blown away by scale

i am currently located in bellaire, ohio, TheUnitedStates, earth, TheSol system, TheOrionArm, TheMilkyWay, TheLocalGroup, TheVirgoSupercluster, TheKnownUniverse. each of these descriptions is EASILY several orders of magnitude larger than the previous one in the list. that is, ohio is at least 10 times larger than bellaire; TheUnitedStates is at least 10 times larger than ohio; etc. that is just mind-boggling considering as things get bigger, 10x bigger than that is just so insanely bigger that thinking of the next step makes brains cell runs for cover.

say, for example, you place a grain of sand on the very center of the 50-yard line on a football field. this grain of sand represents earth. a scaled sun would be a bit larger than a softball, just about the size of the 50-yard line stripe itself. that may not seem like a huge difference, but in actuality, you can fit about ONE MILLION earths in the sun (and thus approximately 1,000,000 grains of sand in this softball). now here's the insanity of scale... the largest known star in the universe is YZ Canis Majoris. can you take a guess how big it would be? just take a guess, would it fit between the 40-yard lines? maybe, the 20-yard lines? would it be goal line to goal line? think about it and take a guess...









well, if you gave up on guessing, i'll tell ya. granted these are rough calculations, but you'd have to add a football field to both sides of the one we are standing on and (neglecting endzones) YZ Canis Majoris would reach to the FAR 5 yard line on these extra fields. we think of our earth as big. we think of our sun as big. while it takes 8 minutes for our suns light to travel to use from the earth (just to reiterate, going the speed of light), it takes about 8 HOURS for light to cross from one side of YZ Canis Majoris to the other. just for shits and giggles and maybe strokes for people who have a hard time with big numbers. the number of earths that would fit in this big guy... almost 10,000,000,000,000,000. that's ten quadrillion earths in just one star.

that's about as far as i'm going to take the numbers for now, but think briefly... there are BILLIONS of stars each found in BILLIONS of galaxies each found in what might be millions of super-clusters. the scale is just awe striking and humbling. and with that, i need a break or a beer... or both.

the arabic project, phase 1 : COMPLETE

that is my name there. i personally think my last name (the part on the left) looks bad ass, like a crown or something. i'm sending out the names i did off the top of my head today. if you didn't get one and wanted one, i apologize, i'm an ass. send me an email or a comment, and i'll make you one up for you. it's good practice for me and kinda fun. i verified all the names with native egyptian arabic speakers, so they should be pretty damn close. since these are transliterations, how i pronounce the name can change how it is written. for example, the way i say my last name is how it is written above. the way the locals HEAR me say my name is different; thus, they write it differently. the smae goes for my first name.. i say "zachary", and they relate that to "zakareyah" which is the approximate equivalent in arabic.

well, that's one of the MANY projects i've started, and so far, the only one completed. what's on next? tell me what you think about this, your name if i sent you one, and if you want one. later.

once-in-a-lifetime kinda thing

i'm posting this as close as i can to 12:34:56 on 7-8-9. well, at least my time (add 7 to the post time)

coolness. more updates coming soon.

carl sagan and a non-sequitur revelation

i just thought that was cool. while rifling through some papers, i found a drunken scrawl of a revelation i'd written down ages ago.

• i'll never be normal, in that, i wonder why women dance more than men instead of wondering why i don't dance with women

nerdmatic tendencies

i think i really need to change the title of this blog. all i do is post my inner nerd of late. here's another. i could play with this for hours. smashing liquids of different densities into each other. play with multiple fluid simulation (add a "t" in a strategic spot and that could sound QUITE perverse). i suggest left-clicking in the middle bottom of the red for a few seconds, then right clicking in the same spot making all sorts of nerd hell break loose in fluid dynamics. i love the waves.

more qdb.us quotes

more from qdb.us

• <:spoob> drewb; it's been so long since I've had my cock sucked that I'm not sure it can handle less than one atmosphere anymore


• <:teste_fly> wish me luck on my date tonihgt [sic] guys
  * aquacavi crosses fingers
  * dr_rotcod crosses his penises
  <:teste_fly> :0
  <:aquacavi> the secret is out ladies and gentlemen


• <umopepisdn> About a month ago one of my tires popped.
  <umopepisdn> I ended up cutting about half of the tire off of the rim with a pair of scissors because I didn't know what to do.
  <umopepisdn> Then I realized that the spare tire has got a rim on it.
  Comment: Ah yes... nerds and cars =)


• <jimx> Two families move from Lebanon to America. When they arrive the two fathers make a bet - in a year's time whichever family has become more American will win.
  <jimx> A year later they meet again:
  <jimx> The first man says, "My son is playing baseball, I had McDonalds for breakfast and I'm on my way to pick up a case of Bud, how about you?"
  <jimx> The second man replies, "Fuck you, towelhead."
  <Fiery_isles> haha
  <Tarrasque> hahaah


• <%pan-chan^^> i need about 8+ hours of sleep
  <+gabu> yes
  <+gabu> but you're from australia
  <+gabu> you sleep during the day
  <+gabu> don't you ?


• <Samurai> She isn't forcing anyone! she haven't asked them of nothing½!
  <enisoc> how the hell do you type a ½ symbol by accident??


• <EFX> at least I'm not black with a huge penis

me last night

click on the pic to see more new math pix.

happy valentine's day (nerd-style)

nothing like a little sierpinski fractal valentine's day hearts to give you that warm fuzzy feeling.

encryption for the layman

i received a newsletter today from grand illusions. they are one of the places i get all my geek toys from, as well as thinkgeek. at the end of the newsletter, it had a "puzzle". i recognized the puzzle immediately as it is a real-life example of how public- and private-key encryption works (that stuff your web browser uses all the time so you aren't thieved of your credit card info). typically, the story involves Alice (A) trying to contact Bob (B) without Eve (Eavesdropper) finding out the message. this time they used john and mary and left eve to be understood as the general populous. the first answer is an example of private-key encryption, the second is public-key.

John and Mary have fallen in love, via the internet, and John wishes to send Mary a ring. Unfortunately they live in a country where anything sent through the mail will be stolen unless it is enclosed in a padlocked box.

John and Mary each have plenty of padlocks, but none to which the other has a key. How can John get the ring safely into Mary's hands?

_____________________________________

1. John puts the ring in a box, padlocks the box, and sends it in the post to Mary. Mary attaches a padlock of her own, so there are now 2 padlocks on the box, and sends the box back to John. John uses his key to remove the original padlock, and sends the box back to Mary. Mary uses her key, removes the remaining padlock, opens the box and retrieves the ring.

2. John sends Mary an empty box that has been locked with a padlock. Attached to the hasp of the padlock is a key. John then sends a second box to Mary; this box can be opened using the key that was attached to box 1. Inside box 2 is the ring.

see, computers aren't hard. i thought that was cool.