The Wolf and The Sheep

A country of sheep beget a wolf

with a handful of blabbermouths yawping

" who to Condemn? "

The Wolf for being a Wolf

of streets scarred by years of negligence

that are afraid to see their own faces in the mirror, 

Or the Sheep for being a Sheep

masquerading a lion every five years

and kissing it's one true love, slumber, thereafter. 

I pity the blabbermouths for not being a part of either, 

they shout at the top of their voices to go unheard. 

Since the sheep are too busy, sleeping, 

and, the wolf too busy, being busy! 

I wrote a tiny political piece. Not intended on anyone in particular. 

Comment and share if you like! 

Back from the Future

Searching questions for the answers

Wikipedia defines Time Travel as the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person. Now time travel is a renowned genre in fiction and philosophy. It's ability to allow a person undo his past mistakes which might end up giving people a better present makes it a widely popular concept. Come on, don't you guys ever whine about your mistakes in an exam and how had you had a time machine you would have gone back to correct the incorrect. Time travel is hypothesis and so are it's rules and paradoxes, everything on a piece of paper. So in this blog, instead of writing if time travel is practically possible, we will deal with it's limitations and overcoming those limitations. Buckle up because it is gonna be a ride beyond the space-time continuum! 

The grandfather Paradox

Most of us would have watched Back to the future where Marty travels back in time using an eccentric scientist's time machine. Well the grandfather paradox disproves Marty travelling back. The grandfather paradox is a paradox of time travel in which inconsistencies emerge through changing the past. It describes a person who travels to the past and kills his or her own grandfather before the conception of his or her father or mother, which prevents the time traveller's existence. Now before fella grandfathers leave the chat, the paradox doesn't exclusively insist on the contradiction of killing someone's grandpa. It indicates that even a slightest change in the past may result in a catastrophic present. 

Limitations of the grandfather paradox and The Bootstrap Paradox

The limitations of grandfather paradox include the existence of multiverses. But before jumping straight into multiverses, let us look into another possibility, which we call destiny. 

What if the grandfather the guy who goes back in time is not biological grandfather, but just an average Joe who works as a mechanic in a garage. The guy goes back in time, kills his grandfather, realises that he is still alive because his real grandfather abandoned his father at birth who was adopted by the guy he just killed. The guy then meets his real grandfather and they share a family moment, and that's how you make a freaking good ending! This grandfather thing is all made up, but what if a person travelling to the past was always meant to happen? Like in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaben, where Harry and Hermione travel back in time to save Sirius' soul being sucked. 

 

Let us hear the story of a guy who receives a book "How to build a time Machine" from a random guy who knocks his door. He spends years building a time machine. After 20 years of unsuccessful attempts, he finally builds a fully functional time machine. He writes all his work in a book, travels to the past, knocks his door and gives his younger self the book he has written, so that he doesn't read the wrong book and doesn't spend twenty years building a fully functional time machine. The younger self receives the book and because of lack of technology, he spends 20 years trying to build a time machine and then again he makes one, travels back in time, gives himself the book. So what we see is a loop, called casual loop. And it doesn't violate the grandfather paradox. It is as if the person was destined to receive the book from his future self so that he builds a time machine. 

But what if we ask that who gave the man the book for the first time? We cannot answer that. Because this is similar to who came first, the egg or hen! This is the Bootstrap Paradox. 

    But then if we introspect then this question is as good as what is the numerical value of the left extremum on number line. So dropping this question won't harm anyone. 

The Grandson Paradox

The above paradoxes exclaim that going to the future is theoretically possible, because going to the future won't change the past, so the present won't change. But but suppose, a person goes 50 years in the future and his grandson kills him in the future before he procreates his son in present. The person's son is thus never born and the grandson never existed. But the grandson just killed him, didn't he! Now the future won't change within a fraction of a second. This is the grandson paradox. 

So where are we getting it wrong. Now with past travel already Debatable and future travel pretty much hanging in the middle of uncertainty, where do we stand in travelling from one point in time to another. 

