SETI and Radio Messages

I was thinking about messages when walking home, then, all of a sudden, inspiration! I will make something about radio messages and SETI!

So first, what is a radio message? It is just a low energy photon (often described as a 'packet' of light). To help visualise what low energy photons are, you can look at this colour spectrum:

  

Radio waves are way off to the right end of the spectrum, past the 'R' (or the number 750, meaning the light wave is 750nm long). The reason photons are particles, but we see them as waves, is all getting into particle-wave duality. Basically, they are particles if you say they are, but waves if you say they are.*

So anyway, we can encode information in the radio waves. There are probable many ways to do it, but one of the simplest is the one used by arecibo. First, it converted a picture into 1s and 0s. Then, it began to broudcast the message. A 1 meant 'one second of 230 Mhz' and a 0 meant 'one second of 230 Mhz, just shifted by 10 Hz'

Imagine that coloured pixels mean 1, and black ones mean 0. That is what was sent.

So, we could send any image up into space, as long as we encode it. But would the aliens understand? An idea is to create a universal language that can be interpreted by anything recieving it.  It could use maths as a base. First we could send things like 101211, which could be read as 1 (one "1") add (one "0") one equals (one "2") 2 (two 1"s). Then, we could send a few more, like 11012111 and 1101121111 (2+1=3 and 2+2=4 respectively), until we get a confirmative response (the aliens could send something like 110111211111 [2+3=5] to prove their intelligence).

Now for some harder maths. We can move onto subtraction! 3 can be the minus sign, so now we can send 11131121 to establish subtraction, and 13124 to establish the concept of a zero (4 meaning zero).

Wow, now we have basic arithmetic down, how about some logic? Let's try a simple piece of logic: 1+2=2+1. this will help the aliens understand us, so, without further ado, 101121101. Also, some simple two sided equations, like 1011211131 or 11312401.

Now some delicious multiplication. We will establish what multiplication is (5 will be our times sign). 110110112115111, 11101110111011101112111511111, and 11110111121111511 are examples of this.

And of course, division. 1111611211, 1111116111211, 111611121. And then we establish it as the inverse of multiplication. 111511121111111116111, and other similar equations.

Exponents and nth roots, such as 1171121111 and 1111811211, then we can really show our intellegence.

We will have a, b and c as our unknown variables, and 9 as a seperator between sums. 3 unknowns leaves enough room for some good equations. First we will teach them algebra, like "a0112111 and a21" (broadcast at similar times, so the aliens know they are linked.) Then we can teach them theorems like pythagoras, which is a6110b6112c611 (a²+b²=c²).

Then we could later derive physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, english, french, geography, medicine and other subjects from these mathermatical rules.

Science, I could write a whole book on this.

--Thomas Jones

*In 10,000 years, the Xkralls of the Adorra system will return to out planet, giggling and high-fiving over that brilliant practical joke.

Review of "Shapes", from maths.

Shapes is a brilliant novel, and certainly a classic. The real life messages within, coupled with the brevity, add to it. The lack of verbosity is the key to its success, as it allows even the youngest readers to read between the lines.

It starts with a simple word: "Shapes". This word, despite being deceptively pointless, is full with meaning. Simply by looking at the word, you gain knowledge of the setting. It figuratively draws you within the pages.

The book then goes onto describe various stages of the protagonist's life. Each page brings a new, rich setting into the viewer's mind. Many say that they felt like the world within the book is real, and certainly the descriptive, exciting text makes them correct.

The protagonist's appearance is not described within the book, nor are any plot points. This is an excellent hook, as anything the audiences mind comes up with will be tailored to them, improving the brilliance of every page.

What definitely gives this literary masterpiece, hailed by critics as starting a new genre of fiction, and even a new literary movement, its excellent charm, however, is its factual basis. On every odd page, there is a page describing the research behind it. It is evident from the research the days of toil sent into every exciting, unique page.

Overall, an excellent piece of transfiction massively above the level of even great writers such as Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆



--Thomas

Maratassassin

Not much to say about this, but its from a game I'm making for history called Maratassassin. It's set in the french revolution, and you get to assassinate Marat.

