RIFLE RANGE BOY

It all started with a digital election glitch in a locale in Brussels in 2003. The officials realised that an unpopular local candidate secured more than the vote she should. The number 4096 struck a chord with the IT personnel but passed it off as teething problems of digital voting. That is the number of votes that the computers accidentally added to her tally. A further assessment suggested that 4096 is 2 to the power of 12 (2¹²). As input into the computers is in multiples of 2 (2⁰, 2¹, 2²....2¹¹,2¹²...), somehow the part (bit) which controlled (2¹²) got lit. Hence, this flip caused the addition of 4096 to the tally.  Now, the challenge was to ascertain where the surge to this flip came about. Investigators were soon made aware of similar unexplainable occurrences in the airline and automobile industries. There were instances where autopilot settings had to see re-set as it had gone berserk. There was even a plane that suddenly plunged into the ocean. Aircraft, as they ...

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (Documentary; 1980) Creator, Presenter: Carl Sagan It all probably started over 13 billion years ago. A mammoth explosion which sent energy expanding across the universe gave light and mass. This expansion of space after the blast, by all accounts, is likely to be still ongoing as seen by the Doppler effect visible in the telescopic visualisation of distant stars. In cosmic terms, time probably started at that juncture. Then there was nothing for a very long time. Slowly with the cooling of the system, galaxies and stars came around. The earlier stars had short shelf lives. Their burning out of hydrogen fuels gave rise to other heavier atoms and supernovas that became the seed of our existence. With carbon and oxygen came the blueprint of existence, water. By trial, chance and selection, the seed of life began. Slowly unicellular, then multicellular and complex creatures formed. DNA was found by Nature for continuity of life. With time a primitive reptili...

Sculpture depicting the churning of the ocean at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand Now that everyone can fly, everyone has a chance to see the wonders of nature and man made structures near and far! A point in question is the mammoth man made structure in Swarnabumi airport in Bangkok. Incidentally, 'Swarnabumi' is a Sanskrit word meaning 'land of gold'. It was initially used by Indian traders to describe the strip of land protruding from the mainland of south east of Asia, i.e.peninsular of Malaya. The giant elaborate structure depicts an event in Hindu scripture (Puranas) of Lord Vishnu's second avatar. It all started when the God of Sky (Indra) was given a garland by a passing sage. Indra placed on his elephant's trunk who threw it away because of the strong scent. The sage, angered by this action of throwing away God's offering, passed a curse rendering all the demi Gods and Devas powerless. ( Hey! I thought saintly sages are supposed to...