On human nature (part 1)

Hi,

Today I was going to write about the book Brave New World and happiness but just few minutes back I settled on something else so I am not even sure what will come out in the next several minutes.

As I was going through my news feed on Facebook I noticed Phil Plait posting again. It is about another black hole merger and gravitational wave detection. This happened I think four or five times now and of course for the first time it was all over the news, everybody was talking about it (even Czech news mentioned it). I am not sure how it was like for the next time but it probably did not get such an attention… now I am not trying to say that it should have, there are other important things (like a woman under root (don’t even ask for the context)). Anyway, this time gravitational wave was detected and public could only find out through reading one tweet ^[1]! That is how much coverage you get for discovery in probably completely new field of physics.

I am certainly quite biased here but the point that Phil Plait made in his post and that I want to share here is how people look for new things but then quickly forget about them. It appears we live in an age where meme (meaning not only joke now) lasts for shorter and shorter time ^[2]. This might be caused by this “information age” or whatever we call the 21^st century but I think this trend also propagates further to the need to have a new iPhone or whatever is behind schedule on being “updated”.

Maybe all of this sounds cliché and just the other day I was telling one of my teachers that the reason why man do not work with hands so much is simply because we live in different time! It reminds me of people worrying about first books then newspapers, TVs and now phones and their effect on youth (this and this XKCD will help you get the idea). And yet should we be worried about the change? How are we going to get ready for it if we leave it to itself and then it does become a problem? I could write under this picture of Black Friday: “Look at those insane people!” but maybe as things tend to be it is more complicated than that (but yeah they are probably buying useless stuff 😀 ).

“Look at them! Sheeple!”

Dragallur

^[1]Yup that is a lie, of course it spread through the internet but it was not such a boom.

^[2]I should probably put disclaimers all over the place since I have not lived very long time yet.

2 awards in 1 post

Hi,
it seems that I was nominated for some awards, maybe there were more of them but I did not catch them, what a pity.

Liebster award from mathsbyagirl, thanks for this again 😉 It seems that I should answer those question too so here you go:

What is your passion? Astronomy
Why did you start blogging? Check this out.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? The thought that I want to change something?
Is there a moment in your life you wish you could go back to just to enjoy it again? If so, what moment is it? Sure there is, many. Anytime would be fine if I could live everything to this point again.
Are you planning to publish a book in the future? If so, what would it be about? Nope.
Do you believe in love at first sight? Not so much experience in this though it happens and it probably does not lead to best marriages, who knows, depends.
Is there something you’re afraid of that’s quite unusual? Not anything unusual probably.
What country are you from? Czech Republic
How many languages do you speak? Czech, English
What is one of your most embarrassing moments in life? Those in which I felt embarrassed but they did not need to be embarrassing at all.
Are you happy? Yup 😉

I guess that these answers also count for Versatile award by thenexusscience and it is getting late but if anybody wants to grab these awards go for it.

Dragallur

How to! 6) Walk a long distance for the first time

Hi,
today I want to share with you a little tutorial. I will talk about Hiking a very long distance, lets say that this means 35+ kilometers.

I did this three times as of today (30.8.16) so I will share some of the most useful tips to get you ready for some fun journey. (We will be talking about long one day hikes)

Planning

First of all you need to have your way well planned.
Take your time about thinking what distance you can walk, if you do not have any experience start with ~35. If you do some sports and you enjoy this kind of thing go for ~60km or even more, depends on your self confidence.
If you want to try some huge distance but you have less experience, try to plan your way around bus stations and train stations so you can get home if something goes wrong.
Try to walk a circle or such a shape so at any time (best in the end) you can cut it and walk right towards home. If you go 30 km strictly north with no other way to get home except by feet you may get into trouble.
Timing is important. Check out weather and start soon enough, you do not want to walk in darkness to much. (That is anyway inevitable if you want to walk more).

Packing

Take food that can boost you with energy. Take water. Pack extra pair of shoes. Shoes are the single most important things you will have to pack. It might happen that you will have to walk in them for 12+ hours and if it is the first time you have them on, there could be huge trouble. Take your surest shoes, two pairs. In summer I would go for sandals and closed boots. Pack extra pairs of socks (3/4/5 for example), it is very nice to change your socks from time to time. Definitely take headlight just in case you walk in dark. Take raincoat, NOT umbrella! Do not forget on money and basic first aid kit. (You do not probably need anything more!!!)

Walking

Try to walk on asphalt and hard surface as least as you can, this will save you from lot of pain (plan you route according to this)! Take a bag that has waist belt and make it as tight as you can, this helps your back and shoulders that would otherwise have to bear all of your stuff. Try to go at steady pace, the exact speed depends on the length of your route but if you are starter I bet that you will be walking at speed around 4 km/h + you will need time to rest and such.

This is all I can come up with, though I might share some more experience with you when I attend such track again.

Dragallur

Stuff happened!

Hi,
today I returned from the planned vacation in Poland. It was quite pleasant trip with end in family cottage. During that time I read quite some books so I will probably share some of them with you in future posts. Also I will continue with limits and derivatives. Soon there should be photos from Juno so I will share them with you definitely! I should be leaving 21st to Germany for my year there but they have not found my host family yet so I will leave probably 14th September, at least I will have time pack everything go for haircut and such things. Today is Thursday so see you with regular post on Saturday 😉

Dragallur

Leaving for 2 weeks

Hi,
yes the title says it clear. I was preparing about 2 months to have some posts that I would publish on schedule when I will be in summer camp but the only extra post I made was this one and I used it before. What this means? That until 17.7.2016 (or 18) there wont be any post from me. I am going on summer camp. Of course I wont be able to read your posts too, see at that time then 😉

Dragallur

Here are some of my favorite posts that you can read before I return! 1) 2) 3) 4)

YFU meeting

Hi,
if you read my blog frequently you may remember that I said HERE that I am going to Germany for one year! It is with the organisation YFU and this weekend I was on the meeting before the flight (train in my case).

