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Showing posts from February, 2017

School of Thought: Existentialism | Hri-Write

Existentialism is a philosophical school of thought that deals with human existence, trying to explain the purpose of a human life. Existentialism, like many other schools of thought, is of course only a speculation and something we made up, take what you read here with a pinch of salt ( after all, I don't know any more about life than you do! ) If I were to try to explain existentialism easily, I'm afraid I'll lose out on its intricacies, but I'll give it a shot anyway. Existentialism, at its most fundamental level, says that every person is responsible for defining their own purpose in this world and that we are governed by our free will. Existentialism says that we are not here to 'find purpose', but rather to 'create our reality and purpose'. It sounds simple, but that's because I've tried to break down roughly a few centuries worth of study and philosophical evolution into four sentences. Existentialism originated as a school o...
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TRAPPIST-1 (meet the 7 earth-like exoplanets!)

"Astronomers have discovered the first known system to host seven Earth-size planets around one star, and it lies just 39 light-years away from our own solar system." - Space.com Unless you live under a rock, you heard this week that NASA disclosed a groundbreaking discovery regarding the TRAPPIST-1 system, containing 7 Earth-like planning potentially supporting life. Anticipation was mounting from the 24 hours before the announcement was going to be made, and when it did occur, there was a bombardment of articles/videos about it everywhere you could look. Justifiably so, the discovery (more of a confirmation of what was already known, but we'll call it a discovery) set the record for most habitable exoplanets found in a system or something crazy like that (don't quote me on that!). This is an Artist's representation of what the views from the planets may look like. Here's the breakdown: Brief: TRAPPIST-1 is a star like our sun, but cooler ...
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'Kids these days', and Juvenoia.

The phrase 'kids these days', has been used since time immemorial by older generations to express their disappointment in the younger generations. We love to talk about just how different life was 'back in the good old days'. In that regard, you see a huge number of 'only 90s kids will remember...' on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. George Orwell had a brilliant quote that went along the lines of this: George Orwell (1903-1950), was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. There's a neat neologism for this phenomenon, Juvenoia . The point is, it's an endless cycle. Let's examine this situation. A family is sitting around the breakfast table, all engrossed in their own digital life. It's a common situation nowadays, right? However, in 1907, the Journal of Education deplored, "At a modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual has his head buried in his favorite magazine." Let...
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Tech Spotlight: Why you should be using IFTTT right now!

I usually don't do a lot of tech blogs, personally because I feel there's so many out there, but this one, I simply cannot avoid. This is a website you definitely should check out, and it's one that after a long while I can vouch for as the most ingenious app/service devised yet. What is IFTTT? IFTTT, a clever acronym for 'If This, Then That.', is a free to use website which features a plethora of applets. These applets are made to perform tasks based on triggers, which trigger actions. For example, the applet I'm using right now posts on facebook every time I publish an article on my blog. Coincidentally, this very post has been published using IFTTT. It works based on two things: Applets and Services. Applets are the pieces of code written to bring you services and combine the power of these services. Services are the apps/devices that you use daily (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or even smart home tech.) Quote from their Wikipedia page: IFTTT...
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Why doesn't anybody talk about the ISRO?

Mangalyaan. It's a word you've probably heard a lot the last few years. That's because it was one of the world's cheapest space probes to reach Mars, collect data and relay it back to Earth, even more efficiently than NASA. Who was the genius space institute who developed this? None other than India's ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization). Why didn't we hear about it as much? Because the ISRO isn't NASA. Or so we think. On a budget nearly 9 to 10 times tighter than granted to NASA, the ISRO launched the Mars Orbiter Mission to Mars orbit in late 2014. With this, India became the first nation to complete the mission in its first try, and only the fourth one to venture to Mars. Remember back when water was discovered that there was water on the moon? Who contributed to that astonishing revelation? Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar mission. Why did NASA take credit? Technically, it was their gadget aboard the mission that picked up the data...
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Popular posts from this blog

Where is all the 'alien life?' - Fermi Paradox and other theories

My first blog, ever, was about understanding the odds of alien life. I've gotten much better at writing blogs since then (or so I like to tell myself), and it would only be right if I reinstate the legacy of that one. We should openly admit that when we happen to be under a starry night and see a sight similar to this, we all have a react in a different and interesting way. Some people are left boggled by the immense size of the universe, others by the sheer glamour of the scene and if you're anything like me, you're paralysed by the sudden realisation that you have a negligible impact on the universe. The point is, we all feel something . When he looked up at the sky, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi too felt something, a thought that lingered around this question, "Where is everyone else?" It's been half a decade since Fermi passed on, but he left us with a fundamental query and idea. Fermi realised that in a universe as old and vast as this, there s...
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Why your digital footprint matters

Every second you spend on the Internet, you're actively involved in painting a digital picture of yourself. This portrait helps companies target content at specific markets and consumers, helps employers look into your background, and helps advertisers track your movements across multiple websites. Whatever you do online, you might be leaving digital footprints behind. ( http://www.internetsociety.org/your-digital-footprint-matters ) In short, your digital footprint is everything you do online. Social media activity, app usage, email records. Watching videos, visiting adult sites, using certain plugins, everything goes into this piece of art. Whether you like it or not, everything you do on the web can be tracked. A lot of people seem to think that using incognito features on browsers or routers does any good. It might hide data locally (on your system) but it does nothing to completely hide your presence on the web. A diagram of how your internet works The abov...
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'Kids these days', and Juvenoia.

The phrase 'kids these days', has been used since time immemorial by older generations to express their disappointment in the younger generations. We love to talk about just how different life was 'back in the good old days'. In that regard, you see a huge number of 'only 90s kids will remember...' on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites. George Orwell had a brilliant quote that went along the lines of this: George Orwell (1903-1950), was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. There's a neat neologism for this phenomenon, Juvenoia . The point is, it's an endless cycle. Let's examine this situation. A family is sitting around the breakfast table, all engrossed in their own digital life. It's a common situation nowadays, right? However, in 1907, the Journal of Education deplored, "At a modern family gathering, silent around the fire, each individual has his head buried in his favorite magazine." Let...
1 comment
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