The Secret Of Numbers

Numbers are everywhere. In a sense, we are what we can count, and our computerised civilisation counts almost everything. Without numbers, it would simply cease to exist.Sometimes the numbers that surround us are simple records, obvious to all: figures that indicate taxes due, the stock market index or the balance in our bank accounts for example. But other numbers - usually hidden in the ceaseless flow of computer data - interact and control. The numbers that quietly manage fuel economy in a car engine save us money; the hundreds of thousands of numbers involved in the navigation of a jetliner, guide it through crowded skies to land safely at journey's end. Numbers can even create a world of their own: when you put on a virtual reality headset and gallop off on your virtual horse to rescue a virtual damsel from a virtual dragon, you are playing out a drama of numbers. Every item of virtual scenery exists as a list of numbers stored in a computer. As you move, the program performs thousands of calculations, from which it decides what images to send each eye to maintain the illusion. Numbers probably arose when ancient civilisations were becoming organised thousands of years ago. One theory is that people developed symbols before they learnt to count. A king would keep tabs on what he owned - his livestock and riches - by using clay tokens.

Special Numbers

All men and women are born equal, but the same does not apply to numbers. Some have magical qualities that are revered by mathematicians almost as guiding forces of nature. The rest are just, well, numbers.

Zero
For a long time people didn't think of zero as a number. Numbers are used to count things, and you can't count no things.
But the decimal system - which evolved between 3000 BC and AD 1000 - needed a symbol for "no tens", "no hundreds" and so on. It was natural to ask what that 0 on its own meant. Zero is the only number for which the operation of division makes no sense.

Pi (p)
The question "How long is the circumference of a circle of one unit diameter?" looks simple, but the answer led to a new kind of number - p, or 3.141592653689... It has been proved that the digits, which are known to billions of decimal places, never repeat the same pattern. Nor can p be represented by a fraction or expressed in simple algebraic form. That is why p is known as a transcendental number.

e ip + 1 = 0

This is one of the most awe inspiring equations there is. It elegantly demonstrates the connection between those five most important numbers 1,0,e,i and p.

The square root of minus one
In around 1500 mathematicians began to wonder what would happen if negative numbers were allowed a square root (the problem being that any number when multiplied by itself gives a positive number). They introduced a new kind of number, called an "imaginary" number, to show that it was something different from conventional, "real" numbers. By 1750 the symbol I had been introduced to denote the square root of minus one. Numbers like 2 + 5i were called complex numbers - meaning that they had two kinds of numbers, and not that they were incredibly complicated. Just as there had been with 0, there was a huge row about i. Only when it was clear I had importance in relation to fluids and electricity did everyone agree it was valid.

Prime numbers
Primes are intriguing because they show no obvious pattern. A non-prime number (like six) is said to be composite; it has more than one factor (two and three). A prime - 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 - can only be cleanly divided by one and itself. In 1640 Pierre de Fermat said he'd found a way of predicting prime numbers, with 2n+1, where n is a power of two. For the first five values of n, the outcomes - 3, 5, 17, 257, 65537 - are all primes. But the sixth (264+1) is not: it equals 641 x 6700417. No further prime Fermat numbers have been found.

e - the natural number
Suppose you start with £1 and invest it at an annual interest rate of 100 per cent for a year. At the end of the year you will have £2-your original £1 plus £1 interest. If the interest is 50 per cent every six months, compound, your total rate of interest is still 100 per cent, but you get £2.25 (£1 + 50p + 75p). If the same total rate of interest is compounded over ever-shorter periods, the amount you end up with after a year gets closer and closer to £2.7182818... This number - called e - is the base of natural logarithms. Like p it is not an exact fraction.

Great mathematical mysteries

There's no limit to theoretical puzzles that mathematicians would like to solve. Here are three of the most famous.

