The MetaTale

Australia Day 2011 Fireworks

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:13:36 PST

Potential southern hemisphere gravitational wave detector short movie

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 07:42:35 PST

Speech mistakes made.Please ignore, and have a look at the movie.

Yuri Milner- Get ready for the global brain

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 17:32:00 PDT

YALTA, Ukraine — Get ready for the global brain. That was the grand finale of a presentation on the next generation of the Internet I heard last week from Yuri Milner. G-8 leaders had a preview of Mr. Milner’s predictions a few months earlier, when he was among the technology savants invited to brief the world’s most powerful politicians in Deauville, France.

Mr. Milner is the technology guru most of us have never heard of. He was an early outside investor in Facebook, sinking $200 million in the company in 2009 for a 1.96 percent stake, a decision that was widely derided as crazy at the time. He was also early to spot the potential of Zynga, the gaming company, and of Groupon, the daily deals site.

His investing savvy propelled Mr. Milner this year onto the Forbes Rich List, with an estimated net worth of $1 billion. One reason his is not yet a household name is that he does his tech spotting from Moscow, not a city most of us look to for innovative economic ideas.

Mr. Milner was speaking in the Ukranian city of Yalta, at the annual mini-Davos hosted by the Ukrainian pipes baron and art collector Victor Pinchuk (disclosure — I moderated at the event). What was striking about Mr. Milner’s remarks was how sharply his tone differed from that of the other participants.

The Americans — among them the economists Lawrence H. Summers and Paul Krugman — were glum about their country’s economic stagnation and its political inability to adopt policies that could end it. The Europeans — a group that included the foreign ministers of Sweden and Poland, and Jürgen Fitschen, who has been named co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank — were worried about the sovereign debt crisis.

Even the Turks and the Indians, whose economies grew more than 8 percent last year, were anxious about uneven development at home, and the threat of economic tsunamis coming from abroad.

Mr. Milner’s perspective was entirely different. For one thing, at a time when where you sit so often determines where you stand, Mr. Milner almost perfectly represents a global technology elite whose frame of reference is planet Earth. He mostly lives in Moscow, but has recently purchased a palatial home in Silicon Valley. He addressed the Ukrainian conference by video link from Singapore.

From that vantage point, the most pressing issue in the world today isn’t recession and political paralysis in the West, or even the rapid development and political transformation in emerging markets, it is the technology revolution, which, in Mr. Milner’s view, is only getting started. Here are the changes he thinks are most significant:

• The Internet revolution is the fastest economic change humans have experienced, and it is accelerating. Mr. Milner said two billion people are online today. Over the next decade, he predicts that that number will more than double.

• The Internet is not just about connecting people, it is also about connecting machines, a phenomenon Mr. Milner dubbed “the Internet of things.” Mr. Milner said that five billion devices are connected today. By 2020, he thinks more than 20 billion will be.

• More information is being created than ever before. Mr. Milner asserted that as much information was created every 48 hours in 2010 as was created between the dawn of time and 2003. By 2020, that same volume of information will be generated every 60 minutes.

• People are sharing information ever more frequently. The pieces of content shared on Facebook have increased from 140 million in 2009 to 4 billion in 2011. We are even sending more e-mails: 50 billion were sent in 2006, versus 300 billion in 2010.

• The result, according to Mr. Milner, is the dominance of Internet platforms relative to traditional media. “The largest newspaper in the United States is only reaching 1 percent of the population.” he said. “That compares to Internet media, which is used by 25 percent of the population daily and growing.”

• Internet businesses are much more efficient than brick-and-mortar companies. This was one of Mr. Milner’s most striking observations, and a clue to the paradox of how we find ourselves simultaneously living in a time of what Mr. Milner views as unprecedented technological innovation but also high unemployment in the developed West. As Mr. Milner said, “Big Internet companies on average are capable of generating revenue of $1 million per employee, and that compares to 10 to 20 percent of that which is normally generated by traditional offline businesses of comparable size.” As an illustration, Mr. Milner cited Facebook, where, he said, each single engineer supports one million users.

• Artificial intelligence is part of our daily lives, and its power is growing. Mr. Milner cited everyday examples like Amazon.com’s recommendation of books based on ones we have already read and Google’s constantly improving search algorithm.

