Nuclear Non-Proliferation

The outcome at the last UNSC meeting was to urge all countries in the world to take action to stop production of nuclear fuel, or any related equipment. It also urges countries to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation treaty. However, what it did not do is to ensure the world that it is free from the threat of nuclear Proliferation.

I say this because we have had this going on for years and yet not have arrived at any logical conclusion. It is only treaties treaties and more treaties.

I am sorry, but i just cannot imagine myself as safe by knowing that a powerful state has signed a treaty by which it promises not to hit me. Promises can be broken. What security does the treaty give us?

International retaliation? Well , when the world will go in the hands of fanatics, that is hardly a deterrent. We should understand well enough that if even a single nuclear bomb is launched, we will be dead, many of us at least.

Even though India has not signed the NPT, I firmly and strongly have the faith that Indian Nuclear weapons shall never be used, fro the person who shall use them will be taken from his house and hung on the streets. The power of the Indian people is much stronger than any treaty India has ever signed.

This is what I write about. There is no such mechanism to prevent use of nukes. Only treaties.

It is high time that our leaders finally realize their folly and make out such an international mechanism that could prevent any state to use the nukes. Only then can they convince the public that indeed they are safe.

Betelguese

Yesterday, one of my friends told me about the end of Betelguese, α Orionis. It is a star, if you do not know, and it is generally the second brightest star in the constellation of orion, whose picture I provide.

If you do not know, then Betelguese is a hugely massive star. It lies about 640 light years away from Earth, and is about 20 times the mass of the sun. It is one of the largest stars known to man, being a Red Supergiant.

If placed at the center of our own solar system, then it would gobble up the space upto Mars!

This star is only 6-10 million years old, but its massiveness is burning its hydrogen fuel up. Sooner or later, it is doomed to become a supernova.

A recent study (well, recent if counted in astonomical senses) conducted in the UC Berkeley's Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) atop Mt. Wilson Observatory in Southern California that Betelguese's diameter has shrunk dramatically by 15% since 1993, in the past 15 years! And surprisingly, I was born since then! May be I am a bad omen for Betelguese.

This rapid shrinking is due to the fact that Betelguese is receding towards its ultimate end, if Dr. Charles Townes is to be believed. And we must beilieve him, for the evidences are clear --- Betelguese is going to become a supernova.

This is the scientific prohpecy of a super-star's super death, but the Internet is being flooded with messages that the star's end would mean the end of the Earth! I vaguely remember someone telling me that a black hole will suck the earth inside out once the LHC started. Gosh! I am inside a black hole..?!

This is pure rubbish. I don't know why people misinterpret everything as the earth's end. Why, aren't we destroying the Earth while we guzzle gallons of gas in our SUVs? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the reason for end of the earth, not Betelguese.

Evidences suggest that the supernova is due on 2012. Oh my god, another date! Isn't that the year the mayan calendar ends, the apocalypse of Earth? Well, I am sorry to disappoint you, it is not; unless Osama Bin Laden gets hold of Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons, it is not.

We are our own perils, and no astronomical phenomenon poses a greater threat to humanity than the greenhouse effect or the humanity itself. As for Betelguese, it will die a magnificent death. The supernova it will create will shine as bright as the full moon, or even brighter, temporarily making it the brightest star in the night sky. Imagine the moonless night being flooded with red light- ah! a poet's delight of a wonderful, but sad, phenomenon.

I would like to quote Shakespeare, "When beggars die, there are no comets are seen. The heaven themselves blaze forth the death of princes".

Julius Caesar, Act 2,Scene 2, Lines 32,33.

Now think about the death of the prince of the stars...

Such greatness does Betelguese posesses, which makes it my most faourite star. I will be bereaved to find such a friend gone, but it cannot be helped. He must go someday.And his death will be studied and analysed by countless Scientists, for it will be a spectacle that all astronomers await.

But there are fears that the X-rays and Gamma Rays might cause a mass extinction on Earth. I may rest assure you that the Gamma-ray Bursts it will cause will be directed outwards of the Earth. Also, it is very far away! It can do absolutely nothing to us, but we can only wait and see.

It would be very sad indeed for Betelguese to go, but who must die, dies. That is the law of nature.

The man who conquered himself

Once upon a time there was a great king who conquered all kingdoms of the indian subcontinent.

His military prowess was beyond any that the world had seen. Soon he began expanding his territories.

But once, he besieged the kingdom of Kalinga. The warriors of kalinga were famed for their battle skills. There was a war.

In the very last battle, clashed the entire army of the king and the Kalinga. The king won, but he couldn't stand the sight. The Blood spilled was so great that the rivers of the areas turned red. The sight of the people wailing for their beloved was so great that the king's heart ached!

This sight was so astounding, that the king gave up war, and took the name of Buddha. T

This man was Ashoka the great... the man who conquered himself.

The Writer's Block!

What is most frustating? To know what you have to write, but you can't write, OR you don't know what you must write but keep on writing?

I am in such a situation when both these extremely stupid probations are happening to me. Thus I have not been able to append my blog for such a long period of time. Having an array of incomplete assignments doesn't help, I am sure. But such is my life, I continue to seek myself a place in this harsh world.

I saw an advertisement of Allen Solly today. It said, "What I don't like, I change!".

Isn't his small statement true? Though people ask god to grant them the power to accept change, I say the contrary, be the change!

How many individuals do you know who consented with the happenings in their life, and lived the way life chose for them? NONE.

For, my good readers, only those who change their circumstances create history.

So, from today, change the circumstances, don't change because of them!

BE THE CHANGE!