Fermat's Last Theorem
This 356-year-old problem concerns an extension of the idea of Pythagorean triples. These are numbers that can be represented on the sides of a right - angled triangle. Remember "the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides"? (The hypotenuse is the longest side, opposite the right angle.) Three, four and five form a right-angled triangle, since 32 + 42 = 52. Fermat wondered if there were similar numbers for cubes too. He got nowhere and decided there must be a reason for this. In the margin of his copy of an ancient Greek text, the Arithmetica by Diophantus, he made the most famous note in the history of mathematics: "To resolve a cube into the sum of two cubes, a fourth power into two fourth powers, or any power higher than the second into two of the same kind, is impossible; have found a remarkable proof of this. The margin is too small to contain it." His "remarkable proof" has never been found and experts generally believe that whatever he had in mind must have contained an error. A British mathematician, Andrew Wiles, tackled the problem in a series of lectures in Cambridge last year. He kept secret the fact that he had a proof until the last lecture.
When he announced the proof, there was a sudden ,silence; then the entire room burst into spontaneous applause. In fact, despite the excitement when Wiles made his announcement last year, an examination of his proof has since turned up a few errors Most of these have been repaired and only one still causing concern Wiles remains confident that his ideas will work.

Goldbach's conjecture
There are many problems concerning prime numbers. One of the most famous is -whether every even number bigger than two is a sum of two primes. Christian Goldbach was an amateur mathematician of the 18th century. He asked his friend the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler this question. Euler couldn't solve it and nor has anybody since.

Riemann's hypothesis
This is one of the most outstanding problems - if not the problem - in mathematics. In the 18th century Bernhard Riemann came up with the infinite sum 1/1s + 1/2s + 1/3s.... He hypothesised that it equals zero for certain values of S when S is a complex number (one with an imaginary component), only when the real part is 1/2. ("Trivial" zeros also arise when S is a negative even number.) This idea has deep connections with the distribution of prime numbers; it is thought that a solution would unlock a new world of mathematical secrets.

Magic Sequences

In 1202 Leonardo of Pisa (later dubbed Fibonacci) started the trend in number theory for spotting strange sequences. Fibonacci numbers: a pair of rabbits produce two young a year. The next year the same thing. The year after that the same pair and its first two young (now mature) produce a pair each (two pairs). The number of pairs of rabbits follows the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34... where each number is the sum of the two before it. Fibonacci numbers have curious patterns, which have been found repeated in nature. Of three consecutive numbers - 5, 8, 13, - the product of the outer two differs from the square of the inner one by one (5 x 13 = 65; 82 = 64). "Lucky" numbers are obtained by a process of repeated "sieving". First you remove every second number to give the odd numbers. That sieving was based on two; the next is based on three. Every third number is removed to get 1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15... In this evolving sequence, the next number is seven, so you remove every seventh number, and so on. The remaining numbers (1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 21...) are called lucky. Their main mathematical significance is that they appear to share several properties with prime numbers: they come along about as often and as irregularly.

Mystery sequence: one of the most frustrating problems in number theory concerns a different kind of sequence. Think of a number: say seven. As it's odd multiply by three and add one; 22 is even, so divide by two (11). Repeat indefinitely.

The sequence starts 7, 22, 11, 34, 17, 52... then settles down: 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1... It looks like you always end up with a repeating cycle, but nobody knows for sure. If you think it's obvious that such a sequence will get down to one and then repeat, try a variation in which you treble odd numbers and then subtract one. Start with 17 and see what happens.

The evolution of numbers

The evolution of numbers Most early number symbols started as variations on I, II, III. Babylonian numbers (circa 200 BC) were made on pieces of wet clay with the end of a stick. For larger numbers they invented a shape for the number ten, and used multiples of that for 20, 30 and soon, till 60, which was represented by the symbol for 1, and 120 by 2, etc. Modern numerical notation is quite different. Instead of repeating the same stroke to denote larger numbers, we use a whole series of different symbols. And instead of having a distinct symbol for ten and multiples of ten, we use those same symbols (1 to 9) plus a new one (0). It is position that denotes whether a digit is a unit, ten, hundred or thousand, and so on. This is how the so-called "base ten" or decimal system works. The Mayans, who lived in South America around AD 1000, worked to base 20. In their system the symbols equivalent to our 525 would mean (5 x 20 x 20) + (2 x 20) + (5 x 1), which is 2,045 in our notation. The numerical base a society uses affects which numbers are regarded significant. Cricket fans always get upset when a batsman scores 49 and then is out, because he has just missed a half-century. But this is a decimalist way of viewing the situation. If the Mayans had played cricket, that number of runs would be represented by 29. For aliens on the planet Silimidon, where they use base seven, an innings of 49 is a century: (1 x 7 x 7) + (0 x 7) + (0 x 1) = 49.