Back from the future

So the thing is if someday we build a time machine and go to the year 2030,then yeah, it's fine. Nothing bad happens as long as we don't get ourselves killed. But the thing is if we go to the future, then the future becomes our present and the present becomes our past. And bootstrap doesn't work in the future, because unlike the present which is destined, the future is more of a subjective kind of stuff and may differ based on differences in our present actions. So even if we go to the year 2050,there is no turning back from there! A time traveller from the past will be stuck in the future till eternity or death, whosoever comes first!

So we cannot consider time travel in our universe. But what if there exist other universes. Stay tuned to my blog as this time we travel beyond our observable universe. 

New blog on multiverses on 22nd May. 

Comment and share if you like. 

How Whatsapp's revised video time limit for curbing fake news spread is at the same time precarious?

To begin with, Happy Mother's Day! 

Facebook owned instant messaging app WhatsApp on 30th March, 2020, reduced it's status video limit from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. According to a tweet by WABetaInfo it is happening in India and it’s probably an initiative to reduce the traffic on the server infrastructures. Another reason, which I believe played a decisive role in this time limit update, is an urge to curb fake news spread. But there is a loophole in this update! 

The video limit is 15 seconds only for India and not for any other country. So a person residing abroad will be able to upload a 30 seconds video while his acquaintance in India will be able to see only the first 15 seconds of the video! I just realized the same when my mom and aunt uploaded the same video in their status. It was a 90 seconds long video and it took my mother 6 trimmed videos while my aunt 3! And when I saw her status, I saw the odd numbered 15 second intervals i.e., 0-15 seconds, 30-45 seconds and 60-75 seconds. When I asked her what about the rest of the status, she told she could see that, however we couldn't! 

The threat

The video my mom and aunt shared was a family video, so it isn't a big deal. But we cannot deny the fact that loss of 50% of a video is no less than hiding half the data. And fake news is not just wrong news, but also incomplete news. Suppose the video would have been "The PMO promises to provide a financial aid of Rs 7500 to all BPL card holders, daily labourers and people who do not have a house" and the video gets trimmed at "The PMO promises to provide a financial aid of Rs 7500 to all", now this is a threat because who knows what upsurge it may lead to! I learnt of this today and I believe that even if Whatsapp's update is appreciable, it is precarious at the same time too. 

Comment and share if you like. 

German Time Pyramid

The Time Pyramid (German: Zeitpyramide) is a work of public art by Manfred Laber under construction in Wemding, Germany.

The pyramid, begun in 1993, at the 1,200th anniversary of Wemding, will take another 1163 years to complete and is scheduled to be finished in the year 3183. As of 2020, the first 3 of its scheduled 120 concrete blocks have been placed.The plan is to install 1 block every 10 years and finish 120 installations by Wemding's 2400th Anniversary! 

The blocks are as tall as an average human being. And the entire structure would be 9 metres tall with a 15 metres broad base once completed. On completion the structure will have 4 tiers. The base tier will have 8×8 i.e., 64 blocks and will be completed by 2634. The second tier will have 6×6 blocks and will be completed by the year 2983. Similarly a 4×4 third tier will be completed by 3143 and the final layer consisting of 4 blocks will be completed by 3183.

The next concrete block will be installed in 2023,  official date hasn't been declared yet! The material of the block is not fixed and may be altered in future generations based on availability. One thing I find fascinating about this project is that once completed it would be the living (I mean dead but metaphorically living) evidence of evolution of petrology, geology, metallurgy and culture over a millenium and what would make it a better evidence than the one's we have now like the Colosseum is it's dynamic nature. 

Footnotes and Image Credits : wikipedia. 

And a special thanks to Vsauce for making such amazing content. 

Extinction of the Australian Megafauna

 

 

   2.5 million years after the evolution of genus homo, we valiantly stand as members of the most cognitively developed species. We have transversed undulated topographies, have made a huge leap of not just faith but scientific limitations, equally evolving culturally from a half naked ape to a tuxedo wearing statesman. Climate change today is a hot topic. We have documentaries, magazines, interviews, press conferences and debates on how modern human is killing the environment. And guess what, it's actually true! But it's equally true that earth's climate has been in a constant flux since time immemorial. During the last million years, there has been an Ice Age on average every 100,000 years. The last one ran from 75000 years ago to 15000 years ago. And a lot of flora and fauna got extinct. But hiding behind the shadow of climate change doesn't deny that humans were equally responsible for extinction of creatures not just 300 years but also 30000 years ago.

