, and invented things like electrical generators, FM radio, remote control, robots, spark plugs, fluorescent lights, and giant machines that shoot enormous, brain-frying lightning bolts all over the place. He had an unyielding, steel-trap photographic memory and an insane ability to visualize even the most complex pieces of machinery – the guy did advanced calculus and physics equations in his head, memorized entire books at a time, and successfully pulled off scientific experiments that modern-day technology STILL can't replicate. For instance, in 2007 a group of lesser geniuses at MIT got all pumped up out of their minds because they wirelessly transmitted energy a distance seven feet through the air. Nikola Tesla once lit 200 lightbulbs from a power source 26 miles away, and he did it in 1899 with a machine he built from spare parts in the middle of the desert! To this day, nobody can really figure out how the hell he pulled that off, because two-thirds of the schematics only existed in the darkest recesses of Tesla's all-powerful brain.
Of course, much like many other eccentric giga-geniuses and diabolical masterminds, Tesla was also completely insane. He was prone to nervous breakdowns, claimed to receive weird visions in the middle of the night, spoke to pigeons, and occasionally thought he was receiving electromagnetic signals from extraterrestrials on Mars. He was also obsessive-compulsive and hated round objects, human hair, jewelry, and anything that wasn't divisible by thre. Basically, Nikola Tesla was the ultimate mad scientist, which is seriously awesome.
Another thing about Tesla is that he conducted the superb experiments that generally result in hordes of angry villagers breaking down the door to your lab with torches and pitchforks. One time, while he was working on magnetic resonance, he discovered the resonant frequency of the Earth and caused an earthquake so powerful that it almost obliterated the 5th Avenue New York building that housed his laboratory. Stuff was flying off the walls, the drywall was breaking apart, the cops were coming after him, and Tesla had to smash his device with a sledge hammer to keep it from demolishing an entire city block. Later, he boasted that he could have built a device powerful enough to split the Earth in two. Nobody dared him to prove it.
Tesla also ordered the construction of the Wardenclyffe Tesla Tower, a giant building that would have housed the largest Tesla coil ever built. The massive structure, ostensibly designed to wirelessly transmit power, has been cited as a potential cause of the mysterious 1908 Tunguska Event – a ten-megaton blast that detonated in the wastelands above central Russia that completely obliterated and deforested everything unlucky enough to be located within a several hundred mile radius. While nothing has ever successfully proven Tesla's involvement in the huge explosion, it's pretty awesome that this guy could potentially have detonated a weapon 1,000 times more powerful than the nuclear bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, and have done it back before they'd even invented the submachine gun.
During his adventures blinding half of the world with science, Nikola Tesla harnessed the power of Niagara Falls into the first hydroelectric power plant, constructed a bath designed to cleanse the human body of germs using nothing but electricity, and created a 130-foot long bolt of lightning from one of his massive coils (a feat which to this day remains the world record for man-made lightning), but perhaps his most awesome invention was his super-secret Atomic Death Ray. In the 1920s he claimed to be working on a tower that could potentially have spewed forth a gigantic beam of ionized particles capable of disintegrating aircraft from 200 miles away and blinking most men out of existence like in those sci fi movies. His weapon, known as the "Teleforce Beam", allegedly shot ball lightning at 60 million volts, liquefying its targets with enough power to vaporize steel, and, while it could shoot further than 200 miles, its effectiveness beyond that range was limited only by the curvature of the Earth. Luckily for all humans, this crazy insanity never came to fruition – most of the schematics and plans existed only in Tesla's head, and when he died of heart failure in 1943, little hard data on the project existed. Still, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI confiscated all his personal stuff and locked it away anyways, just to be safe.
Despite being incredibly popular during his day, now Tesla remains largely overlooked among lists of the greatest inventors and scientists of the modern era. Thomas Edison gets all the glory for discovering the lightbulb, but it was his one-time assistant and life-long arch-nemesis, Nikola Tesla, who made the breakthroughs in alternating-current technology that allowed for people to cheaply use electricity to power appliances and lighting in their homes. They constantly fought about whether to use alternating or direct-currents (their bitter blood feud resulted in both men being snubbed by the Nobel Prize committee), but ultimately Tesla was the one who delivered the fatal blow that ended the battle – at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, his AC generators illuminated the entire experience, marking the first time that an event of that magnitude had ever taken place under the glow of artificial light. Today, all homes and applicances run on Tesla's AC current.