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The Toilet-Shaped House

The Toilet-Shaped House has a very unique design, and was built by Sim Jae-duck, the chairman of the organizing committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association, and he hopes his toilet house will highlight the global need for better sanitation.. The Toilet-Shaped house is in fact named Haewoojae, which signifies in Korean “a place of sanctuary where one can solve one’s worries“. Sim Jae-duck will open what is billed as the world’s one and only toilet house on November 11 to mark the launch of his World Toilet Association.

The steel, white concrete and glass house, with a symbolic opening in the roof, will be ready to receive visitors next month, said the World Toilet Association in a statement. The house is a 419sq m structure with two bedrooms, two guestrooms and other rooms, the two-storey house of course features three deluxe toilets. Unlike the giant “toilet” in which they are located, they will not be see-through affairs. If you would like to visit this house you can go to Sim Jae-duck native city of Suweon, 40km south of Seoul.

The 4,508-sq-foot structure features four deluxe toilets—one of which includes a misting device that helps users "feel more secure" and electronic motion sensors that lift and lower the lid when needed. And if that wasn't hilarious enough, Sim Jae-duck is letting patrons rent the house for an absurd $50,000 a day.
The steel, white concrete and glass house, with a symbolic opening in the roof, will be ready to receive visitors next month, said the World Toilet Association in a statement.

"Among its many amenities, the house features four deluxe toilets," said the group, started in South Korea and dedicated to providing clean sanitation to the more than 2 billion people who live without toilets.The home has a showcase bathroom located in its centre. Other toilets have features that range from elegant fittings to the latest in water conservation devices.

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The Final Total Eclipse

If there truly is some extraterrestrial Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy it would undoubtedly list a total solar eclipse as one of the sights to see while taking a break from probing Earth's natives. Total solar eclipses, called totality for short, are pretty rare here on Earth; a casual observer might see only one or two during their lifetime.

Since the Earth is the only planet we have ever known, we can't really appreciate how truly lucky we are. The odds of the size of a planet's moon exactly matching the apparent size of its sun are pretty low. If the moon is too large, it blocks the majestic solar corona visible during totality. If it is too small, then all solar eclipses would be annular, allowing a ring of the sun's light to pass . The "Goldilocks" combination of Moon and Sun sizes on Earth makes totality possible, and unique in our solar system.

But alas, this beautiful phenomenon is ephemeral, at least in the geologic sense. The lunar disc shrinks slightly every year as the Moon recedes from the Earth; the chance of a total solar eclipse decreases correspondingly. Somewhere near 1 billion years from now, the last total solar eclipse will grace whatever residents of Earth there may be.

Unless you're planning on living forever, 1 billion years probably seems safely tucked away into the future. So much so, perhaps that it may be entirely irrelevant. But, as the Moon moves further away, the length of a day here on Earth increases by about half a second each year. So every few years, the official arbiters of time at the Greenwich Royal Observatory add a leap second to our day.

This effect, while small during a human lifespan, has dramatically increased the length of the day over geologic time. When the moon was first formed, an Earth day was approximately 6 hours. By the time dinosaurs roamed Pangea, a day had reached 21 hours. The ultimate fate of the length of a day is that it will match that of a month at about 47 days. At that point, the Moon will hang suspended over a single point on the Earth for all time. But again, don't panic! This is predicted to occur sometime long after the Earth and Moon have been utterly destroyed by the red-giant phase of our sun.

Strangely enough, the Moon is the cause of its own diminution in our sky. The pull of the Moon's gravity causes tides here on Earth; that much we all know. But, because the Earth rotates more rapidly than the Moon travels in its orbit, that tidal bulge pulls the Moon forward ever so slightly. This constant extra force accelerates the Moon, which forces it further away from the Earth.

So how fast is the Moon pulling way? About 3.8 cm/year right now. One of the great successes of Apollo lunar science was to place a series of corner-cubic laser reflectors on the surface of the Moon. Scientists back on Earth then fire laser beams at those reflectors through carefully aimed telescopes. The travel time between firing and receiving the return signal gives the distance of the Moon accurate to about 1 cm. Scientists are working on improving this accuracy to around 1 mm.

