Recently there was an earthquake originating from Virginia. It was quiet strong, actually, a 5.9! I live in Delaware, so I felt the whole place shake for a bit. So this is how an earthquake feels like, huh? It feels a lot like a panic attack. Well, there is a first for everything. From now on I shall remember today as the day I experienced my first earthquake. I shall cherish and treasure my memory of this experience.
EEEAAARRRRTHHHHHHQUUUAAAAKKKEEEEE!!!1111ONEONE
August 23, 2011
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random stuff | Tagged: earthquake, in the east coast, no freaking way | 
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Posted by ibyea
Who’s Got More Points?
August 1, 2011So, the question is, which of the following has more points: a line segment or an infinite line? You might think the obvious answer is the infinite line. But it is not as simple as you think it is. A simple proof done by the mathematician Georg Cantor will show you the answer:
Imagine two semicircles of the same size and shape. A semicircle is pretty much half a circle. You agree, since both semicircles are the same, they both have the same number of points, right? Beneath the first semicircle, place a line segment that have the same size as the diameter of the semicircle. Beneath the other one, place a line that goes to infinity. Now, your j0b will be to match every single point on the border of the semicircle to every single point on the line segment and every single point in the second semicircle to every single point in the infinite line. The setup is done as shown in the figure below:
In the line segment, I match up every point of it to the semicircle by a straight line connection. By going from left to right (or any direction you want), you realize that you can match every single point on that semicircle to the line segment. For that reason, the line segment has as many points as the semicircle above it.
In the case of the infinite line, I have to do a cleverer maneuvering. From the center of the semicircle, I extend a line straight to the left (or right), and sweep around the semicircle counterclockwise. Doing so will match every point on the semicircle. Yes, even the one point in the infinite line that seems unimaginably distant. After all, all I would have to do is extend a line from the semicircle to that point. As you will see, no matter how far away the point is from the semicircle, it will touch a point on the semicircle. Interesting, it seems like an infinite line has the same amount of points as the semicircle. What is the implication of all of these things I have written?
Well, since the line segment has the same number of points as its corresponding semicircle, and so does the infinite line, and both semicircles have the same number of points, there is only one conclusion I can take. The infinite line has the same number of points as a line segment!
Mind Blown.
-This post has been inspired by the book To Infinite and Beyond: A Cultural History of the Infinite, so I have the book to thank-
Leave a Comment » | math | Tagged: fun fact, proof | Permalink
Posted by ibyea
Republicans: Lying Bullshiters
February 20, 2011And the Republicans are still lying. This time, the House of Representative voted to defund Planned Parenthood with statements that are plain untrue:
What is wrong with those people?! This organization provides valuable reproductive health care services. Of course, they can’t have that because it provides abortion because abortion is the same as killing a fully conscious human being, isn’t it? Who cares about the women, all that matters is that they baby producing machines, ripe for brainwashing them into the next generation of hateful human beings, just like them. Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that heartwarming? And all of these started because of a heavily edited video by another right wing nutjob whose goal is to see institutions like these fail because they have the need to tell everyone else what to do. They always talk about how they are against big government, how they are pro life, but as you can see, they are a bunch of lying sack of shit. The Republican party is the party of big government, and the party of death.
If anyone reading this wants to see these monsters fail at defunding this great organization, please, go here and sign a letter for congress. They need as much help as they can get.
(hat tip: Pharyngula)
Edit: If you think those are the only Republican attacks on women, think again. Here is a decent small list. After reading that, if you tell me that the Republicans are good for the country, my opinion of you will surely diminish into negative one hundred.
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Posted by ibyea
Hosni Mubarak Goes Down!
February 11, 2011It looks like Egypt’s revolution, fueled by gatherings through the internet and Tunisia’s success, succeeded. It ended in the removal of Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt for around 30 years. I give congratulations for Egyptians, for they have taken their first step towards democracy, and the lives of 300 people were not wasted in vain. Now, things aren’t 100% safe because what matters the most is that Mubarak is not replaced by another egomaniacal dictator during the transition, which has happened to so many other revolutions. The eighteen straight days of mass protests were one of the bravest things I have seen people do in my life. I hope that when it comes to it, I hope the rest of us can be that brave.
In a way, this kind of reminds of Europe’s revolution of 1848. Many protests, inspired by the French February revolution, spread throughout Europe. Unlike the European revolutions that happened back then, though, the Arab revolution is actually pretty successful, and people had modern telecommunication technology on their side.