• Finally — and Mr. Milner admitted this was “a bit of a futuristic picture” — he predicted “the emergence of the global brain, which consists of all the humans connected to each other and to the machine and interacting in a very unique and profound way, creating an intelligence that does not belong to any single human being or computer.”

More than most of us, Mr. Milner understands that changes in what he calls “the offline world” can have real bite: He lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the politics and economy of Russia today are no cakewalk. But, in a year that has seen the Arab Spring and the threat of the collapse of the euro, Mr. Milner’s predictions are an important reminder that the most significant revolution may be happening in cyberspace.

DECLARATION: Not my own writing AT ALL. Taken (say- copied WORD to WORD) from New york Times article published on Sep 22, 2011. Reference- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/world/europe/23iht-letter23.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share. The article's presence in my blog just signifies my interest and excitement over reading the original article's content and coming to know about Yuri Milner. He was a Physics guy. But now, he's doing all this stuff and is a billionaire. Listed by Forbes (:s). Something really very interesting (Read his Wiki page if you don't believe me!). Also, a lesson for all Physicists. To be more OPEN! (\m/). In the end, earning a billion dollar and operating (working) on world and international issues (of our own planet Earth) with so many (so-called) important figures of today's world, is not a less cool thing as compared to finding the (so-called) Grand Unified Theories or contemplating on the fate of our Universe.

UWA Open Day story- Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 07:19:30 PDT

This day was really so freakin awesome! I screwed up with my fixed time schedule for the demonstration in the morning, as I was sleeping until late 11.00 a.m., but in the end it turned out to be all well and deep fun.

The demonstration I was assigned was a capacitive displacement/ position sensor (we use this as a sensor to sense any displacement activity in the high quality test mass mirrors inside the long tubular resonant optical cavity). Poor thing, it didn't even get so much attension from many passers. I could see it crying and rolling on the floors with tears. It was not attracting as much attension from the visitors/ passers as compared tc the other 3 demonstrations on the right, and 2 on the left. The one on the right was an exhibit about practical demonstration of mathematical random distribution behavour done by Yiqui (fellow Phd student) and to his right was the interferometer stuff demonstration by Fang Qi. (another Phd student). It's so funny that we can even demonstrate such an exciting and expensive project in real research world with such a simple exhibit. The real stuff which is in US and called LIGO project, is like $ 2 billion. But, this!, this demonstration!, would be something like just $ 200. Or may be a bit more than that. It's really funny that when we go to real implementation of any theoretical and well known idea/ principle, the experimental and scientific sophistication gets so demanding, that the cost rises to such breathtaking values. The human race is getting crazier and crazier day-by-day, month-by-month, year-by-year, decade-by-decade, century-by-century, millenium-by-millenium, and eon-by-eon. Not sure if using the word "eon" would make any sense in the context of human race, since we have already declared that the species homo-sapiens is just 10,000 years old. And definitely, 10,000 years has no credibility at all to be called an eon in any case and in any scenario. So, concluding it, we can say that using eon-by-eon expression was a serious screw up with the context. But you see, it was just a metaphorical use to express my feelings.

Anyways, to hell with my feelings, the one doing the exhibit adjacent to Fang Qi was not from our group, and hence I am not so sure what exactly it was. Moving on, lets talk about the exhibit to my left. To my very left was the one to showcase eddy current effect and to the far left was the one to physically show the manifestation of the modes of sound on a physical membrane. Yeah, it was indeed as exciting as it sounds to be. These 2 exhibits on my left were for some time done by Zhao (one of my supervisors) and another by Sunil (fellow Phd student in our group).

To sum up, not only these exhibits were awesome, but the one in the other half of the room and the one outside our room were just attracting as much attension from all the visitors as our set up. All the open day volunteers, dressed up in dark-ice-sky-blue (not sure if that sounds right!) t-shirts (which again was just freakin awesome), were looking like cadets taking charge of controlling the vastly profuse number of visting and curious visitors from different departments (I guess) and also general public with little/ no/ vast interest in science. Was so interesting to see that all of them were so curious and wanted to have their motive fulfilled. The motive being, exploring the UWA Open Day and getting as much knowledge/ fun/ flyers/ time pass as they could. The crowd contained all the age groups, such that it made it really more interesting of an experience to drill through.

