Can you fire guns in Space?

Most of us will say no. Because from our early school days we know fire needs oxygen to burn. So when you are in the atmosphere less void of space, there is no way to ignite gunpowder to fire a bullet, right? Wrong. The explosion that fires a bullet does require oxygen for combustion, but it doesn’t draw it solely from the air. Rather, some oxygen comes from an ingredient in the gunpowder itself, called saltpeter (Potassium nitrate). The spark produced when the gun’s hammer strikes the cartridge ignites the saltpeter and converts the oxygen in it to its gaseous state. The explosion generates a shock wave that propels the bullet out of the gun. It would certainly help if you pack your cartridges with extra saltpeter to get the same pop in space.

But it won’t be all too easy. Remember the guy named Newton? And his popular third law of motion. The kickback of the gunshot that normally throws your arm backward after you fire a round would instead send your entire body flying backwards.
Are you still going to take a shot?

info: popular science.

Go Devils!!!

Our first game of the indoor intramural soccer tournament (organized by SDSU wellness center) kicked off today @ 8:00 PM. Our team’s name is Red Devils and we did win it by a healthy margin of 4-0.

I reached the wellness center at 7:15 and jogged one mile to loosen up my muscles. By 7:30 everyone from our team had arrived and we had a short team meeting. I was feeling pretty good about the game, I guess we all were feeling pretty good about it. I put on my relatively new indoor soccer shoes and started my second round of warm up with the team followed by some stretching.

The match started on time. We played on 2-2-2 format (its 7 a side) but we stick to our habits, all of us were charging ahead, in and around opponents’ D-area, leaving our golie alone. We don’t have a natural defender in our team except Nabeen and most of us play as striker or in midfield. We dominated the play for the entire first half but just couldn’t score. In a small field and all of us ahead and all of them behind (naturally), we just didn’t have much space to maneuver the ball around and their keeper was excellent. He dived around all the time and frustrated us. I played in midfield and got a good chance near their D. I connected pretty well, beat the keeper , but the ball was deflected away by the defender from the goal line. Hard Luck. The first half ended as 0-0, leaving us still searching for our first breakthrough, even though it was us who possessed the ball and kept shooting most of the time. They barely brought the ball into our half and never had a single shot on target.

We had a short team meeting in the break. We talked about sticking to our position and spreading the field by more passes. We feared they might score and take the game away from us as our golie was a loner in our half. We also felt we have to pass it around to beat their keeper as the goal post was small and their golie was pretty good too.

Second half started and they got a free kick right away inside our half near the center line. Their golie came forward to take the kick, and good lord he almost scored. His shot was accurate from the distance but our golie did well to punch it over the top. Shortly we started dictating the play. We played to our plan and did spread the field by good passes. I passed the ball from the center to my right to Bryan and lunged forward for support; Bryan beat the lone defender easily and prepared to take a shot. I kept going forward to capitalize if just in case the ball is deflected by keeper or from the goal post. But it wasn’t required as Bryan took a perfect shot and the ball crashed into the left corner of the net beating the diving keeper. We all were jubilant and our plan had paid off. We kept playing the same game and David scored our second goal after little while. Two nil up and less than 10 minutes for final whistle, we started to sense a win. Now they got new golie and their previous golie came forward. We soon scored a third one and another one just before the whistle. They too had some moments in second half but never got an easy chance. The match ended with 4-0 score line.

We certainly deserved to win this game and it was satisfying to get the favorable result. We shook hands with our opponents and referees before assembling for our final analysis of the game. Before leaving we all joined our hands, brought it down and shouted “RED DEVILS” as our hands went up.

Competent in Incompetence ?

Before mid 2007 almost all political pundits had declared Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani the nominees of the two major parties for the president of United states for Nov 2008 elections. Political rookie Barack Obama didn't stand any chance against the clinton machine and John McCain's political future was already dead. By this date, the same pundits have already authored books and talked thousand hours on-air , on how John McCain revived his campaign and how Barack Obama actually manage to beat the clinton machine and eventually became the 44th US president.

Who are these experts, anyway ? Some have spend their whole adult life in politics and may have predicted couple incidents correctly, and those couple incidents are enough proof of their expertise. These guys are similar to weather forecasters, they are not held responsible for going awry. These are the jobs where people make money either way, being right or wrong. There are many group of people who can be kept in the same column. In these days how can I miss a certain group: “Economists”.

Economists, during summer of 08, were describing how serious the recession was going to be and now they are drawing comparison with the great depression. How will this economic mess effect USA and the rest of the world in long term ? How long will this crunch last ? They are competing with each other to provide us the most articulate answer. Half of them seem to believe in the stimulus package and other half think it will severe the problem. Both of them sound equally right and equally confusing to general public, is their any science behind their claim or they are just supporting their parties ? And should we believe these guys ? because majority of them never had a hint of this crash until it happened. When Hank Paulson came up with 700 billion bailout package last year when one after the other bank tanked, nobody knew why its exactly 700 billion ? They just supposed they need a big number for rescue and came up with a supposedly big number. Inept people like me consider economics as a branch of science even though we don't understand it but what do these experts think ?