Historically, the Moon did not recede so quickly. We know this because certain species of coral have daily growth patterns and are buried by annual loads of sediment called rhythmites. So, by counting the growth rings of the coral buried in one year of sediment, geologists have calculated the length of the day as far back as 600 million years or so. Based on these findings, we know that the Moon has been receding at about 2 cm/year on average. It just so happens that the current orientation of the Earth's continents is almost optimal for accelerating the Moon.

If you missed the opportunity to catch that last total eclipse, don't worry, there will be plenty more for the next few hundred million years. And when you do witness an eclipse (hopefully not while staring directly at it) perhaps you can ponder the staggering odds which have brought us all this amazing, and temporary, event.

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The Mysterious Sailing Stones

One of the most famous landmarks in the southwestern United States is Death Valley. This vast desert is also home to one of the greatest mysteries of the ages.

In an area known as the "Racetrack playa" in Death Valley near the western border of Arizona, there are an amazingly large number of stones, ranging in size from mere pebbles to half ton boulders that regularly travel by themselves and no one has ever been able to explain why!

These huge stones move of their own volition, leaving miles of zig-zagged, curved and straight tracks that have continued to baffle the scientific community for decades. As you can see by the photos, the hardened surface of the landscape is marbled with the trails of water rivulets that would make concealing evidence of outside interference impossible. So the big question is, just how DO these mysterious stones move?
Early studies of the Sailing Stones began when geologists Allen Agnew and Jim McAllister mapped the area and noted the tracks left by the boulders in 1948. After that, these Sailing Stones were forgotten or ignored by scientists for two decades.
Then, in 1968, two scientists from the Institute of Technology in California conducted an ambitious seven year study tracking the stones that involved painstakingly mapping their movements by noting their positions at regular intervals. Although their data and their methods of observation were sound and well documented, their conclusions were found to be faulty.


In their report, the two geologists wrote that "the wind is able to pick up the rocks and start them moving. They push aside the very slippery mud and slide along on the firm surface." According to Sharp and Carey, surface water would freeze overnight, creating a slippery surface upon which the rocks were propelled. Admittedly, during the rainy season the water can flood the surface of the "playa" rather quickly, but the volume and the strength of the water current would simply not be enough to provide sufficient propulsion.As I mentioned earlier, Carey and Sharp maintained that the rocks would sometimes zig-zag across the desert floor in these erratic patterns because of shifting winds. Even at first glance, this theory is flimsy at best.Yet amazingly, it was widely accepted until 1991, when yet another geologist studied the enigmatic stones and brought his students along to test the validity of the earlier findings.This time, John Reid from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts and a group of students converged on the stones en masse, during a time where the weather conditions matched those stated in the 1968 study. Reid and his students slid in the mud quite easily but they attempted as a group to push, shove and/or pull the rocks with ropes. Yet nothing could budge them and despite their valiant efforts, the rocks remained stubbornly immobile."The Tristan Effect" is yet another theory that has recently been suggested. The University of Zurich conducted research dealing with the actual physical properties of the rocks themselves. Their theory maintains that the air within the porous interior of the rocks compresses during the sub-zero nights.The next day, the intense desert heat and sun causes the air inside to once again expand and thus propel the rocks along their paths. However, this writer doubts the validity of the theory.I highly doubt that anything short of an explosion would cause enough sudden changes in air pressure surrounding the rocks to cause them to move. If that were the case, I would think the rocks would become unstable due to these repeated changes of internal pressure and eventually crumble.


Even now, the scientific community is still investigating and trying to discover just how these rocks move. Currently, they are being tracked with GPS devices and satellite tracking. It would also be interesting to discover if time lapse photography or video surveillance cameras could shed light on their movements.Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but I continue to find it intriguing that these Sailing Stones happen to be in a reasonably close proximity to the famed Roswell Area 51. Being interested in ancient ley lines and their alignments with heightened strengths of lines in the magnetic field of our planet, I can't help but think there may be a connection.For now, I suppose, our planet and these fascinating Sailing Stones will simply have to continue to mystify, enchant and baffle us.

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Volkswagen Autostadt Car Tower in Germany

Volkswagen's Autotürme, or car towers, are distinguishing features of the Autostadt. The transparent cylindrical buildings rise 48 meters or 150 feet above the grounds, and they're linked by a fully automated delivery system to both the Volkswagen factory and the KundenCenter (where VW customers pick up their new cars).