Nikola Tesla was one of those super-genius minds whose intellect placed him dangerously on the precipice between "great scientific mind" and "utter madness". He held 700 patents at the time of his death, made groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of physics, robotics, steam turbine engineering, and magnetism, and once melted one of his assistants' hands by overloading it with X-rays - which isn't really scientific, but is still pretty cool. And honestly, if there were one man on this planet who was ever capable of single-handedly destroying the entire planet through his insane scientific discoveries, it was Tesla.
vTuesday 22 May 2012
A Page in History
Wikipedia aptly defines history as: The discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events.
But the average teen thinks of it as a mere conglomeration of words made purposefully with the intention to bore an individual. Most dread the fact that they had to study it.
But the average teen thinks of it as a mere conglomeration of words made purposefully with the intention to bore an individual. Most dread the fact that they had to study it.
"To remain ignorant of things that happened before you were born is to remain a child."
CICERO
On personal note I agree to this. History is not mere words but it the footnotes from the lives of legends. people who have helped carve the life that we are living today.
We don't want to read history but we do want to be a part of it. every individual has this dream - to make a mark, to achieve something. We all sing along to Linkin Park's "Leave Out All the Rest" with this gusto.
" when my time comes, forget the wrong that I've done, let me leave behind some...
memories to be missed."
We want people to remember our little idiosyncrasies and do not want to be a mere note in a fat book ageing in the library.
Why will people remember us ? How do we leave a mark?
no one will like their page to go like-".....and he was a great gamer and chatter used to spend large amount of time on Facebook, lived a normal life died in a one roomed apartment in a shabby old building."
Probably not!(i don't)
Everybody has a hidden talent, something special. One must discover it, explore it and expand it.
We hear success stories of people around us. They are normal human beings too. What makes them so special?
The answer is:The Urge, The passion to excel and do something noteworthy. we can always start making a difference by small steps, starting now- help a random stranger, plant a tree, stop somebody from smoking, etc.
Wake up everyday with a fresh thought , a new idea. an idea to change.
and guess what by the time you are dead you may not have just secured a place in heaven but history as well.
And not just a page maybe enough material to ink a book.
CICERO
We don't want to read history but we do want to be a part of it. every individual has this dream - to make a mark, to achieve something. We all sing along to Linkin Park's "Leave Out All the Rest" with this gusto.
" when my time comes, forget the wrong that I've done, let me leave behind some...
memories to be missed."
We want people to remember our little idiosyncrasies and do not want to be a mere note in a fat book ageing in the library.
Why will people remember us ? How do we leave a mark?
no one will like their page to go like-".....and he was a great gamer and chatter used to spend large amount of time on Facebook, lived a normal life died in a one roomed apartment in a shabby old building."
Probably not!(i don't)
Everybody has a hidden talent, something special. One must discover it, explore it and expand it.We hear success stories of people around us. They are normal human beings too. What makes them so special?
The answer is:The Urge, The passion to excel and do something noteworthy. we can always start making a difference by small steps, starting now- help a random stranger, plant a tree, stop somebody from smoking, etc.
Wake up everyday with a fresh thought , a new idea. an idea to change.
and guess what by the time you are dead you may not have just secured a place in heaven but history as well.
And not just a page maybe enough material to ink a book.
Wednesday 16 May 2012
THE SIXTH SENSE TECHNOLOGY
The amazing touch interface, J.A.R.V.I.S.
Tony Stark's awesome workstation...
We think of all these as gimmicks...BUT ....
WATCH ON AND FIND OUT..... Epic doesn't even begin to describe it..
SIXTH SENSE
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Pranav Mistry is a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab. Before his studies at MIT, he worked with Microsoft as a UX researcher; he's a graduate of IIT. Mistry is passionate about integrating the digital informational experience with our real-world interactions.
Some previous projects from Mistry's work at MIT includes intelligent sticky notes, Quickies, that can be searched and can send reminders; a pen that draws in 3D; and TaPuMa, a tangible public map that can act as Google of physical world. His research interests also include Gestural and Tangible Interaction, Ubiquitous Computing, AI, Machine Vision, Collective Intelligence and Robotics.
so guys! what do you think?
