What's In A Birthday?

An apt post on the day I turn 14.........

Its an everyday habit. You open up your Facebook page, glance to the newsfeed and then glance to the left! OMG! My friend has a birthday! And you post "Happy Birthday" or a variation of it (which nowadays ranges from hapi b'day to haaappiieeeeee buddddayyy!).

What's In A Birthday? Well, tomorrow (by the time this post's online, it'll be today) is my 14th Birthday, (Yay!), and NOT being the-kid-who celebrates-birthdays-cutting-cake-blowing candles-calling friends (woah!), I wondered, "What's In A Birthday"?

(Pre) Midnight inspiration struck! After browsing through a dozen pages, I thought of penning (digitalizing) it down into a blogpost. Well, read on!

Well, I declare Birthdays an ASTRONOMICAL (not astrological) phenomenon. The Earth revolves, and so do we, and after completing the looong (about 300 million km) journey around our Sun, we complete a full ellipse, right in time to celebrate our next birthday. Due to some technical stuff, we are not at the same on our birthday as we were the last year. In simple words, one more year has passed since you were born.

What's so great in that? Why did Birthday Parties start? Quoting a website, "The tradition of birthday parties started in Europe, due to a fear of evil spirits being particularly attracted to people on their birthdays. To protect them from harm, friends and family would to come be with the birthday person and bring good thoughts and wishes. This is how birthday parties began." Gradually as people started getting more socialized, new party 'gimmicks' such as Cakes, Balloons, Candles, Party Hats, Party Games, Return Gifts, Party Spray (so long till infinity) made their appearance. Recently, a haywire facebook b'day party attracted 20000 UNWANTED guests!!!

There IS a helluva going around this 'Birthday' phenomenon. A birthday has religious, legal and time related aspects as well, not to mention a brood of mathematicians mulling around a 'Birthday Paradox.' Let me introduce you to all that below!

Ah! Wondered about 'Leap' years? A Leap Year occurs once every four years. Think of those people born on 29th February on a Leap year! Famous ones include Morarji Desai (former Indian PM) and Pope Paul III. They face a Paradox! What do they do? Celebrate their special day once every four years? Or celebrate it on 28th Feb or 1st March? Legally, I guess its your free will to decide! By the way, these bunch of people are branded "Leap Year Babies."

Lewis Carroll, (creator of Alice and Wonderland), coined a neologism (a phrase not used commonly) in his book 'Through the Looking Glass'. Called an Unbirthday, it is an event that can be celebrated on any day that is not the person's birthday! (Most probably, its your unbirthday today!)

Then there is the Half Birthday, which occurs approximately six months before or after the person's real birthday. This can be quite useful in schools, especially when a kid wants his birthday to be celebrated in front of the whole school, but cannot do so because his birthday falls in the holidays! Then there is a Decimal Birthday, celebrated according to base ten, commemorating 100 or 1000 days after you were born!

Then you have the traditional birthday song, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, "The Most Recognised Song in the English Language." "Happy Birthday to You" "Tra La La La La La"....Well! The value of this song is based at $5 million!!! The song (performed by the Chipmunks) below:

Thanks for reading so far! Glad you made through all the stuff above! Given 365/366 days in a year, another question pops up into your minds! What is the most common birthday around? Well, in USA, the most common birthday is October 5. In the rest of the world, generally the period between September 15 to October 15 is likely to have more birthdays. Quotes a website, "Any birthday has a theory: To be born in this period, a baby would most likely have been conceived on New Year's Eve."

Well, given the same fact above, I ask a question, "What is the probability that given a random group of people, some pair of them will have the same birthday?" Well, according to the popular Pigeonhole Principle, if you get in 367 people there is a 100% chance that you will come across a pair sharing their birthdate.

But, if mathematical probability holds then, there is a 99% chance that you will find a same-birthday pair if you have a group of 57 people. There is 50% chance when there are 23 people and a 90% chance when you have 41 people in the group.

Well, With a mixture of thoughts in my head, a prospect of having a Facebook wall full of Happy Birthday posts and mumbing "Happy Birthday To You" in my mind, I sign off.

Later!

Wired Differently: Quizbot # 1

Quizbot is a weekly quiz initiated by yours truly in an attempt to reach far out in everyone's quest for Curiosity. Besides, Quizzing is one of my hobbies and thanks to SEQC, now one of my passions.

Quizbot is pure quizzing. No Leaderboard, No Scores. Every week, there will be a set of 5 questions, to be answered in the comments section. Look out every Sunday for a new set!

Set # 1

1. A leading researcher in areas of mathematical physics and the Theory of Everything, this theoretical physicist is perhaps, according to his peers, a successor to Albert Einstein. Identify.

2. Described as "A webcomic....... that is all", this webcomic has a member of the family Anatidae in its name. Name this webcomic (the image below is a strip from the comic), whose subjects range from technology to mathematics to physics, often giving faux-eloquent facts on these topics.

3. Co-director of Asia's largest film festival, this travel writer and historian pretty much lives in New Delhi, India. Identify him.

4. Identify this pop band, based in Sweden. In September 2010, they released an album named after a quantity explained as "a + b is to a as a is to b." Name.

5. A sitter (there will be one of these in every set). Give me the code name used for the Kill Osama Bin Laden operation. Clue below.