As you may have guessed, this was the reason why I was not answering comments or reading any posts. I will try to catch up though I can not promise that I will read all of your stuff.

There were people from all around Czech Republic and also kids (some older than me) who were just before leaving for home.

It was for three days and after some games we were generally discussing some expectations from the year, fears, how we should behave in the host family, what we should watch out for (culture shock was very discussed issue). In free time we were playing voleyball since it was kind of nice weather except Sunday.

Though I did not meet anyone interested in astronomy particularly I found people listening to similar kind of music. It was quite cool to get to know so many new people.

From all the students I am planning to visit one of the closest countries. Of course there are some other kids who want to go to Austria and one girl for Germany but than as one would guess there is huge interest in USA, Latin America and more west generally. I will be leaving Czech in 21st August or something like that. This does not mean that I will stop writing blog, not at all, it may some time happened that I just leave some posts simply because I will be overhelmed. Also I will be going for summer camp which I am very much looking forward but since it is roughly 2 weeks there wont be many posts. (The number depends on how much I will work now.)

Dragallur

PS: there was question about VIIIB group in periodic table, I will answer it as soon as I can.

Blogger Recognition Award #2

award

Hi,
two months back I was nominated by Chape for this type of award and about week back it happened again! Thanks to The Nexus Science for the nomination, I was already nominated once by you and now again which is amazing! Thank you very much again.

The Rules:

Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Attach the award to your post.
Write a brief story / history of your blog.
A take down of advice to new bloggers.
Nominate 10 other bloggers.
Comment on their blogs to notify them of the nomination.

Story:

I started more than an year ago which is quite long time blogging when compared to others. Throughout the time I wrote about physics and astronomy but now I also write about chemistry, optics and other interesting stuff. Mostly I stopped writing about the kind of popular science like fundamental forces since I realised that it is actually not so simple as I thought it was. Last december or so I started to write a lot and right now I keep up with one post every other day.

Advice:

Just join the community, it will earn you popularity fast enough.

Nominations:

The Liebster Award

Hi,
finally after 11 days I got to the nomination by: soyoungsocurious. Thank you very much! leibster

Here it goes:

The Rules:

Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
Copy and paste the Liebster Award badge to your post.
Nominate up to 10 new bloggers.
Answer the 10 questions the person who nominated you asked you.
Create 10 new questions to ask the bloggers you nominated.
Copy and paste the rules to your post.
Notify the bloggers you have nominated by leaving them a comment on their blog.

Name and define your favorite word.
Probably: serendipity – the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
Have you ever been in love? If so, describe the experience in a sentence.
Uhh.. well.. yeah sure. I would quote C&H:

When you love something, you don’t just love the exciting parts… you love the boring parts just as much. People who truly love spend their lives studying the tedious little bits as well as the big flashy part.
Describe your ability to dance.
Lol, this has actually pretty interesting story behind, but from 0-100 I would rank myself something about 1/G64
What do you think about God?
I do not think that he is somewhere, if he is than he has some far better job than interacting with me.
Apart from blogs; What is your favourite site?
Desmos
Morning person or a night owl?
Morning person definitely.
How exciting is your life? Out of 10?
9+0.999… (but depends on compared to what)
What’s your favourite number?
0,G64,17
If everything is possible, then is it possible for anything to be impossible?
If yes then yes.. (if God is all powerful is he able to create rock with which he is not able to move?)
Finally, Which color is the dress?
White and golden (damn)

Ok this was unusual fun, but now I have to make up another ten questions:

Share your most favorite joke/meme.
Star wars (yay) or Star trek (booo)?
Geometry or the stuff with numbers?
What would force you to go to school/work without shoes?
Highest place you have been to?
Link to your favorite music.
What is the most strange thing you have ever heard?
Favorite event in history?
Your dream job when you were child?
The top speed you were driving in a car (where?)?

Mathsbyagirl
Chape
Fijay
Sissh
mliae
Mithai

Dragallur

Smiley Thumb Award

Hi,
when I get one of those awards I always wonder who are those people that make these awards! I mean, this must be some special group or what? Maybe I could one day create my own award

hell no.

Anyway I was nominated in the first round of this award because Chape created this brand new award, thanks man for nominating me. So here it is.

The rules:

1. Show your new cool award.

2. Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.

3. Tell us what makes you smile.

XKCD makes me smile

4. Select other blogs you want to give the award to. How many is up to you.

I will nominate three which I have never nominated before:

5. Copy and paste the rules.

Thats done.

Dragallur

Blogger Recognition Award

Hi,
so two days back I was nominated by Chape for an award, so thanks man! I appreciate that a lot!

The Rules:

Write a post to show your award.
Give a brief story of how your blog started.
Give two advice to new bloggers.
Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.

So the blog started more than year ago because of one page that suggested to write a blog about what you learned, that is exactly what I am doing here!

Write your posts on particular days and read other blogs too!

So the other blogs are:

Joseph from Rationalising The Universe

The Traveling Space Opera

Fatherhood, Fails, and Football

Eustat