Updating Phrases for Our Modern Day

Because our phrases are getting old fashioned, I will update them so they are still relevant:

A watched pot never boils > A watched proton never decays
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link > A long-chain hydrocarbon is only as strong as its weakest bond
A dog is a man's best friend > The machines that do everything are man's best friend
A fish rots from the head down > A fish rots from the guts outwards
A picture is worth a thousand words > A 128x128 .png file created using microsoft paint uses up the same amount of space on a hard drive, and so encodes the same amount of information as 534 characters generated by notepad.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away > Not taking homeopathic treatments (that don't work) can keep the doctor away, short of an accident such as a car crash
Never look at a gift horse in the mouth > Always look at gift horses in the mouth, lest they carry an explosive planted by James.

--Thomas

Some More Comics

See title.

James' Routine

Political Cartoons for Dummies

Christians vs Atheists I

--Thomas Jones

Psycological Profiles

Request one by commenting on it in facebook or on here.
Patrick Seargent

Elliot Aspery

James Mott

Joseph Hampton

Matty Curran

Thomas Jones

Sheraiz Ali

Lil Wayne (Request by Sheraiz)

--Thomas Jones

Facebook Likes + Me = This

psychological fact #77
the crusty stuff you get in the corner of your eyes when you wake up is remnant of your dreams.
the color tells about how your dreams were.
yellow means you dreamt about love.
brown means you dreamt about death.
green means you dreamt about wealth.
colorless means you dreamt about fame.
black means you dreamt about nothing.

Where to even start on complaining reviewing?

"psychological fact #77"

 #77? Where is #76? Or #79? Where can I find this database of psychological facts?

"the crusty stuff you get up in the corner of your eyes when you wake up is remnant of your dreams"

 Dreams are just electricity going around in your brain pretending you are somewhere else, whilst you are paralyzed and so unable to move. How does that affect rheum production at all? It's just made of mucin (some protein), and skin cells and dust!

"the color tells you about how your dreams were"

You spelt (correct word, look it up) 'colour' wrong. Also, does protein know how to interpret neurological electric signals? If so, why aren't we using it for airport security! Imagine the benefits of a passport that changes colour when someone is planning on doing terrorism!

"yellow means you dreame..." [snip] "...out nothing"

As you can see, these skin cells/proteins/dust has pigments which are told by the protein what you are thinking about, then use an organised union thingy to determine which pigments they should use.

"Artist's" Rendering

Maincraft Dev Diaries, part Un

Random Terrain Generation (or pseudorandom, more accurately) is a staple of many popular games, like Minecraft. And rightly so, because it adds realism to the game. It also adds variation, because the RTG is unpredictable.

The one I use in Maincraft is very simple:

• Create a row of bedrock at the bottom of the map.
• Make the bedrock randomly go up and down, to make it 'bumpy'
• Place a seed block of stone. X and Y are generated from an algorithm based on the CPU time.
• Allow the seed block to grow, by making everything in its von Neumann neighborhood turn into stone, for 5 steps.
• Randomly turn stone into ores by checking a number generated from an algorithm based on the CPU time.
• Create dirt in all empty spaces up to 3 blocks above the stone.
• Turn dirt that is not in the shade (underneath a stone block) into grass.*
• Create lava above any block of bedrock exposed to
• Create two seed blocks of saplings. X and Y are generated from an algorithm based on the CPU time.
• Allow the saplings to move downwards, until it collides with a block. If that block is grass, then it grows into a tree. Otherwise, it teleports to a random position.
• Place a seed block of water. X and Y are generated from an algorithm based on the CPU time.
• Allow the water and lava to grow in the same way it does in Minecraft classic.*
• Turn all grass near water into sand, and kill plants that are underwater. *

* = Repeat this once every 1-2 seconds.

This creates a nice looking 2D world, as you can see from this screenshot:

Post any methods you might have in the comments!

--Thomas

Olaf Stapledon

It's really hard thinking of stuff to write.

Well anyways, if you see the bookshelf on the right, you will see the book 'Star Maker'. I'm going to talk about that book.

It starts with some guy. He's sitting on a hill, when, all of a sudden, his immaterial consciousness flies off into space. He starts hopping around planets, eventually finding one.
This planet is inhabited by these people. He keeps on jumping around them for a year, before he finally finds one he stay in. They both fly off into space together, and find various alien races. There's plant men, who eventually go extinct because they slept for too long, and symbiotics.

These symbiotics are made up of some sea thing and some land thing, and they go into space and build planet sized starships and stuff.

Then, they try to build an intergalactic ship the size of a solar system. The stars are unhappy (they are sentient!), and go supernova, killing almost everyone.