Sunil, who was giving the demonstration just in front of my table was so charged up and was really explaining the eddy exhibit very well. He was like, taking the charge and just grabbing all the vox populi towards him. Be it interest wise/ or something else, I am really not sure of. :) Then was Yiqui, who is so shy! He was like, while doing the exhibit, he just stood at the back of the board and the exhibit board which made it very hard for the populus to see him. I said, Yiqui, atleast you should explain to all of them while demonstrating to them that what and how your stuff really works. :) He's a theoretical guy (a really good one), and he wanted to exlain the actual matheatical theory of the working of the experiment. But I told & explained to him, that, Yiqui, many of them wouldn't even understand all the mathematics stuffed up for the working!! But anyways, it was all really really good. The shape of the pattern of the pins on the exhibit board was so elegant! The sensitively refined random fine tuned sound from the plastic balls hitting the metal pins of the board and getting along its way towards the bottom of the board under the control of universal force known as gravity was so pure and transcedental. Was really such a thrilling experience it was to hear and experience it. Even most of the visitors liked it, as they would pass across and through the front of our exhibits. Then it was Fang Qi, really excited and demonstrating the fancy sound effects produced by even very tiny disturbance/ vibration injected mechanically onto the mini-laser-intereferometric pattern production screen. All of this was really so much real fun to experience.

Here ends the 1st part of the open day story. I really have some work to finish off and then go to have some sleep. Really feeling so sleepy and tired.. I think I plan to write the part-2 today night or sometime later.

Cheerios!

Sigining off-
S2V

Mess up, Zess up, Jezz up!!

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:36:02 PDT

I just messed up with my plans to go for this movie- "The Guard" which was planned yesterday with few of my freinds. I was awake all night and the plan was to catch a bus at 10.02 a.m. from near to the UWA and reach Esplanade Bus Stn. and then transfer to take the train from Esplanade Transperth Railway Stan. to reach Leederville at 10.37 a.m. (well before 11.00 a.m. which was the scheduled plan).

I screwed up again with the time! Gawd, why the HELL did I have to take the power nap! Just at 9.30 a.m. when I went back from my office in Uni to my residence (which happens to be DARN close to it), I was pretty confident that I'll be able to get ready and do all stuff on time. But, it sucks that the power nap turned out to be like- FOREVER, and as soon as I woke up from my fatigue driven, tiredness driven, enligntenment driven sleep.. I realized it was 10.20 a.m., and I had already missed the bus.. and hence the train to make me reach the Luna Cinema on time!

It really sucks! First of all, I miss the movie, and then some peace time with my recently-made-Uni friends. They are good guys, and I met them during Pelican's magazine writers night few days back. To those who don't know, Pelican is a magazine published by UWA. My friend is the EDITOR of the magazine! I know, it sounds really great.

One interesting point, which comes to my mind when talking about editors, is that, my younger sister has also been nominated at an editor of her school magazine. It's a darn good school, I should admit, in our Jharkhand state in India, and to be the editor from the higher secondary section is a very responsible and mature job on your part. But, I am really happy for my sweet sister.

Well.. you know, today is rakshabandhan (one of the major festivals in India for brothers and sisters), I devote this article to her. I miss her, and really miss the old days whe she use to tie rakhi on my hands on this very day. I miss that sofa, and that very posture, in which we both used to get ready to enjoy the moment.

I miss my family, who used to be there on this very day, cheering both of us, and taking pictures to preserve the beautiful and precious moment at this point of the year. Since few years, it has been a bit easier to take the pictures. But before that, we had the photographic plate reel camera's which used to only make hard copies of the taken pictures.

Talking of cameras, something really very exciting has happened to me! Guess what! I have taken a very new camera, which is 14 MP and 30 X Optical Zoom! It's darn cool, I should say. I ordered it online, but it's been shipped. It'll reach the internal mailbox of my department very soon. I am eagerly waiting for it, and to take the first picture from it. To the one more curious, the camera is- Fujifilm S4000- http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/s/finepix_s4000/. You know, it's really awesome! I am already so much in love with it. Clicking that very first picture from this camera, will be like one of the most pleasurable moments of my life. I am interested in Photography (abstract, scientific, natural, macros, random, astro, and hell all of it), and for a long time I took the pain of not having a digicam with me. I came to Aus on 2nd Feb, and I was camera-less since then. I did actually decide that I am going to take either a very good SLR/ D-SLR or a really good digicam. Finally, I am satiated to have that desire of mine accomplished. I am happy.

