Thoughts And Trivia

Even as a child my favourite time-pass was sitting on the window which had a wide ledge. The window looked out on a public ground. Munching on peanuts, I could ask my mother:
Who is That Man? Where is he going?
Why does he not play a game? Will his mother be angry if he is late?
What could be in his bag - that he is carrying? etc.
I got fairly plausible and patient answers. She I now recall used to be amused and pleased at such questions.
Is it Genes? My son also asked similar questions. I also loved such sessions and answered him patiently and with humour.
I treasure both sets of remembrances as moments dripping with pure love.
But now as an adult (as you see in my profile "About Me"), I look at the world and ask myself those same questions again. Sometimes I look inwards and ask myself about myself!
What do you get from writing such Blogs? Will your wife be not angry for spending too much time on computer?
Who reads them and why do they?
You could play the role of my mother and try answering that ;-)

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Child is the father of Man. If we want to understand hows and why of behaviour of early Humans, lets look at what is relevant to an infant.
Understanding Physics by early humans is not surprising - since even a child learns of laws of nature by an intuitive interaction with the world. But I wonder, how and why did humankind learn to understand numbers and then on to mathematics? For numbers do not have that direct a day to day relevance for an infant - except for that acquisitive instinct to possess more of what it likes. But why numbers to mathematics and then application of mathematics to Physics. It does not make evolutionary sense.
Only explanation could be that numbers, mathematics and physics in mathematical language is hard-wired in human mind. BUT WHY?
Will a community isolated from learned mankind arrive at the same mathematics and physics? If we are hard-wired - it should and if we are not then the Human knowledge is only a soft skill passed on and extended from generation to generation.
In Andaman Island there are two tribes (The Jarawaks and ?) in some islands, who have shunned contact with rest of humans - except at a distance. They are known to understand numbers and arithmetic. They are so averse to human contact - that we cannot find if they have knowledge of any rudimentary mathematics or physics. But their mere knowledge of arithmetic supports the hard-wired conjecture.

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I am afraid of the Lightning since childhood. I read a lot about lightning as a child out of curiosity. This has instilled a sense of panic in me when the clouds are angry - specially in the dark.
What I recall learning is:

1. The bolt of the lightning travels at a speed of 60,000 m/s ; temperature of 30,000^oC (five times hotter than surface of Sun)and carries a current of 40-120 kilo-amperes. A normal strike travels a distance of approx 1.3 Kms. Target is struck actually by 3-4 strikes 30-40 ms apart, due to repeated discharge of the charge in the cloud. The discharge channel in air is only 1 cm dia.


2. Lightning strikes the highest or the electrically the least resistive path to the earth. Be away from these high sites. Do not stand under a tree in an open space.


3. Its its search of least resistive paths that causes the cracking sound due to sudden changes in its paths. The thundering sound is due to the shock wave created by air in contact being suddenly heated to 10,000^oC.


4. In a structure it strikes the corners. Stay away from corner rooms or a corner in a room.


5. If standing in a row, it strikes the extremities. Stand in the middle of a line.


6. On striking or even before it may divide into a large number of splinter paths. If you are slightly afar from a target, even then you are vulnerable. People even 25 metres away may be vulnerable.


7. Rarely its has been seen to come as a balloon of bright light. Though lots of eye-witness reports are there, but there has never been a scientific confimtion of this.


8. More lightning is seen in rains after a particularly dry spell.


9. Mostly the lightning is negative charged. But rarely it is positively charged - which is more damaging - travels larger distances before striking. So even area not having clouds may get struck - really bolts from blue!


10. Lightning is the deadliest weather phenomenon, 24,000 people get killed and 2,40,000 are injured by it each year


11. Safest place is to be inside a strong house, but stay away from anything that can conduct electricity - phones, TV, Computer, plumbing, Metal doors/windows.


12. Car's tyres are ineffective as insulation. Its metal body of car that conducts away the charge that saves the ocuupants - if they are not touching any metallic part at that time.

No! No! I didn't want to infect you with my panic. Honest. Being forewarned isn't being forearmed always.

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The hit counter on this blog is entering into that range of figures - about which I feel very nostalgic. In 1953 I was 3 years old. Chubby, naughty, playful - 4th child out of five. I was very greedy about food and used to steal goodies from kitchen. I had started going to Nursery School at that age - which I hated. I remember feeling very lost and crying on the first day - when a very pretty classmate came, hugged, kissed and consoled me. I can recall even the pillar against which I leaned to cry. Thereafter I think I must have stopped crying and started playing with her. Its not a love story, the girl left school after 2/3 years - I don't know her. I graduated from the same school at 17 years of age. Its a rosy feeling to recall that act of kindness. Oh! no! Let me not cry again.
Originally published in my blog Nothing That Matters, where you can see the comments.

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After a long time, I returned to the site, and did what I had been hoping to do for a long time.....
I found out ways to make a better layout for this blog. I came across the blogbuster site. It has downloadable template for magazine style - three column layout with widgets.
So, here it is. It was lot of slogging. Not easy. I was familiar with HTML. I had been tinckering a lot with earlier template - with lots of customization. But XTML or widgets, I had not tried.
I lost lots of earlier customizations and had to bring it in again.
I still not through, but yes its up and running for the time being.
Thanks to my wife for her patience with me - while I worked on it for hours.
What do you think of the changes??

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