Inzenjerski pogled na Djeda Mraza

Na svijetu postoji otprilike 2 milijarde djece (osoba ispod 18 godina). Ipak, posto Djeda Mraz ne posjecuje Muslimane, Hinduse, Zidove i Budiste, kolicina posla za Novu godinu se smanjuje na 15%, odnosno sveukupno 378 miliona djece (prema Saveznom zavodu za statistiku). Prema proseku od 3.5 djece po kuci, Djeda Mraz mora posjetiti 108 miliona domova, ako pretpostavimo da u svakoj datoj kuci postoji barem jedno dobro dijete.

Djeda Mraz ima oko 31 sat Nove godine za rad, zahvaljujuci razlicitim vremenskim zonama i Zemljinoj rotaciji, i ako pretpostavimo da putuje sa istoka na zapad (sto se cini logicnim). Tako dobijamo da Djeda Mraz posjeti 967,7 kuca u sekundi. Prema tome, za svaki dobar hriscanski dom sa dobrim djetetom, Djeda Mraz ima oko hiljaditinu (1/ 1000) sekunde da zaustavi sanke, iskoci, uzme poklone, uskoci u dimnjak, napuni carape, nadje jelku, ostavi ostatak poklona pod jelku, popne se natrag kroz dimnjak, uskoci u sanke i dodje do sledece kuce.

Pretpostavljajuci da je svih 108 miliona stajalista jednako rasporedjeno po Zemlji (samo u svrhe naseg proracuna), govorimo o 1,24 kilometra razmaka od jedne do druge kuce; iz cega proizlazi ukupan put od 120,8 miliona kilometara, ne ukljucujuci Djeda Mrazove odlaske u WC ili pauze za jelo/pice. Iz navedenog proizlazi da je brzina Djeda Mrazovih sanki oko 1080 kilometara u sekundi (3200 puta veca od brzine zvuka!). Za poredjenje, najbrze ikad stvoreno vozilo, svemirska sonda Odisej, ide "svega" 45 kilometara u sekundi (162000 km/h), a normalan jelen najvise 24 km na sat odnosno 0,0066 kilometara u sekundi.

Teret na sankama je takodje jedan vrlo interesantan element. Pretpostavimo da svako dijete ne dobije nista vise nego jednu jedinu kutiju Lego kockica srednje velicine (oko 860 grama). Tada je ukupna masa tereta na Djeda Mrazovim sankama nesto veca od 500 hiljada tona. Na tlu, normalan jelen ne moze vuci vise od oko 138 kg. Ako uzmemo da Deda Mrazov leteci jelen moze vuci 10 puta vise, Djeda Mrazu bi trebalo oko 360 hiljada letecih jelena da povuku sanke. Masa tolikog broja jelena povecava sveukupnu masu sanki za oko 54 hiljade tona, odnosno za oko 7 puta mase Kraljice Elizabete (broda, ne vladarke).

Oko 600 hiljada tona putujuci brzinom od 1080 km/h stvara nezamisliv otpor vazduha - takav otpor kakav bi zagrijao jelene toliko jako koliko se zagreije svemirski brod koji ponovo ulazi u Zemljinu atmosferu. Prednji par jelena apsorbirao bi oko 14,3 kvintilijarde dzula energije u sekundi. Ukratko, taj par bi se, cim krene, pretvorio u nimalo lep prizor zivih baklji, izlazuci jelene iza njih, i dovodeci do lancane reakcije u kojoj bi svih 360-ak hiljada jelena izgorelo za oko 4,26 hiljaditina sekunde, odnosno tacno na vrijeme da Deda Mraz dodje do pete kuce na svom putu.

Djeda Mraz bi, kao rezultat akceleracije (ubrzanja) sa 0 km/h na 1080 km/h u hiljaditini sekunde, bio izlozen akceleracijskoj sili 17,5 hiljada puta vecoj od one malog g, tj. 175000 m/s². Djeda Mraz mase 115 kg (sto je vrlo malo za Djeda Mraza) bio bi prikovan za kraj svojih saonica sa 1984906,9 kilograma sile, sto bi mu trenutno smrvilo kosti i organe pretvarajuci ga u kasastu ljubicasto-crvenkastu tekucinu.

Prema tome, ako je Djeda Mraz ikada i postojao, sada je sigurno mrtav.

Let it enfold you

Either peace or happiness, let it enfold you

when i was a young man I felt these things were dumb, unsophisticated. I had bad blood, a twisted mind, a pecarious up bringing.

I was hard as granite, I leered at the sun. I trusted no man and especially no woman.