GENIUS has a new definition....do share this....... really amazing....
Teleportation
Crazy? Maybe. Insanely great
science? Absolutely.
Imagine
a scene aboard the star ship Enterprise and suddenly a distress call is received.
Captain Kirk in his usual savvy exclaims-“beam me up, Scotty.”He then disappears into thin air. In the next frame he is standing on a distant planet.
We are all left with one thought-“AWESOME!”
Imagine never being late for anything- school, meeting, dates etc.
No more- angry girlfriend, boss or teacher. No more of the morning rushes or any traffic.
No more- angry girlfriend, boss or teacher. No more of the morning rushes or any traffic.
From the Himalayas to the moon no place would feel too far or unreachable.
Life will be easy. Reach anywhere, any time- just set up a
teleporter and we are done.
Movies have shown us this dream of interspatial travel. But how far-fetched is it?
Movies have shown us this dream of interspatial travel. But how far-fetched is it?
In words of Sheldon Cooper from the big bang theory(sitcom):
“Personally, I would never use a transporter because the original Sheldon would
have to be disintegrated in order to create a new Sheldon.”
Well
scientists believe so too. It could work like a fax machine scan, transmit and
print but adding a third dimension to it.
On a spiritual scale teleportation is like the cycle of life- death, transfer of the soul and then life.
It would quite interesting actually- dying and then being alive at the next moment.
But the busy scientist is working on something what is called quantum teleportation.
On a spiritual scale teleportation is like the cycle of life- death, transfer of the soul and then life.
It would quite interesting actually- dying and then being alive at the next moment.
But the busy scientist is working on something what is called quantum teleportation.
How is this "quantum teleportation" actually achieved?
The process relies upon something called "Quantum Entanglement,"
a fiendishly counter-intuitive phenomenon that Einstein described as "spukhafte
Fernwirkung" or "spooky action at a distance." Basically it
involves two separate particles behaving as if they were essentially one and
the same, even though they are separated by a great distance. Changes to one
particle will be mirrored in the other. Using this phenomenon, physicists have
been able to transfer -- or in effect teleport -- the properties of one
particle to another, in the case of atoms over a distance of about half a
meter, in the case of photons over tens of kilometers.
But
with us humans it may seem a bit far-fetched. With each human being made up of
trillions upon trillions of atoms -- 10 to the power of 28 to be precise - an
accurate scan and then replicating each atom in its own spin and quantum state
may seem too much to handle.
Then again the pyramids were built by humans no less. Maybe we may too someday be sipping coffee on a planet called ch76419 and using the catch phrase-“Beam up.”
Then again the pyramids were built by humans no less. Maybe we may too someday be sipping coffee on a planet called ch76419 and using the catch phrase-“Beam up.”
Monday 14 May 2012
Why Blogging?
Why turn to blogging at an early age? This is a question that has often arisen in my mind. I used to think its quite boring to write, let alone read the experiences of other people ( for the old dude with nothing to do... lazying on the couch ). Social forums were for the needy attention hungry drones not me. Then why am I doing this?
Do I have nothing better to do ?
Am I a drone too ?
Live alone in a one room apartment for 48 hours and it will start feeling like a jail cell. Believe me! I had been imprisoned.Take away the cell phone too while you are at it.(HARSH!)
We consider ourselves exclusive but the fact is (sadly) we are all the same. The average teen thinks the same way whether he/she is an Indian or American, Hindu or Muslim, even boy or girl (in fact belonging to any social or cultural background.) .So you probably know what is going on in my mind(um... not that exactly ;) ).
And frankly got noting better to do.Exams over. Hot and humid climate*.But wasting daylight…not me!
We all want to be heard, make our presence felt. But most fail to do so. No one is heard just by holding a microphone, one must speak into it, inspire and be inspired. In words of the the rap artist Eminem-” you get one chance, life ain’t no Nintendo game”.
So I am taking my shot at the game. This blog is my voice, my medium to intract with a wider audience. To learn, to be a better peron in life.
Cause ”you live only once” (unless you are a zombie of course!).
And please do leave a comment...(even if you like the music!)
*(read: bitching hot!).
And please do leave a comment...(even if you like the music!)
*(read: bitching hot!).