Then, some he-larious capers occur and every being in the galaxy bonds together as one consciousness. They die out due to the stars dying, being replaced by little white-dwarf worms that feed off dying stars. These all bond together into one, universal, consciousness, and go off to meet the Star Maker (a god). The star maker shoots them down or something, and the guy has a sudden revelation about the nature of the universe, called the 'Ultimate Moment of the Cosmos'. Then he goes back in time, and meets some nebula, and then goes back home.

The End.

Along the way, he also mentions another of Olaf Stapledon's awesome books, Last and First Men.
All in all, it's a very good piece of fiction and an excellent portrayal of alien culture.

☆☆☆☆☆


--Thomas

Scientific Fame

I read about the Darwin scale of scientific fame. Here are some names, sorted in order of fame:

1. God - 286 Darwins
2. Jesus Christ - 14 Darwins
3. Allah - 9 Darwins
4. Mohammed - 4 Darwins
5. Albert Einstein - 1 Darwin
6. Charles Darwin - 1 Darwin
7. Leonidas - 571 Millidarwins
8. The Doctor - 571 Millidarwins
9. Marie Curie - 285 Millidarwins
10. Stephen Hawking - 171 Millidarwins
11. Alan Turing - 114 Millidarwins
12. Osama bin Laden - 46 Millidarwins
13. Brian Cox - 22 Millidarwins
14. Britney Spears - 12 Millidarwins
15. Stephen Wolfram - 9 Millidarwins
16. Russ Johnson - 1 Millidarwin

Russ Johnson was born in the 2130s.

--Thomas

'nuff said

Current Events Part Alpha

HOLY CRAP WATER STAR GUNS CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP WE IS DOOMED!!!!

Phew... now that I have got that out of my system, now to describe some current events.

Apparently, it turns out that dutch astronomers have discovered a new star. But this is no ordinary star, this is a star that shoots bullets of water!

What happens inside the star is simple, just atoms bonding together. This is what happened to the star to get the water bullets:

1. H (Hydrogen) + H = D (Deuterium, or "Heavy Hydrogen") 
2. D + H = He (Helium)
3. He + He = Be (Beryllium)
4. (At this point, you may hear a noise. That noise is Patrick squealing in pants-wetting joy)
5. Be + He = C (Carbon, aka Coal and Diamonds)
6. C + He = O (Oxygen)
7. O + H = H₂O (Water)

The water then is shot off into space. Hooray, super water space bullets!

...

...

OF DOOM!

--Thomas

PS: Doing some Wolfram-Fu, I worked out the total amount of energy spent on moving the water to be 3.38×10¹⁷ joules. That's 3,761 metric tons of antimatter. Per second.

God on Killing

The bible has quite a bit of 'kill everyone because I said so'. Kill gays, kill atheists, kill muslims, kill annoying kids and so on. But this is not contradictory! How, I hear you metaphorically ask? I mean Exodus 20:13, thou shalt not kill. Atheists could exploit this.

Those atheists who exploit it are wrong. Why? Because 'thou shalt not kill' is a mistranslation from the original hebrew. The real Ex 20:13 should really be 'thou shalt not murder'. And murder is, of course, killing someone who doesn't deserve it. Though considering gay/atheist/muslim/annoying kids worthy of death is pretty messed up in itself, back in those days sexism/racism was acceptible.

So don't use that argument

--Thomas

P.S. Is there any substitute for a "/"? I think I am spamming them.

P.P.S. It might seem ironic I am arguing for Christians. The reason I am is because my Atheist stance makes me seek out fallacies on both sides of the argument, not just one.

2012

Short Answer:

The-world-ends-in-2012 is one hun-der-ed percent bullshit.

Long Answer:

First, see the short answer.

So where did this 2012 myth come from anyway? Blame the Mayans. Basically, the Mayans had this calender system called the Long Count. It had various units of time in it:

• The winal, equal to 20 days
• The tun, equal to 360 days (1 year)
• The K'atun, equal to 7 200 days (20 years)
• And the B'ak'tun, equal to 144 000 days (394 years)

It the bottom one the 2012 theorists are usinging.

See, it turns out that we are in the 13th B'ak'tun since the mayan calender started. This B'ak'tun will end in 2012, so that's where the conspiracy theorists get their 'theories' from.

Don't know if there is anything significant about the number 13, but the world did not end in September 9 1618. And it won't end on March 17, 2407 either.

--Thomas

EDIT: Forgot the k'in, which is equal to one day.

EDITPS: Turns out the Mayan calendar resets every 13 B'ak'tun. Although I didn't see anything happen on August 11, 3114 BCE, so my argument still stands.