I was living a hell in small rooms, I broket things, smashed things, walked through glass, cursed. I challenged everything, was

continually being evicted, jailed, in and out of fights, in and a out of my mind. Women were something to screw and rail at, i had no

male freinds,

I changed jobs and cities, I hated holidays, babies, history, newspapers, museums, grandmothers, marriage, movies, spiders,

garbagemen, english accents, spain, france, italy, walnuts and the color orange. algebra angred me, opera sickened me, charlie chaplin

was a fake and flowers were for pansies.

peace an happiness to me were signs of infeority, tenants of the weak and dead mind.

but as I went on with my alley fights, my suicidal years, my passage through any number of women-it gradually began to occur to me

that I wasn't diffrent from the others, I was the same, they were all fulsome with hatred, glossed over with petty greivances, the men

I fought in alleys had hearts of stone. everybody was nudging, inching, cheating for some insignificant advantage, the lie was the

weapon and the plot was emptey, darkness was the dictator.

cautiously, I allowed myself to feel good at times. I found moments of peace in cheap rooms just staring at the knobs of some

dresseror listening to the rain in the dark. the less i needed the better i felt.

maybe the other life had worn me down. I no longer found glamour in topping somebody in conversation. or in mounting the body of some

poor drunken female whose life had slipped away into sorrow.

I could never accept life as it was, i could never gobble down all its poisons but there were parts, tenous magic parts open for the

asking.

I re-formulated I don't know when, date, time, all that but the change occured. something in me relaxed, smoothed out. i no longer had

to prove that i was a man,

I didn't have to prove anything.

I began to see things: coffe cups lined up behind a counter in a cafe. or a dog walking along a sidewalk. or the way the mouse on my

dresser top stopped there with its body, its ears, its nose, it was fixed, a bit of life caught within itself and its eyes looked at

me and they were beautiful. then it was gone.

I began to feel good, I began to feel good in the worst situations and there were plenty of those. like say, the boss behind his desk,

he is going to have to fire me.

I've missed too many days. he is dressed in a suit, necktie, glasses, he says, "i am going to have to let you go"

"it's all-right" i tell him.

He must do what he must do, he has a wife, a house, children, expenses, most probably a girlfreind.

I am sorry for him he is caught.

I walk onto the blazing sunshine. the whole day is mine temporailiy, anyhow.

(the whole world is at thet hroat of the world, everybody feels angry, short-changed, cheated, everybody is despondent,

dissillusioned)

I welcomed shots of peace, tattered shards of happiness.

I embraced that stuff like the hottest number, like high heels, breasts, singing, the works.

(dont get me wrong,there is such a thing as cockeyed optimism that overlooks all basic problems just for the sake of itself-this is a

sheild and a sickness.)

The knife got near my throat again, I almost turned on the gas again but when the good moments arrived again I didn't fight them off

like an alley adversary. I let them take me, i luxuriated in them, I bade them welcome home. I even looked into the mirror once having

thought myself to be ugly ,I now liked what I saw, almost handsome, yes,a bit ripped and ragged, scares,lumps, odd turns, but all in

all, not too bad, almost handsome, better at least than some of those movie star faces like the cheeks of a babys butt.

and finally I discovered real feelings foothers, unhearleded, like latley, like this morning, as I was leaving, for the track,i saw my

wife in bed, just the shape of her head there (not for getting centuries of the living and the dead and the dying, the pyarimids,

Mozart is dead but his music still there in the room, weeds growing,the earth turning, the toteboard waiting for me) I saw the shape

of my wife's head, she so still, i ached for her life, just being ther eunder the covers.

i kissed her in the forehead, got down the stairway, got outside, got into my marvelous car, fixed the seatbelt, backed out the drive.

feeling warm to the fingertips, down to my foot on the gas pedal, I entered the world once more, drove down the hill past the houses

full and emptey of people, i saw the mailman, honked, he waved back at me.

#WarOnChristmas

Interesting phenomenon that occurs around December 25th, or the winter solstice. From the summer solstice to the winter solstice, the days become shorter and colder. From the perspective of the northern hemisphere, the sun appears to move south and get smaller and more scarce. The shortening of the days and the expiration of the crops when approaching the winter solstice symbolized the process of death to the ancients. It was the death of the Sun. By December 22nd, the Sun's demise was fully realized, for the Sun, having moved south continually for 6 months, makes it to it's lowest point in the sky. Here a curious thing occurs: the Sun stops moving south, at least perceivably, for 3 days. During this 3 day pause, the Sun resides in the vicinity of the Southern Cross, or Crux, constellation. And after this time on December 25th, the Sun moves 1 degree, this time north, foreshadowing longer days, warmth, and Spring. And thus it was said: the Sun died on the cross, was dead for 3 days, only to be resurrected or born again. This is why Jesus and numerous other Sun Gods share the crucifixion, 3-day death, and resurrection concept. It is the Sun's transition period before it shifts its direction back into the Northern Hemisphere, bringing Spring, and thus salvation. 

If there is no god, why be good?

As Einstein said, "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are sorry indeed." Michael Sherman, in The Sicence of Good and Evil, calls it a debate stopper. If you agree that, in absence of god, you would commit robbery, rape and murder, you reveal yourself as an immoral person and we would be well advised to steer a wide course around you. If, on the other hand you admit that you would continue to be a good person even when not under divine surveillance, you have fatally undermined your claim that god is necessary for us to be good. I suspect that quite a lot of religious people do think religion is what motivates them to be good, especially if they belong to one of those faiths that systematically exploits personal quilt.
It seems to me to require quite a low self-regard to think that, should belief in god suddenly vanish from the world, we would all become callous and selfish hedonist with no kindness, no charity, no generosity, nothing that would deserve the name of goodness.

Review of the 2012

Evolution: It's a thing - crash course biology

The God Delusion