The car towers work like giant vending machines: As a new car arrives from the factory, it's transported by robot to an empty storage slot in one of the towers; when a customer shows up to collect the car, the same robotic picking system fetches the vehicle, brings it down to ground level, and transfers it to the KundenCenter in the next building. Each tower holds up to 400 cars on 20 levels and can process a car every 45 seconds during peak times.


In the past, tourists weren't allowed inside the towers for safety reasons, but a Car Tower Discovery attraction now makes the towers accessible to anyone who can spare 15 minutes and a handful of euros. Visitors enter a six-person glass box and are carried to the top story of a car tower by the same robotic lift that's used for automobiles.

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Woman has 200 orgasms a day

PRETTY Sarah Carmen is a 200-a-day orgasm girl who gets good, good, GOOD vibrations from almost anything.

The rumble of a train on the tracks, the purr of a hairdryer, the rhythmic drone of a photo-copier are all enough to make her go oh oh oh, ahhhhh.

She had FIVE orgasms during our 40-minute interview. But I can't take the credit-it was just talking about her sex life that set her off.

Sarah, 24, suffers from Permanent Sexual Arousal Syndrome (PSAS), which increases blood flow to the sex organs.

She said: "Sometimes I have so much sex to try to calm myself down I get bored of it. And men I sleep with don't seem to make as much effort because I climax so easily."

As she chatted, Sarah became increasingly flustered.

"Sorry, you'll have to excuse me for a minute. I'll be with you in a sec," she mumbled before letting out a long sigh.

Sarah, from London, developed PSAS after being prescribed anti-depressants at 19.

Stunned

She believes her condition was brought on by the pills.

She said: "Within a few weeks I just began to get more and more aroused more and more of the time and I just kept having endless orgasms.

"It started off in bed where sex sessions would last for hours and my boyfriend would be stunned at how many times I would orgasm.

"Then it would happen after sex. I'd be thinking about what we'd done in bed and I'd start feeling a bit flushed, then I'd become aroused and climax.

"In six months I was having 150 orgasms a day-and it has been as many as 200."

She and her boyfriend split- and new partners struggle to keep up with her sex demands. "Often, I'll want to wear myself out by having as many orgasms as I can so they stop and I can get some peace," she said.

Sarah is a beautician and working in salons filled with whirring hairdryers and skincare gadgets can cause problems.

"If I start coughing and run to the loo, the girls know to fetch the client a magazine or a cup of tea," she said, adding, "Sometimes I'd like to just have a normal life."

Sarah says the Permanent Sexual Arousal Syndrome that she suffers from can cause her to have orgasm at any time of day.

She explained: "Anything can set me off. Even the hairdryers cause funny pulsations through my body.

"As a skin care specialist I have to use tools which vibrate a lot of the time for micro-dermabrasion and they sometimes set me off.

"I find if I'm nervous I'm less likely to get over-excited. So sometimes I try to psyche myself up and worry to control my orgasms.

"Some of my regular customers know my problem. But with new clients it's hard to explain.

"I have been in the middle of a treatment and it's happened and I've had to carry on.

"I was doing a bikini wax and you have to really concentrate and keep your hands very still, and mine go a bit wobbly when I orgasm.

"I had to pretend I had cramp in my foot and just stood there wriggling around on the spot and stifling my moans until it was over."

Sarah's friends think she is the luckiest girl ever, although her family think her behaviour is sometimes slightly odd.

She said: "The best way to describe how I am when I am with my family and I have one of my 'moments' is that I behave like Sheila from Shameless.

"I just get a bid giddy and yelp out and try to control myself. I've never sat down and explained it to my mum and dad.

"They just think I get a bit hyperactive round them.

"My friends think it's great. I have more orgasms in one day than most of them will probably have in a year.

"They say to me that they feel lucky if their boyfriend makes them have one orgasm-some days I have one every ten minutes."

It has proved to be a problem for Sarah in some relationships.

She said: "I dated one guy who was very selfish and he was that way in the bedroom too. He'd just lie back and expect me to please him.

"He just figured that because I could climax without him even having to touch me, he didn't need to do anything to please me.

"I just thought that was rude and inconsiderate. It didn't last very long with him."

Noisy

She has also had embarrassing moments in public. Going to noisy bars and clubs is out of the question as the vibrations send her wild.

"We have to find nice quiet bars," she explained. "I have more orgasms if I have a drink as it relaxes me so I tend to drink very little now.

