Violent Times

We live in strange, violent times. And nowhere is this more evident than on current news. This has lately caused me to intentionlally lose track of news from India. I wonder if India has always been like this, or is it because nowadays these kind of news gets reported more often ?

The number of domestic violences reported has spiked. From incidents of stalking, to confirmed cases of assault, leading to murder. Dissed lovers used to splash acid as revenge,  now they set their ex-partners on fire. Out in the daylight. Rising counts of sexual violence against minors. More rapes and murders being reported, specially from inner villages. Crime is rising, and democracy is decaying.

What is leading to these spikes in pre-meditated crimes ? Apart from a false sense of superioty by the preprator, it is lack of crime control. Lack of an efficient justice system. And lack of fear. The law in the country is so slow and backward, it takes decades for a court case to come ot conclusion. And the increasing bribery in the government does not help either.

One can only hope, foolishly, that humanity will come to its senses sooner, than later.

DST woes

Woke up too early today. Or thats what I thought. The clock shows 6:30 am.

But the phone says its only 5:30 am.

DST is off !

Great, so we now have one extra hour in the day.

Wondering what to do with it .

Maybe I can go back to sleep.

Which country has the most earthquakes?

 

Today I read about the recent earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. It was caused by the eruption on the younger volcano Anak Krakatau. Also, the country was hit by another tsunami just three month’s prior.

Which got me thinking, why does this country get so many quakes,and tsunamis ? And..how large is this country ? Never thought about it geographically. So I looked around.

Indonesia is one heck of a country, split across five different larger islands, but comprising of upto 18,000 islands ! Managing one landmass is difficult enough, but here they have a political and geographical nightmare to manage, with so many different ethinicities and cultures ! All in the largest sesimically active regions on this planet.

This is what I found on the USGS site.

Which country has the most earthquakes?

The answer to this question is not as straightforward as it may seem. In order to most accurately answer it, we will rephrase the question four different ways:

1. For which country do we locate the most earthquakes? Japan. The whole country is in a very active seismic area, and they have the densest seismic network in the world, so they are able to record many earthquakes.
2. Which country actually has the most earthquakes? Indonesia is in a very active seismic zone, also, but by virtue of its larger size than Japan, it has more total earthquakes.
3. Which country has the most earthquakes per unit area? This would probably be Tonga, Fiji, or Indonesia since they are all in extremely active seismic areas along subduction zones. The sparse seismic instrumentation in those areas doesn't allow us to actually record all the smaller earthquakes.
4. Which country has the most catastrophic earthquakes, or which has had the most damage and fatalities? Both China and Iran are in seismically active areas, have very long historical records, and have had many catastrophic earthquakes. Turkey is also worth mentioning in this category.

 

That is a lot of earthquakes, and a miracle that these places still exist and are able to govern themselves all the while standing on plates floating on molten lava.

 

And this is Indonesia ! The area marked in red. Imagine governing this landmass, when there are average 4 earthquakes per year in the country.

 

 

India in 2019, summarized

Over the years, I have seen all kinds of experts trying to summarize the political situation in India into a few minutes. And failed. This is a big year for India. And trying to explain it to an outsider is a futile attempt. Until I saw this.

Happy 140th birthday, Einstein

Albert Einstein was born 140 years ago. Yes. He lived over a century ago. And his ideas continue to inspire and question us today. And will continue to. Probably the most influencial figure in science today.

In 1900, Einstein's paper "Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen" ("Conclusions from the Capillarity Phenomena") was published in the journal Annalen der Physik.On 30 April 1905, Einstein completed his thesis,with Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics, serving as pro-forma advisor. As a result, Einstein was awarded a PhD by the University of Zürich, with his dissertation "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions".

In that same year, which has been called Einstein's annus mirabilis (miracle year), he published four groundbreaking papers, on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy, which were to bring him to the notice of the academic world, at the age of 26.