You know, one of my friend- Shilpa Agarwal, is also interested in photography.. oing journalism now in India, bought D-SLR few days back. Since then my motivation to buy a good clicking-machine had only got bolstered. And, here I am! For those, who care, she also writes a blog, and has recently moved from Blogspot to Wordpress. And, here is her blog link- http://agarwalshilpa3.wordpress.com/. Liking/ not-liking the blog is upon your discretion. But, I do like it. have been keeping track of it since last year, when we first met on Blog-o-sphere itself.

Anyways, enough rambling. Now time for some late breakfast/ early lunch. Brunch? Have a friends place to go this evening! He's making crepes, and I am sure it's going to be awesome and delicious. I had one, with different stuff put inside it 2-3 months back when French visitors were visiting us, but since then, I didn't have it. So, I am really looking forward to it! Have to buy some fruits, and some delicious stuff to take it to his place for making crepes stuffed with that thing. Ah, let's see..

Anyways, bye for now. And, cheers.

Signing Off-

S2V

The UWA Open Day Timetable & Responsibilities! Wooh!

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:39:25 PDT

UWA Open Day, Sunday 14 August 2011
Timetable

08:15 - 11:15 (Set-up & Demo)
Sidd Verma
Zhao
Xingjiang Zhu
Ruby Chan

Displays
Chladni Demo (Teaching)
interferometer
normal distribution beads
Eddy Damper
Posters
LIGO-Australia & GDC DVDs
AIGO brochures (small)

10-12 am (Demo)
Eric Howell
Shaun Hooper

11:15 - 13:15 (Demo)
Fang Qi
Sunil Susmithan
YiQui Ma

Prep & Test Displays
Teaching Team (Andy Burrell)
Fang Qi
Teaching Team (Joe Colletti)
Sunil
Ruby
Sundae
Ruby

Prep of Poster

Fang Qi
YiQui Ma
Sunil

13:15 - 16:15 (Pack-Away & Demo)
Andrew Sunderland
Sundae Chen
Zhao
Ruby Chan - pack away

Equipment (Joe Colletti)
two trestle tables
two poster boards
laptop
two power bars
three chairs
monitor, keyboard, mouse & dvds
Network Connection (Mark Boulton)

Volunteers

1. Fang Qi
2. Sunil Susmithan
3. Yihui MA
4. Andrew Sunderland
5. Sundae Chen
6. Zhao Chunnong
7. Xingjiang Zhu
8. Siddarth Verma
9. Shaun Hooper
10. Eric Howell

Interested FELLLLLAAAAAAZZ, go to this UWA OFFICIAL OPEN DAY WEB PAGE LINK- http://www.open.uwa.edu.au/

Cheers,

S2V

The GARGANTUAN European Extremely Large Telescope

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:17:07 PDT

The European Extremely Large Telescope, a.k.a. EELT can be considered to be one of the most EXCITING and CHALLENGING experiments of this decade in which we will live (I assume a major proportion of us, will, at least). Along with other such grand experiments such as ......... (So many to list.. SO,.. leave it.. :| .. )

I was going through its website, and read about its plans, and everything. Here, I produce an excerpt of a glimpse of literature shown on its webpage. Will also refer the web link of the actual EELT page (from where I produce this excerpt) at the end of this article.

" The World's Biggest Eye on the Sky

Extremely Large Telescopes are considered worldwide as one of the highest priorities in ground-based astronomy. They will vastly advance astrophysical knowledge, allowing detailed studies of subjects including planets around other stars, the first objects in the Universe, super-massive black holes, and the nature and distribution of the dark matter and dark energy which dominate the Universe.

Since the end of 2005 ESO has been working together with its user community of European astronomers and astrophysicists to define the new giant telescope needed by the middle of the next decade. More than 100 astronomers from all European countries have been involved throughout 2006, helping the ESO Project Offices to produce a novel concept, in which performance, cost, schedule and risk were carefully evaluated.

Dubbed E-ELT for European Extremely Large Telescope, this revolutionary new 40-metre-class ground-based telescope will be the world's biggest eye on the sky.