"It can be a bit embarrassing if I'm tipsy and guys who don't know me talk to me, because I find it harder to hide.

"The most embarrassing thing that has happened was when I answered a market research questionnaire and had an orgasm in front of the researcher.

"She knew what was happening and looked at me like I was a weirdo. I tried to explain that I couldn't help it, but I was blushing so much I had to walk away."

Sarah has even been to a Sex Addicts' Anonymous meeting in despair over her sex drive.

She said: "At first when the problem started I just wanted to have sex all the time, I thought I was a sex addict.

"But when I looked around the room and heard the stories other people told, about how desperate they were for sex, I realised I wasn't like them.

Problem

"With me, it was a means of releasing my orgasm, but now I know I don't have to have sex to do that."
Sarah has looked into the condition and believes it may have been triggered by her taking anti-depressants.

She said: "I've found studies that say that taking anti-depressants and then stopping has an effect on the sexual organs. That is the only thing that explains what happens to me.

"But I've heard of other girls who have the same problem and it just appears out of the blue. I've spoken to my doctor about it but she wasn't a great deal of help but that's mainly because there's very little known about it and no one yet knows how to cure it."

Thanks to her understanding friends and colleagues, Sarah feels like she can now live with PSAS.

She said: "I'm lucky because people around me are very kind and appreciate that sometimes this is a problem for me and it can be embarrassing.

"I need to concentrate on something sad or worrying when I talk to people and I don't want to get carried away."

During our 40-minute interview, Sarah told us she had five orgasms.

Years of dealing with the problem means that sometimes she can hide it quite well.

Her voice goes high pitched and she will lose her train of thought and have to stop talking completely for a few seconds. She says disguises this by coughing when she is in awkward situations.

"But it's also nice to have so much excitement every day! It's strange because it came from nowhere and I guess it could go away just as quickly, so I'm making the most of it while it lasts!"

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Evolving Universes

To many it seems unlikely that a universe could spring into being from chaos, and achieve a level of organization advanced enough to allow for life—let alone intelligence. After all, if an electron were only twice the size that it is, chemistry as we know it couldn’t exist. If the Strong and Weak nuclear forces were out of proportion, stars mayn’t work. Over the centuries a number of theories have cropped up to try to explain life, the universe, and everything, but almost none propose to explain how it all came together. As with many problems that are too grandiose to grapple, however, sometimes it’s best to start on a smaller scale.

Evolutionists and naturalists have long observed Earth’s “natural selection” where most creatures create offspring with slightly different characteristics than their own. Those with characteristics better suited to the environment will thrive, procreate, and pass on their heritage; whereas offspring less suited will wither, reproduce less, and their traits will fade and vanish.
Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin looked at the simple, functional elegance found in the the theory of natural selection, and thought that maybe such a concept could be applied on a universal scale. Thus the theory of Cosmological Natural Selection was born.

In order to tackle how complexity came into being, most scientific theories postulate that there are an infinite number of universes, and each of them are host to its own set of physical laws. Some would therefore have laws where chemistry cannot function, and thus are home to nothing more complex than a vast field of hydrogen. Some would have to be like ours: rife with complexity where a star larger than 1.44 times the size of ours can collapse into a black hole. And the black hole is the point where Cosmological Natural Selection begins.
Many people mistakenly attribute the concept of the Black Hole to Albert Einstein, however the earliest proposition of the Black Hole (called a “dark star” at the time) was presented by a fellow named John Michell in 1784—a hundred-forty years before General Relativity was published. Nevertheless, it was Einstein who refined the idea into its modern incarnation. According to General Relativity, when an object achieves enough mass, it crushes down to an inconceivably small point called the singularity. It is so weighty that the escape-velocity from it is greater than the speed of light, and since nothing exceeds the speed of light …


As good as it sounds, it’s been found that Einstein’s work doesn’t function so well when one starts exploring items smaller than the atom. Modern acolytes of Quantum Physics and String Theory have suggested that it’s highly unlikely that there’s a singularity in there at all. Instead they propose a 4-dimensional tube opens to a new region of space/time. The introduction of the black hole’s material in this virgin space/time is analogous to a Big Bang—the genesis of a new universe.