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Posted by ibyea
The Universe Out of Nothing
February 4, 2011Okay, recently, I found a new lecture on cosmology, the origin and property of the universe, and what our future universe would look like in a hundred billion years’ time. The lecture is done by professor Lawrence Krauss. He is an amazing lecturer, and I love his injection of humor into it. Trust me when I say you will learn a lot of amazing things about the universe. Some of it may be speculation, but a lot of it is experimentally verified. Check it out:
Hat tip: Pharyngula commenter Lewelly
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Posted by ibyea
Good Kepler News
February 4, 2011Firstly, the Kepler space telescope discovered a weird, compact planetary system composed of six planets, which you can read about it in here.
Secondly, and this is the best of all news, they have discovered over a thousand candidates of stars harboring planets. Over the next few years, expect the number of planets discovered to increase dramatically.
hat tip: badastronomy and io9
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Posted by ibyea
American Doublespeak
February 2, 2011Have you ever wanted to know what American politicians are really saying behind all those nice words they say when they talk about Egypt’s revolution? Do they always seem to try to avoid issues like how Mubarak should leave now? Here is a translation of what those things mean:
Leave a Comment » | history, politics | Tagged: America, Egypt, revolution | Permalink
Posted by ibyea
Do You Want to Hunt Planets?
February 2, 2011Recently, I don’t know how long ago, though, the Zoo Universe project, which tries to involve citizens in helping out the professional astronomers sort through data, have added a new project to its list. It is called Planet Hunters. What it does is, it gathers the light curve data of stars (basically, the star’s brightness through time) from the space telescope Kepler and allows us to look at them. The basic premise is that stars have planets (well, duh), and some of those stars might have planets that orbit right in front of the star from our point of view. Those planets block some of the light from the star, thereby dimming it. By looking at the change in brightness in the curve, mainly the dipping of brightness at certain moments in time, one can detect planets, as shown in the picture below:
Of course, things aren’t as simple as that. As you will find out from checking out the web page and the tutorial, data is full of noise. The team behind this project, though, believe that because the human brain is so effective at noticing patterns, that we might be better at detecting these dips in between all of the noise than the machines. Maybe.
Anyways, go ahead and try! Who knows, maybe you might discover a planet.
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Posted by ibyea
Interview on Extrasolar Planet
January 9, 2011This is so last year, but I want to post this for the interest of general education. The reason I am posting it this late is because I forgot, but now that I remembered, here it is. The reason I am posting this is that in astronomy, the search for extrasolar planet is more relevant than ever. Better and better technologies like the Kepler space telescope are being used to probe the vast expanses of our galaxy in search of habitable planets. The e-mail interview below is one I did for my English research report for college, but I believe you may find it of benefit too. The topic is on the method of searching extrasolar planets and some of the discoveries astronomers have made. The one being interviewed is Christine Pulliam, public affairs specialist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, to whom I am very thankful for spending some of her probably precious time answering my request and allowing me to post this. I hope you enjoy it: Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by ibyea
A Happy New Years Eclipse
January 5, 2011Wow, already the year is 2011, huh? For the first post of the year, I thought I could show you some of the pictures I took for the winter solstice lunar eclipse. It isn’t great, considering I had no telescope or tripod for my camera, but it will at least show you a general idea of what it looks like. Note, there has been a few photo manipulation just for clarity, although the difference is minimal at best, considering how small the moon looks in the pictures. Also, I used various settings in my camera, so if you wonder why two pictures similar pictures look kind of different, that is why:
The shadow of the Earth just started covering the moon.
Once the shadow is over halfway covering the moon, the moon begins turning red due to Earth’s atmosphere, which scatters the light reflected from the moon. Notice how I paid the price of not having a tripod in the middle of the three pictures above, since I had to lie on the ground perfectly still. Of course, my arms were shaking, so the moon looks like it is above the images of multiple moons.
The above two pics happened right when totality was about to happen. They are also, personally, my best pictures. Look how you can see the dark maria of the moon more clearly. Also notice that the darker part is where the moon is farther in the Earth’s shadow.
This is during totality. This is the one in which I did the most alteration with. You see, while our eyes may be able to see the moon very well, even during totality, my camera can’t. The moon is too dark, so seeing the picture kinda sucked. If I had a tripod, I could have done exposures or something. Oh woe is me without a tripod! 
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Posted by ibyea