With start of operations planned for early in the next decade, the E-ELT will tackle the biggest scientific challenges of our time, and aim for a number of notable firsts, including tracking down Earth-like planets around other stars in the "habitable zones" where life could exist — one of the Holy Grails of modern observational astronomy. It will also perform "stellar archaeology" in nearby galaxies, as well as make fundamental contributions to cosmology by measuring the properties of the first stars and galaxies and probing the nature of dark matter and dark energy. On top of this astronomers are also planning for the unexpected — new and unforeseeable questions will surely arise from the new discoveries made with the E-ELT."

ASSOCIATED WebPAGE- http://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/e-elt.html

So well, after the last 2 consecutive posts, I am not going to SIGN OFF again!

Cheers,

S2V

London gets new Automated POD babies!

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:48:01 PDT

Here is what I found something really interesting in the FABULOUS, FANTASTIC and "the" AMAZING online MAGAZINE- none other than- GOOD.

These babies have been planned to be implemented in other places as well, like- San Jose & Mountain View in California, Tysons corner, Virginia; Alberta, HELL other places LIKE- DEEEZE.

The snaps goes here- http://www.ultraprt.com/media/pictures/heathrow-pictures/

The main article on GOOD goes here- http://www.good.is/post/this-pod-drives-itself-the-latest-in-personal-transit-comes-with-no-conductor

And, here, I SIGN OFF again!

- sigh -

Signing Off-

S2V

Personal Invitation from Ray Kurzweil for the Singularity Summit - 2011in New York, USA!

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:32:59 PDT

My goodness! Ray, personally sent an email to everybody inviting to participate in Singularity Summit - 2011 in New York, USA!

It's so exciting, that I wanted to share it on my blog-space. Here is the email-

Dear Siddartha,

I am writing to cordially invite you to the 6th annual Singularity Summit, to be held at the 92nd St. Y in New York City on October 15-16.

The Singularity Summit is the only conference that examines the full suite of transformative emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and automation, which are transforming our lives on a daily basis.

In 2002, I predicted that by 2029 there would be artificial intelligence capable of lively and spontaneous conversation at the human level -- Turing Test passing AI. Earlier this year, the field moved closer to that goal when Watson, an IBM computer, defeated two human champions in the game show Jeopardy! On the show, Watson answered obscure Jeopardy! questions about topics as diverse as Lord of the Rings, Rock & Roll, and abstract wordplay puzzles.

This year's Singularity Summit will be focused on the victory of Watson in Jeopardy! and what it means for the future of artificial intelligence. My talk, "From Eliza to Watson to Passing the Turing Test" will put Watson in the context of the history and future of conversational AI. Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy! champion who dominated the game for 74 consecutive matches in 2004, only to lose to Watson in an epic battle of Man vs. Machine earlier this year, will discuss the details of his loss to the IBM computer.

Besides AI and robotics, many other topics will be addressed, including brain simulation, the economy, human enhancement, and neuroscience. A variety of eminent speakers will give talks -- neuroscientist Dr. Christof Koch, economist Tyler Cowen, cosmologist Max Tegmark, roboticists Robin Murphy and James McLurkin, investor Peter Thiel, television personalities Casey Pieretti and Jason Silva, and more.

You can register today at: http://www.singularitysummit.com/registration

The full speaker roster is at: http://www.singularitysummit.com/program

The Singularity is the most world-altering and important event in history. If there is any global issue that is not getting the attention and discussion it deserves, it is the Singularity. Join other intellectual pioneers, business leaders, and scientists this October in New York to explore the Singularity and its manifold implications.

Sincerely,
Ray Kurzweil

- sigh -

So, here, I sign OFF again!

Signing Off-

S2V

Kookaburra and the carnivorous melodies..

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 18:33:18 PDT

I know, it sounds quite strange and maverick to look for omens or messages a sweet bird tries to conveys to you.. But I believe in what I feel they can do.. since them and us.. are all nature.. A part of something called Unity.. Anyways, enough of me sounding like a maniac! Here is what I found while I searched for "Kookaburra Omens" when I searched for it on Google. I am copying it from that website I am taking this information from, and will reference it at the end of my post.