Here, at the dawn of a new universe is where Smolin’s theory fits. He postulates that the new universe’s laws are influenced by those of the parent. Thus, our universe which has complexity and is therefore very successful at creating black holes/new universes is spawning universes that also have complexity, and will pass that trait onto their progeny … much like evolution. However, unlike evolution, there are no known universe-predators culling the ill and unfit universes from the multiverse, therefore “Cosmological Natural Selection” might be a less apt name than “Fecund Universes”; it’s not a race for survival, just reproduction.
Some sectors of science dismiss the notion, calling it inherently untestable. There is no way to peek into other universes to see if they are related to their parent … yet. Smolin responds by asking that his peers to seek out any natural law that shows that our universe isn’t adapted to easily create black holes. After all, if there is a basic principle that inhibits the formation of black holes it would be a pretty big hole in the idea.

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Pork flu

How it happen

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Foreign Bodies In The Rectum

Foreign bodies in the rectum are a common occurrence and most of the cases are treated with anesthesia before removing objects. Patients have usually made multiple attempts to remove the object themselves before consulting the professional.

Common objects inserted are fruits, balls, bottles, vibrators, vegetables, and balls. However, interesting fact is that professors D. Busch and J. Starling; Madison, Wisconsin in 1986 did research and study report on strange rectal foreign bodies. Some of the unusual objects found in the anus and rectum include: magazine, beer glass, seven light bulbs, two flashlights, knife sharpener, frozen pigs tail, wire spring and tobacco pouch.

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MegaQuake

Professor Bill McGuire of the Benfield Hazard Research Centre explains that there are subduction zones all around the world, but mainly they occur around the rim of the Pacific. The so-called Ring of Fire. Most of the world's big, really destructive earthquakes occur here. A subduction zone is where a continental plate is sliding below an adjoining plate causing a build-up of friction. When this friction builds to a critical point, the plate breaks free of the friction and slips. This slippage causes a mega-thrust earthquake.

As most mega-thrust earthquakes occur near, or below, the sea the huge energy release causes a tsunami. A tsunami is different from a normal wave, in that with a normal wave only the surface water is moving, with a tidal wave the whole water column is moving. Millions of tons of water! The combination of massive earthquakes and tsunamis makes subduction zones a deadly geological hazard. So, it should have been a cause for some concern that the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 600 mile long fault, lies right off the Pacific north-west coast. The strange thing was, that Cascadia didn't seem to be a danger at all.

For years, scientists have been studying seismic activity along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. They found that, unlike other subduction zones, it was virtually silent. If the adjoining plates were sliding smoothly then no friction would build and no earthquakes would occur. This appears to be backed up by 200 years of records, for as long as Europeans have lived here, there is no record of earthquakes from Cascadia.

However, there is another kind of history, the kind that isn't written down. For centuries before the Europeans, this land was home to native peoples. Viola Riebe is a member of the Ho Nation on the northern Washington coast. As a child, she remembers being told the legend of the thunderbird. The thunderbird lives at the head of the Ho river, and when he comes out, the ground shakes and the water is troubled. Could this story be describing a real event? Could this have been a mega-thrust earthquake of long ago?

Most geologists have no time for such speculation, but one decided to take a closer look.

Brian Atwater of the United States Geological Survey took his canoe and began exploring the marshes and rivers of the Washington coast. He was hoping that the layers of mud here, laid down over centuries, might provide a clue to events of the past.

Digging down through the layers of mud, Brian discovered evidence of the existence of a Spruce forest suggesting that at some time in the past, the land had been higher and had dropped to allow water to flood the forest. Above the spruce layer was sand, and since there is no sand in this locality, there must have been a sudden inrush of sea-water to transport the sand. This was no gradual change in land level, it must have been a violent collapse. The most likely explanation is a large earthquake causing the land to subside, and a warping of the sea floor to trigger a tsunami to flood the forest and bring in the sand.


Carbon dating of the buried trees showed that this event occurred roughly 300 years ago, before Europeans arrived. So the native legends may indeed be about a real event. This evidence alone, does not prove an earthquake. If a mega thrust earthquake had happened in Cascadia it would have produced a tsunami capable of travelling right across the Pacific, to countries like Japan.