Post your answers in the comments section below. Answers to be revealed in the next set, of-course, along with the scores.

Multitasking: A Habit or a Necessity?

"One Minute Take: Multitasking: A Habit or a Necessity"

"To do Two things at once is to do neither." Thus said Roman philosopher Publilius Syrus to himself in 100 B.C.

Its obvious. Right now, while reading this post, you must be having atleast 3 tabs open on your web browser and you must probably be listening to music. Multitasking is a commonplace activity.

Handling multiple tasks at a time can be fun, but recent studies show that they are linked with stress and overload. Scientifically, it is referred to as "Cognitive Overload." But the BAD effects of Multitasking are only observed at workplaces and in the office atmosphere. One website quotes multitasking as an activity "Used for decades to describe the parallel processing abilities of computers, multitasking is now shorthand for the human attempt to do simultaneously as many things as possible, as quickly as possible, preferably marshalling the power of as many technologies as possible."

Listening to music while travelling, combining any activity with watching television, reading the newspaper or a book till whilst doing something else are actually shown to improve efficiency of a task. According to me, while multitasking it is always better to prioritise your jobs and to pair a less-brainy job with a not-so-less brainy job, as in the examples above. This will surely increase the speed and efficiency of the task at hand.

And last, and least, the term "Multitasking" was made for the computer industry, and NOT for Humans, so don't go too far with that habit. In the end, I leave you with some funny cartoons, depicting multitasking.

"One Minute Take is a series where I write on, giving my view of VERY random topics, the topics are randomly decided when I stumble my interests on Stumbleupon!"

Poetic Thoughts - J-elly-Fish!

"J-elly-Fish"

Deep in the Oceans, down in the seas,

There's a creature hiding beneath the weed.

Also called Boneless Blobs of the Sea,

Coz they have no bones, only Jelly.

With no brain, and no heart,

It has tentacles on an Umbrella.

We just call it a Jellyfish,

A J-elly-Fish!

It is so slimy but you don't touch,

A single sting to kill is enough,

It doesn't like your presence that much,

Its Haemotoxins will make your blood into slush.

It is dangerous , ever so Moody,

Its Neurtoxins will shut down your body.

Found in oceans, corals, atoll,

They say its the Venomous of all.

We just call it a Jellyfish,

A J-elly-Fish!

They are the Boneless Blobs of the Sea,

Coz they have no bones, only Jelly.

Found in oceans, corals, atoll,

They say its the Venomous of all.

We just call it a Jellyfish,

A J-elly-Fish!

Original Writing. Got the inspiration to write this poem one fine day when doing nothing at all, dreaming of getting wet all over :) xD.

Moore's Law - Doubling the Trends

"How Long Will the Moore's Law Hold Out"

Back in the 1600s, a "Computer" was a person who was appointed to carry out calculations. Till about 100 years ago, no one would have imagined the strides technology would take and now we are busy in knowing how far the strides will reach.

In such a quest was Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, who, in a 1965 article in Electronics Magazine made an observation that seemed too audacious to be true. He saw a trend, that would be, and still is the driving force behind computer technology. He noted, " the number of components in integrated circuits had doubled every year from the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958 until 1965" and predicted that the trend would continue "for at least ten years". This is not a law of physics, but is a mere observation.

Gordon Moore, co-founder - Intel

The law, or trend, states that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. And as startling as it may seem, this trend has continued for more than half a century and is expected to continue until 2020. I am no computer expert, so on technical terms, I quote some websites. Here's one that says, "We are now used to a scenario in which this observation has turned into a law of nature in the chip manufacturing industry and appears to have become the major force to drive semiconductor innovation." Take a look at the graph below which shows this trend clearly.

If you notice, the Moore's Law has been 'Made Real' by Intel, which recently came out with the new Tri-Gate Transistor, or 3-D Transistor. Now, the Moore's Law does affect us as computer users, if not for integrated circuits becoming more integrated, laptops would fit in a whole room. Only real professionals in the semiconductor industry really know whats going on behind the scenes, and mere mortals like us can only look up and gore at what comes by, along with, of course, benefiting from using these innovations.

Now, there is a similar law called the Kryder's Law applicable to hard disk storage cost per unit of information. Also, the camera industry has its own version of 'Pixels per Dollar' law.

Well, now coming to the question, "How long will this trend hold out?" Is there any time when we will exhaust our silicon technologies, or is there a time when silicon will be replaced, by say Quantum Computing? You have your answer from Gordon Moore himself, who in April 2005 stated that the law cannot be sustained indefinitely: "It can't continue forever. The nature of exponentials is that you push them out and eventually disaster happens." Well, if this trend continues, then by 2050 we'll have robots who are our masters and control us! Probably, if someone masters Quantum Computing, harnessing the power of individual atoms, the Silicon industry may cease to exist, according to some futurists. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, an optimistic as far as the Moore's Law is concerned, says that by 2045 Machine will become equal to Man, and calls this the 'Singularity'.

There are two perspectives here. One. If the Moore's Law ceases to exist then we will have a better option replacing it. Two. If it continues for more decades, then we will have better processors and better computers.

Till then, live with the fact that after 2020, one of the above two scenarios will arise, and 2020 will be no doubt the acid test year for the Moore's Law.

Later!

The above post is part sourced from the web, part from videos and part original writing.