"Ten months since Darryl’s death it is still a struggle. The left and right parts of my brain appear to be at war with one another. The left fills me with doubts and uncertainties while the right wants me to rebuild and fearlessly seek out treasure. A new meditative tool has appeared as a result of my shiatsu therapist. I have found the work of Ted Andrews. Animal Speak and Animal Wise are two books that are near my bedside table and I have decided to learn more about my animal totems. Raven and dog have been with me for a long time but today a new guide emerged.

General Description:

The kookaburra is a large, Australian species of kingfisher. It is a carnivorous bird and has developed some fame as being a snake and lizard killer. Kookaburras are famous for their cackling call which sounds unmistakably like raucous laughter. Kookaburras are intelligent and quite social, and can become quite tame at picnic spots, accepting handouts from people. Kookaburras mate for life, and both care for the young. Offspring are known to remain and help care for new families. A kookaburra’s beak can reach 10cm in length. They are predated upon by foxes, cats and raptors.

Lessons and Challenges:

The presence of kookaburra in a reading (or in your observations) indicates that it is a time of signals and omens. Kookaburra is a strong, bold energy which tends to resonate with god energies. Pay attention to opportunities around you, and listen to nature and to the world around you, you may find that you are being given some important messages at this time.

The kookaburra encourages us to use laughter as a form of healing. Laughter can be a positive force for the body, even when we force it and we don’t really ‘feel’ it. Laughter between people is a way that reinforces bonding and helps us to enjoy life even when things are very tough. Look at how much you laugh every day, chances are if kookaburra has flown into your life you could stand to laugh a little more. It is time to turn your hurt into happiness, and the power of laughter is a great road to doing just that.

Kookaburra draws our attention to family, and our family relationships. Often kookaburra energy suggests that family connections are important in our lives at this time, either because of rivalry (particularly amongst siblings) or because we are looking at our role within the family unit. Ask yourself what your responsibilities are to your family, and what their responsibilities are to you. If you feel you are not being honoured or respected enough by your blood relations, ask yourself if you have given them the honour and respect you feel you deserve.

Kookaburra has a very powerful healing energy, and its presence in a reading or in your life can indicate a time when profound healing is occurring. This healing is not just happening to you, but to people around you, and creates a more healthful ripple effect that creates positive changes to come. Kookaburra can indicate that the querent has reached the end of a difficult journey, and new healthful growth has already begun.

The best way to end old patterns that no longer help us, is by confronting why we developed them in the first place. Often we develop bad habits or negative thought patterns because of fear and insecurities. Kookaburra is the energy of conquering fears and in turn, ending old patterns that aren’t nourishing. If there is a particular habit that you’re not happy with, working with kookaburra energy can help to dissolve it.

Everyone has personal truths, these might be thoughts, or ethics that particularly resonate with who you are as a person. A personal truth for example, might involve recognising that you are an artist or a healer at heart, or could indicate that you will stand up for your beliefs, gender, race or sexuality. Kookaburra helps you to hunt down your truths, and these truths enable you to recognise your own inner strength. In turn, you are able to teach your truths to others, and also aid others in finding and recognising their own truths. You may find yourself teaching others in an informal setting, by sharing your passions and your beliefs with others.

From a light-hearted position, kookaburra encourages us to better woo our partners and our friends. It is time to shower them with presents even if it is not their birthday! If you have no money, you can hand-make cards or presents, cook them sweets or food, or even just gift them with your presence and attention. Let the people around you know that they are loved.

The Shadow Aspects:

Kookaburra’s shadow energy is very confrontational, and can teach harsh and abrasive lessons. Kookaburra teaches us the value of family. We cannot take our children, or our parents for granted, even if they do not seem to ‘nourish’ us on the surface. Family should be respected no matter what, no matter what arguments take place, no matter how you have been deceived, no matter how you have deceived others. Kookaburra forces you to confront issues relating to ‘family,’ either by constantly bringing family drama to the surface, or by highlighting how lonely you feel without a strong sense of what it is to have a family.

Communion: (It sounds like REAL!)

Like all animal helpers, this animal will only appear when right and appropriate, and cannot be forced to visit you, commune with you, or share messages with you. Kookaburra energy – particularly in Australia – is quite forthcoming and bold, and while it may be an easy energy to ‘contact,’ kookaburra is not always an easy guide to communicate with! In my own spiritual encounters, kookaburra can be quite harsh and clipped, delivering short (and sometimes cryptic) messages. However, this will change depending on what kookaburra is trying to teach you! Remember to be respectful, kookaburra is a predator, and has a very proud energy."