If these economists swap their job with weather guys or with political pundits will the outcome be any different ? I doubt it.

Globalization is both way traffic

Recently a friend of mine shared a story on his encounter with a local old lady. The story like goes this.When my friend introduced himself as a foreigner, her response was “Oh you are not one of those guys, who earns dollars here and send it back to your country right? Because that really pisses me off. Thats why our economy is in tank” . It certainly wasn't particularly a nice way to talk to strangers. After hearing this story I went into contemplation which forced me to write this blog.

In summary the lady was blaming globalization for America's current hardship. People do have short memories and it seems it gets shorter in time of crisis. In the 90's American consumers and businesses regarded globalization and free trade as net positives when integration of China and former soviet bloc into the trading system lowered inflation, opened new markets and brought billions of workers into the labor force. Globalization was good when US got all the upside of it. May people then considered globalization as one way traffic, where they thought they were the only ones who where going to be the beneficiaries. Now probably America is getting some downside of it. You got to consider globalization as two way traffic, where you will gain some and lose some. It can be net positive or net negative all depending upon how you manage your trade policies, regulate your companies and how often do you find a way to distribute gains from the markets that are benefiting. [ I hope I won't be called communist for saying this]. I believe globalization is net plus for USA.

Yes, its true that jobs have been moved en masse recently to developing world, whether its IT jobs or Auto jobs but don't forget globalization has also created lots of jobs in U.S. for engineers, nurses, professors, computer programmers, accountants, bankers etc etc. People now shout loud about outsourced software jobs to India and China but forgot they already made billions by selling computers to those countries. Do you really want to sell them millions of personal computers but hope they remain ignorant ?

As I mentioned earlier globalization has both pros and cons and they are applicable to both small and big players of global economy. Its not that developing countries are always benefiting. For example, in India's PC market HCL (India's own leading company) is the big loser. The company introduced notebooks three years back but is not being able to compete with the American giants Lenovo, Dell and HP. Currently the U.S. economy crisis has shaken the whole world. Globalization enabled the U.S. to infect the rest of the world with its toxic mortgages.

The global economy is still the similar game but has welcomed lot many influential players. U.S. is still the most powerful player but can no longer determine the direction of global economy singlehandedly. The competition is tougher than before and will grow more fierce with the inclusion of stronger and ever improving opponents. U.S.A too will have to keep improving to win this game and I believe they will win gold if they can maintain their innovative edge against all its competitors.

Couple Admirable

News coming from Nepal most often than not are negative. Sometimes good news are considered good, only relative to a bad news (or worse news) and the trend seems so unending that sometimes I feel like turning totally away from it. But every time, I keep coming back as many of us do because there is no running away from reality, no running away from yourself and your family.

Sometimes I try to soothe myself by comparing against the cases from Sudan, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Rwanda,Zimbabwe,Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan,Iraq even sometimes cases from rapidly growing economy like India and China but it doesn't help, cause there is no hiding from truth and it doesn't eases Nepalese' pain either. But we do have hope, hope for better tomorrow, hope for gradual ease in pain. Sometimes small positives does tremendous good to reinforce your hope. That's what happened today with me.

Right at the morning I read couple admirable news . First was about Nepal's Shanti Sewa Griha clinching second spot in BBC World challenge 08.World Challenge 08 is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level and it rewards projects and business which really makes a difference. Shanti Sewa Griha is a self-sufficient society for leprosy victims and other social outcasts. It was established back in 1992 with 13 leprosy victims and since then its been doing stupendous job. Second was appointment of Nepalese priest at pashupatinath. It will stop millions of rupees (money offered to god as Bheti) going to India. I hope for the transparency of the money collected and its proper use for social causes.

Though these are small developments compared to Godzilian problems we face today, they are able to create some positive news headlines in Nepal. If positives keep coming even at small packages, they will be able to build some inspirated ambiance, which certainly is a fuel for progressive society.

Wow

It was crazy. We all were novice at driving but planned a long trip for five days, which involved hectic driving but everything went fine . There were few unexpected twists in the plan and it added more fun. Weather predictions were really really bad but we were lucky all the time. We never encountered heavy snow fall, sometimes missing it by just hours wherever we go. Got chance to meet so many old friends from engineering college and it was always going to be fun. We were driving during nights and enjoying the days but never felt tired during the trip. Tiredness was surely due but only after the trip. I started to get hint of it while returning, during the final couple hours of driving back home. After trip I have gone into deep sleep whenever I get chance. I am feeling much better from today and will have to immerse into study after this weekend without caring much about Christmas break. I think thats what its like to be student, fun and study/work at crazy hours.

Oops I almost forgot to mention where we went. We went straight to Indianapolis, then findlay (Ohio), to detroit, to Chicago and finally back to Brookings.

Soon I will try to post blog on Ram Bahadur Bomjan which I have been planning to write from long time.

Movie Magic or Tragic ?

Never once I have found a Movie doing justice to its Novel. May be I am insatiable in this case as I love books more than movies. Movies are time efficient way to garner information but more often than not it also limits the info as its impossible to cramp up everything in couple hours. I love books because it gives more detailed info but more than that it never restricts imagination as movies do. I can bet many guys similar from my background will see Arun Govil when anyone reminds them of Lord Ram because our early impression of Ramayan was through Ramananda Sagar's Ramayan and Arun Govil's portrayal of Lord Ram was brilliant.

