A planet outside our solar system

An Earth like planet was found outside our solar system orbiting a star about 30000 light years away from us ( light year: distance travelled by light in an year). It is about five times the size of earth and is rocky. Observers around the world confirmed the existence of the planet. It seems like there are many earth like worlds in our universe and we have started discovering other planes just like ours. However, they are not expect to support life. Planets such as these are discovered using a principle called microlensing based on a principle invented by Einstein. The light from distant star is bent by gravitational distortion from other stars or large planets when it reaches earth. Scientists have recorded such incidents using telescope networks. The growing perception among the scientific community is that planets such as these are more common in our universe. There are more planets to be discovered in the years to come

Good and bad procrastination

Recently I was reading slashdot and came acrross an article called Good and bad procrastination, written by Paul Graham. It is an interesting article about procrastination and which types of procrastination is better for us. I decided that I would stop procrastinationg and if I do it would be good procrastination. Paul graham has written many good articles like How to generate wealth, How to start a startup which are worth reading.

Slashdot is a nice site which has lot of interesting articles written by geeks and computing nerds.
If you have any interest in science or techology, you will love it.

Startrek and science fiction

I was disappointed when star trek enterprise came to a sudden end. The 3rd season was interesting.. inspite of of the first and second seasons which were lackluster in their performance.
The fourth season was boring. There wasn’t anything interesting… after the Xindi encounter is settled. Having been a trekkie for quite a long time., I’d say that Enterprise was the least popular of all series… except for the arc like third season.. where captain archer and his crew.. track down the aliens ( the xindi) who are going to destroy earth…. after a group of interdimensional species show the xindi. that earth is going to destroy their home world in 400 years.. With the help of a time traveller, Archer ( scott bakula) goes to the future.. where the federation of planets engage the interdimesional beings.. and… tries to convince the…. xindi.. that earth is not going to attack them.. After a lot of drama.. earth “befriends” the aliens in the delphic expanse… which is 2000 light years from earth…

Some of my favorite episodes in Enterprise are:
Carbon creek, Proving ground, The Communicator, Future Tense, First flight, Similitude, Azati prime

The startrek original series is one of the best scifi TV series ever… with interesting theories… or ideas.. Some of my favorite episodes are:

The enemy within, The changeling, Plato’s stepchildren, Squire of gothos, The arena , The omega glory, Where no man has gone before, Mirror Mirror, By any other name, All our yesterdays, Return to tomorrow, Amok Time

Science fiction is an interesting thing.. I think that science.. fiction.. serves as an inspiration for us.. to achieve or invent new things.. although I dont expect rockets which can go at warp speed.. we might disover the secrets of nature in time….. which might help the human civilization to become sophisticated. We might ask questions.. which we would have never thought of asking.. before or after we find any answers in nature..