Extinction of the Australian Megafauna

      When humans first landed on Australia they were greeted by the stangest creatures of the planet. We may not call them strange today but to an ancient man who landed on a stranded island 40000 years before google Maps, would share the same eerie expression on his face as you would if you see iron man flying over your head. These alien creatures were our very own 200kg 2 meters tall kangaroos, and a marsupial lion, as massive as a modern tiger, and guess what it ruled the jungle back then as well.
      

      The koalas were far too big to be cuddly, the lizards were more of a dragon and snakes were as long as five meters. The giant diprotodons , 2 and a half tonne wombats, roamed the forests. To a modern day man, the scenery might seem scary but our ancient hero had to push his limits to survive in a new environment. 

     Within a few thousand years, virtually all of these giants vanished. Of the twenty four Australian animal species weighing 50 kilograms or more, twenty-three became extinct. Smaller species disappeared in large numbers too. Food chains throughout the entire Australian ecosystem were broken and rearranged. The giant diprotodons that appered more than 1.5 million years ago, after surviving 10 ice ages and the peak of the last ice age (70000 years ago) disappeared around that time too. More than 90% of Australia's megafauna disappeared along with the diprotodon.

    While climate change may be considered a reason behind this large scale ecological damage, we cannot unsee that climate change equally affects aquatic species. Yet there has been no significant disappearance of oceanic fauna 45000 years ago! Researchers claim that one of the prime reasons behind the extinction of Australian megafauna is that the species, unlike species in Africa which evolved along with sapiens, were completely untouched by human intervention. They couldn't adapt to a new species in a food chain, and thus fell out of the race of the survival of the fittest.

If our Ancestors were ecological serial killers too, then why brag about animal extinction now?

Well because our ancestors didn't realize what they were doing. They can't be attributed wrong because their acts eventually led us to where we stand today. Imagine an environmental activist goes back in time to stop sapiens from killing a mammoth, our present won't remain the same, and it would definitely be a lot different than seeing mammoths in zoos and national parks. And we need to brag about animal extinction today because humans can't make the whole food chain. Now that we realise the value of ecological balance and the downsides of ecological imbalance it becomes our primal duty of conserving it.

Footnotes
1. Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari;
2. The Future Eaters: An Ecological History of the Australian Lands and People's, Timothy F. Flannery;
3. A Review of Evidence for a Human Role in the Extinction of Australian Megafauna and an Alternative Explanation, Stepen Wroe and Judith Field.

Image credits
1. Google, Wikipedia. 

For more, see wiki article on Australian Megafauna. 

Share and comment if you like it. 

The 5 villages that Pandavas demanded and where are they now?

In the third chapter of Udyog Parva of Mahabharat, Lord Krishna went to Hastinapur before the Mahabharata Battle for a peace treaty he proposed 3 ideas that could stop the inevitable war. 

The first one was Indraprastha would be returned to the Pandavas with due respect to which even though Dhritarashtra, Bhishma, Guru Dronacharya ,Kulguru Kripacharya while Duryodhana said a clear no. The second one was Duryodhana and his brothers would touch Panchali, Draupadi's feet and beg for forgiveness which angered Duryodhana even more. The third one was the Pandavas would be given 5 villages,which left the Sabha shell shocked. While almost everyone considered it a fair deal, Duryodhana and Shakuni refused to nod affirmatively. "I won't give them land the size of tip of a needle",replied Duryodhana in a jiff. He proved his foolishness by trying to capture Krishna which angered him and he said a war and demise of the Kauravas is certain.

The five villages were Avisthal, Vakrasthal, Makandi, Varnavat and one more their own choice.