But why am I talking it today?

Because today I watched “The Kite Runner” movie based on the Novel of the same name. I think the movie tried its best to do justice to the Novel but even the best try was not enough to change the views of stubborn critic like me. There were numerous occasions in Novel when I was strongly moved but I felt little sad to miss those plots or see it so shortened, that it was not as effective as it was originally.My experience with “The DAVinci Code” was even worse. The movie is so fast-paced that makes it very difficult to comprehend without reading the Novel first. My friends also share similar experiences .One of them said “The Godfather movie is loads of crap compared to the Novel”.

Its not that I have never liked a movie based on a Book. I absolutely loved “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Pursuit of Happiness” to give few good example, but the reason behind their liking is I never had chance to read their corresponding books.

Thanks for reading my opinion but what's your take?

Perfect Accountant and Lazy Communist

I studied Thermodynamics starting from my science class in school and I still remember how joyfully I used to reiterate “Energy can neither be created and nor be destroyed”. I loved this law and later learned that this principle is basic to the first law of thermodynamics.

Recently I stumbled upon an Interesting article which described Mother Nature as a perfect accountant but also lazy communist based upon the law of thermodynamics. Let me try to explain this in entertaining way.

Perfect Accountant: Nature has to perform meticulous accounting because energy can neither be created nor be destroyed, though it readily changes forms. So, Mother Nature makes sure that there is always exactly as much energy around after something happens as there was before.

Lazy Communist: Please don’t judge me wrong I am not being harsh. My only concern now is to entertain you. The Lazy communist part comes from the second law of thermodynamics. Lazy because natural systems generally tend toward the lowest energy state possible and Communist because natural systems also tend toward the most equal distribution of energy. Aa…ha that’s why every morning the cream I pour into my coffee blends evenly throughout the cup, even if I don’t stir it.

Today I locked apartment’s key inside so in effect I was locked outside. To make good use of time I went to university’s dairy for Ice-cream. On my way back, all of a sudden the Ice-cream dropped and I could do nothing but watch the hot asphalt melt fallen ice-cream. Obviously I was saddened by the incident but it was all natural thing happening. Heat always travels from areas of high energy to low, so asphalt melted the ice-cream rather than drawing heat from it and thus keeping it frozen.
Natural events always proceed towards states of grater disorder. That’s why every once in a while my shoelaces come untied and never once they have retied themselves. That’s probably the reason why my desk always get messier and never neater (Its all governed by the natural laws who am I to change it).

VOID

Once upon a time when I was relatively smaller (in size, shape, age and also in thinking) I heard an astonishing fact. It goes like this “Only 29.2% of earth’s surface is land and rest is water (70.8%)”. “My goodness” I shouted and the reaction was pretty obvious because I never found great deal of water when I traveled around (It was more obvious in summer when me and my brother after finishing our morning school had to walk almost a mile to transport water from ever shrinking small well). Yes I knew earlier from my school textbooks that there are cool stuffs like seas and oceans as well but it never came to my imagination that water is actually more than land. To add to this astonishment I later found that water is responsible for 61.8% of human body weight.

I still do read, hear and participate in “water talk”. It seems human always find enjoyment in knowing the percentage of water in every imaginable object. The “% of water” talk goes from coconut to cocktail, from brain to bread and from mango to mars. But for the sake of change and also to make these talks even more interesting, today I have taken another entity in consideration instead of water and that coincidentally is the title of the story “Void”. We all know that an atom is the smallest unit of an element that retains the chemical properties of that element. In an Atom, Protons and neutrons are approximately the same size, while electrons are very much smaller. Now to take the discussion further lets take the example of a helium atom. If a basketball were used to represent the nucleus of a helium atom, then, on the same scale, softballs could represent the individual protons and neutrons, while large garden peas could represent the electrons. In this case, the diameter of an electron’s orbit would be approximately equal to the length of 250 American football fields [1]. Thus, the majority of an atom consists of void. If majority of atom is void then majority of us is void and it applies to everything around us. Yes, that’s the point I was trying to make. Now, just imagine your size excluding the void.

The bible says “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25). But if all the empty space were removed from the atoms it would be possible for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Good news for rich man?). Oops wait a minute if all the void were removed from the atoms if will not only shrink the camel but also the needle. (Better luck next time “rich man”)


1. Bebop to the Boolean Boogie by Clive Maxfield.

Liberty Featured Number "90"

Happy 90th Birthday to Mr. Nelson Mandela. 18th July is not just Mr. Mandela’s Day but a cause for celebration to all the freedom loving people in the world. 90 is the remarkable latest addition to his life which consists of some other remarkable numbers. Like 27 years in prison in Robben Island but more interesting number is his number of awards. Mandela has received more than one hundred awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993

So, 90 is this weeks Liberty Featured Number and it is dedicated to all you wonderful freedom loving persons wherever you are.

Next week’s number? .......sky is the limit for the Guess Work.

MprofIT