[Courtesy: http://billabongdreaming.wordpress.com/category/animal-totems/]

P.S: Don't make a generalization that I believe in Animal Totems.. superficial stuff.. or any other magical message or energy manifestation. My love for Science, Nature & Technology is the one and only thing I can say for something and for sure. Rest.. I don't know!

Signing Off-

S2V

Kiss the rain..

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 09:50:00 PDT

3 minutes thesis presentation, School of Physics, UWA

noreply@blogger.com (Siddartha) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:39:11 PDT

Ok, so officially I am a 1st year Postgraduate student in School of Physics, The University of Western Australia now, which is in Perth, Australia. The group with which I work is AIGRC- Australian International Gravitational Research Centre. It's on the verge of becoming and called "LIGO-Australia" (I hope so. :|). We are an international sort of group trying to detect the most faint signal humans have ever detected in all time. Yes, it's none other than- Gravitational Waves. People are crazy about this in US, Germany, italy, Japan, Australia, India, South-America, in fact, all over the world.

But any ways, enough off topic introduction. The main reason for me to write this blog is that I am about to post my 3 minutes thesis competition readable transcript in this very post. Here it goes:

When: 28th June, 2011
Where: School of Physics, UWA
Readable transcript (of my talk): Below-

Imagine waking up in the morning, and finding your kid’s iPhone, everybody’s cell phone, television, satellite, entire internet networks, news channel, and even international transportation not working. That day will not seem less close to doomsday. In fact, it’s not just hard, but impossible to perceive a world view with a lack of these inevitable aspects of contemporary & modern life. It’ll be all chaos & a moment of utter existential confusion. These gadgets, facilities, “created” needs, and life supporting forms have become so entwined in our perceived form of life and society that we take all of it for granted.

But wait, we are just experiencing a phase of human existence. Its origin goes back to past. Past as in almost entire information age is based on the science & technology of electromagnetic waves. Thanks to James Clerk Maxwell, who laid the foundation of electromagnetic waves in 1865. Maxwell is considered to the 3^rd most prominent physicist of all time, only after Newton and Einstein.

Similar to Maxwell’s Electromagnetic theory, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity founded in 1916 predicts a kind of wave, called Gravitational Waves. These are the ripples in curvature of space-time, propagating outward from the source. The sources of these waves are almost everything: from our waving of hands to any moving mass. But the amplitude of this wave is just big enough in case of massive objects far away in the Universe. Like neutron stars, white dwarfs or black holes. What we are trying to detect is tinier than an atomic nucleus.

The indirect detection of Gravitational Waves by Hulse & Taylor was awarded Nobel prize in 1993. But scientists are still working on its direct detection. These waves exist in different frequencies, and can have much varied source of origin, like the birth of the universe during the big bang to the end of massive merging Black holes (which are essentially the end of time). Detecting these wave would mean we can study & know about the nature of these interesting places. This will not only shed light on many unknown question of our mother Universe, but will also tell us about the origin of matter, mass and essentially life.

Scientists from all over the world have talked about different forms of gravitational wave detectors. The first and second generation of detectors which are operating fully in places like US, Germany, Italy and Japan are capable of detecting sources above 10 Hz. The 3^rd generation telescope like Einstein Telescope which is a future mission, is aiming for sources in the region of 1 – 10 Hz.

My research on using Robert’s Linkage as a possible solution to provide technical solution for detecting this lower frequency region sources could possibly be one of the useful ideas being used in upcoming detectors. Since these detectors need to detect so small signals, we try to make the system as quiet as possible by using sophisticated vibration isolators. Essentially Robert’s linkage is a very low frequency pre-isolation stage or say pendulum being used in the vibration isolators which is capable of operating by thermal actuation principle with additional benefits when compared to existing technique available.

Who knows Gravitational Wave technology will bring what sort of technological and future benefits to our descendants: a different and super advanced communication & information technology, and what more. Nobody knows yet, but the prospects are very bright. Thank you.

Enough that was. just 3 minutes to give a talk, you see... :(

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Written by-
Siddartha S Verma (S2V)