Modern locations of the 4 villages

 Let us first take a close look at the map of India of the Mahajanpada time.

We can see that Gandhara kingdom is located in modern day Afghanistan and other kingdoms spread over Uttarpradesh, Uttarakhand,Bihar, Madhyapradesh, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan and Nepal.

Kusasthala , also assumed to be called Avisthala is the modern city of Kannauj. Varnavata could be a place called Shivpuri which is located to the northeast of Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. Vrikasthala is assumed to be in the Gurgaon district of Haryana and Makandi is expected to be somewhere near the bank of river Ganga.

Let us look at the Google map locations of these modern day places.

Kannauj

Shivpuri

Gurgaon

Ganga River

Opinion based on Observation behind selection of these particular villages

If we take a closer look at the probable locations of the 4 villages and compare it with the map of Kuru kingdom,we can see the best example of wit and diplomacy. 3 of the 4 villages are located at the border of the kingdom while one is located at the heart of it which is a proof of possession. Even if Duryodhana would be the king,if he had chosen to negotiate,the location of the villages would infer that the real king is Yudhishthir. And that is what I love about Mahabharata,so much learning in every sentence.

This is a very personal opinion of mine,the reason behind the 4 villages and may or may not be true. The locations however are obtained from various sources on the internet, mostly Hinduism stack exchange.

Image credits- Google,Google maps.

I would again say that the logic behind the 4 villages is my personal opinion based on observation and there is no evidence of it. Corrections and suggestions are welcomed. Comment and share if you like my content.

Stay home,stay safe.

A Tale of Two Cities

We are almost at the end of lockdown. The past few days have been rough for everyone. Some have perceived this as an opportunity to find latent talents, pursue hobbies. And here we are, less than 10 days to go. Most people would have already prepared their after lockdown bucket list, visiting friends, eating out. It's a sad thing that the bucket list contains exactly what we are not supposed to do.

Coming to the topic, this blog isn't about the two cities of London and Paris. And also not Cuttack and Bhubaneswar ( Coz most of my readers will be from Odisha ). It will actually be two tales about 2 pairs of cities and how ensuring strict lockdown measures helped in truncating pandemic.

Philadelphia and St. Louis

It was 1918. The Spanish flu was yet to become a global pandemic. The city chiefs of the American city of Philadelphia decided to conduct a parade with 600 soldiers infected with Spanish flu, completely ignoring the fact that it was a potential human bomb, waiting for the right moment to burst. By the end of the week, more than 4000 people have fallen into it's deadly jaws.

900 miles away,the city of St. Louis introduced measures to limit public gatherings by closing schools,churches,play grounds and libraries within 2 days of detecting the first case.

Restrictions were imposed on gatherings over 20 people. Flu related deaths in St. Louis were half that of Philadelphia. The graph perhaps provides better insights on the statistics.

A 2007 paper  in the proceedings of National Academy of Sciences,from which this this curve is obtained states that " cities in which multiple interventions were implemented at an early phase of the epidemic had peak death rates ≈50% lower than those that did not and had less-steep epidemic curves ." 

Now you may wonder that the cities were 900 miles apart,which isn't exactly the best way of assessing effects of a lockdown. So let us take a look of a pair of Italian cities.

Lodi and Bergamo

 See the map for yourselves. How far does this seem, 65 km? A meagre 56 min drive it is. The city of Lodi imposed severe lockdown measures after the detection of it's first case of COVID-19 while Bergamo didn't. While both had 800 cases on 7th of March,the number of cases in Lodi became half of that of Bergamo by 13th,when Bergamo had 2300 cases while Lodi had 1100.

What makes this virus perilous is a high reproduction number combined with a mammoth 6.9 % fatality. Harvard University has said even after Lockdowns are lifted, intermittent social distancing should be followed for atleast 6 months. So even if you have mighty plans of  having fun after the lockdown,choose to stay home so that you protect not just yourselves but also the people around you.

There is a great quote by Hegel,a German philosopher which goes by " We learn from history that we do not learn from history. " And our history does say that we have always been sloppy when it comes to Viruses.

Stay home,Stay safe.