When Dr. Kenji Satake, of the Geological Survey of Japan, heard about Atwater's theory he realised that Japan could hold the answer. He explained that while 300 years ago is pre-history for America, Japan has written records of seismic events dating back to this time. What Satake was looking for was a special kind of tsunami. Most tsunamis to hit Japan are caused by nearby earthquakes so they are accompanied by shaking of the ground, but a few tsunamis arrive without shaking because the parent earthquake is far away. When there is no known earthquake that could have caused the wave, it is called an orphan tsunami. In the coastal town of Neho, he finds a document describing just such a tsunami dated 28 Jan 1700. Crucially, the same tsunami was recorded in four other locations in Japan.

The final piece of evidence would be found in a mysterious corner of the Pacific north-west. 100 mile south of Seattle in a remote area of the Washington coast is the ghost forest. These are trees which died hundreds of years ago but remain standing to this day. What could kill a forest of Red Cedar trees along 60 miles of Washington coast?



Tree Specialist David Yamaguchi of the University of Washington has spent years looking at the trees and by analysing the tree rings he found that all of the trees died in the early months of 1700.

There was now no doubt that the same catastrophe that had killed the ghost forest had also sent the tsunami across to Japan. And from the Japanese records Kenji Satake could work out exactly when it had happened. On the 26th January, 1700, at nine pm. On that winter's night a megathrust earthquake, just like the Boxing Day earthquake of 2004, struck the Pacific Northwest. It drowned forests and turned land in to sea. It sent a tsunami hurtling across the Pacific. And it spawned a legend that would be passed down to a dozen generations. The scientists knew that if it happened here once it would happen again. One day the people of the Pacific Northwest will face a megathrust earthquake. So how big will it be? What damage will it cause? And when will it happen? The first question is how large will the earthquake be. The power of an earthquake depends on the size of the fault that breaks. In the case of the Boxing Day earthquake it was huge. Over six hundred miles of fault ruptured. The Cascadia subduction zone is almost exactly the same length. So it's likely that it will create an equally powerful earthquake.

Scientists believe the next Cascadia earthquake will be one of the largest on the planet, up to magnitude 9.0. The Kobe earthquake, which killed six thousand people and devastated the Japanese economy, was a magnitude 6.8. The terrible Mexico City earthquake which killed over 10,000 people was 8.1. But, a magnitude 9.0 releases many times more energy than those.

Tim Walsh of the Washington State Geological Survey explains "The magnitude scale is logarithmic, that is each one is ten times bigger than the previous number, but that's the amount of displacement. When you do that in terms of energy release each one is thirty to forty times bigger than the previous one. So a magnitude nine, has a thousand times more energy release than does a magnitude seven."

Fortunately the big cities of the Pacific north-west are some way inland, but many people live in the coastal regions and the beaches are a big tourist draw in the summer. So there will still be many thousands of people at risk from a Cascadia tsunami but, far more people will be affected by the earthquake itself. So Washington, Oregon and British Columbia will experience strong ground shaking which may last as long as five minutes.

So what damage will several minutes of shaking do to cities like Seattle? Even though the Boxing Day earthquake and the next Cascadia earthquake may be very similar they could have very different effects. In Indonesia most of the damage was caused by the tsunami not the earthquake itself.

Professor Tom Heaton of the California Institute of Technology voices his concerns: "My theory is that in a Cascadia event these buildings may sway some large distance and as we get a very long duration of shaking that the swaying may grow in intensity and the buildings may begin to be damaged." But not everyone agrees. John Hooper is a buildings engineer who has worked on many of Seattle's tallest buildings. He believes that the modern skyscrapers at least should be strong enough to avoid serious damage.

The reality is no one knows for sure. Because there has never been a megathrust earthquake near a modern high rise city. But there is a type of building that everyone agrees will be at risk. The older un-reinforced brick buildings.

The next megathrust earthquake may not happen for centuries, or it could be imminent. No one knows. We don't know whether the entire Cascadia fault will rupture like it did in 1700. We don't know how badly affected the modern cities will be. But Yumei Wang, director of Geo Hazards for Oregon, believes we must still take action. He says "We know that a Cascadia earthquake is inevitable, we can't prevent earthquakes, but one thing that we can do is prevent a lot of the damage. We can save lives if we prepare now."

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Strange but true facts about the Earth

In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.

About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.

A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.

Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.

Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park, USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.

Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.

Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.

The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.

The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.

In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.

American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.

The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk.

The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah'. It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.

The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.

The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.

The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.

Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.

Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.

Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.

The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.

There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.

The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.

Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.

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