The Random Blog

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a network of radio antennae around the globe, has captured the first image of a black hole event horizon. That's right, folks, they turned the earth into one giant telescope to capture the what seemed to be the uncapturable. Here it is, the mighty black hole situated at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy as captured on 10th April, 2019. Stephen Hawking would be proud. The image above shows an intensely bright 'Ring of Fire', as Prof Falcke describes it, surrounding a perfectly circular dark hole. The bright halo is caused by super-heated gas falling into the hole. The light is brighter than all the billions of other stars in the galaxy combined - which is why it can be seen at such distance from Earth. However, as immense and powerful as this black hole is, when viewed from the earth, it is extremely small. Compared to the full moon, the shadow cast by the M87 black hole is 46.5 million times smaller. M87's black hole is a...

I'm making this post to pay tribute to perhaps the most legendary band of all time, Queen. The Beginning Roger Taylor and Brian May, founder members of a band called 'Smile', parted ways with their lead singer after a gig at a pub and met Farrokh Bulsara, popularly known as Freddie Mercury. This lead to the formation of one of the best bands of all time. Queen came into existence after Freddie and bassist John Deacon joined Roger and Brian on 1st March, 1971. The band was to stay together for the next 20 years. Reaching the Top The rest is rock history. EMI Records and Elektra Records signed the band. In 1973, their debut album ‘Queen’ was released and hailed as one of the most exciting developments ever in rock music. Queen didn't take long to reach the top. In 1974, they performed one of their greatest hits, 'Killer Queen', for BBC's 'Top Of The Pops'. Queen - Killer Queen (Top Of The Pops, 1974) The Bohemian Rhapsody Th...

'Net neutrality' is not the most well known of terms. However, in the last few years, there has been a constant rise in discussions regarding net neutrality and an open-internet due to the threat of restrictions imposed on internet access by large corporate firms. Net neutrality is the principle that individuals should be free to access all content and applications equally, regardless of the source, without Internet Service Providers (ISPs) discriminating against specific online services or websites. Why is net neutrality important? The basic principle of Net Neutrality is that access to all websites and web services should be equal and that anyone can start their own website or service and make it accessible to anyone with internet access, just like any other website or service. Without Net Neutrality, your Internet Service Provider could arbitrarily block whatever websites it didn't want you to access. For instance, your ISP might block you from acces...

NASA bid adieu to its 'Opportunity' Mars exploration rover on 13 February, 2019. The rover, which was planned to function for 92.5 days, managed to operate for more than 15 years. In addition to exceeding its life expectancy by 60 times, the rover traveled more than 45 kilometers on the surface of Mars by the time it reached its most appropriate final resting spot on the planet — the Perseverance Valley. An artistic rendition of the Opportunity rover on the surface of Mars Here are some of the major achievements of the Opportunity rover: The rover set a one-day Mars driving record March 20, 2005, when it traveled 721 feet (220 meters). It returned more than 217,000 images, including 15 360-degree color panoramas. It exposed the surfaces of 52 rocks to reveal fresh mineral surfaces for analysis and cleared 72 additional targets with a brush to prepare them for inspection with spectrometers and a microscopic-imager. It found hematite, a mineral that forms in ...

Hey there! So, today, I would like to talk about a heinous and a potentially dangerous phenomenon on YouTube known as 'ElsaGate'. 'ElsaGate' is a phenomenon on YouTube of reoccurring animated videos in context of inappropriate topics on several 'family-friendly' channels targeted at kids. These videos often feature Spiderman, Frozen Elsa, Joker, Mickey Mouse and other Characters popular with kids. These videos started to surface on YouTube almost a year ago when a few channels like 'SimpleFuns', 'Kids Daisy Best' and 'littledramakids' started to upload some inappropriate videos involving Spiderman and Elsa from Frozen.Soon, the number of these creepy and rather disturbing videos started to increase significantly. More and more YouTube channels started to upload inappropriate videos involving superheroes and characters from Disney cartoons. An illustration for one of the first ElsaGate videos by The Verge The videos, which ...

NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport ( InSight ) landed on Mars on 26th November, 2018. The InSight Mission placed a single stationary rover on the surface of Mars to explore the deep interior of our neighbouring planet. As I write this post, the rover is flexing (quite literally). The rover has an arm to secure the heat probe, the seismometer and other devices on the surface of Mars. The lander will take pictures of the instrument deployment area, and start monitoring the weather and surface temperature at its new home. But since the heat probe and seismometer need to be on the surface of Mars to collect data, they have to wait a few more weeks before they can be fully deployed. Here's a quick simulation of how the rover's supposed to work. Another "unplanned treat" is the recording of the "Martian Winds". The silver dome in the picture above has pressure sensors that record even the mo...

Alright, let's talk about another issue we're facing nowadays - Anti-Vaxxers. What is an anti-vaxxer? An anti-vaxxer is a person who is opposed to vaccination, typically a parent who does not wish to vaccinate their child. Why do anti-vaxxers exist?  A few years ago, some people started spreading rumors that vaccinations cause autism and other mental disorders among children on Facebook, Twitter and so on. This might seem extremely dumb, and it is. However, this news spread like wildfire and a few concerned parents refused to vaccinate their children. This is how the anti-vaccination "movement" started. Why do I think anti-vaxxers are deluded? Alright, think about this for a moment. Vaccinations were discovered to immunize people against fatal diseases like polio, measles and so on. Before vaccinations were discovered, almost every other family would lose a child to these diseases. When vaccines were made to immunize people against such disease...

So, I know how to code in Java. I'm quite horrible at programming but I try my best to produce decent code. This is a just a collection of some random programs I made over the course of March, 2018 to August, 2018. This might also help some ICSE or ISC students out there who have opted for Computer Applications or Computer Science respectively. Just click the links below to view my code. ICSE Specimen Paper 2020 - Question 4. ICSE Specimen Paper 2020 - Question 5. ICSE Specimen Paper 2020 - Question 6. ICSE Specimen Paper 2020 - Question 9. Program to Find the Terms of an Expansion Using the Binomial Theorem. Program to Check Whether a Number is an Increasing Number, a Decreasing Number or a Bouncy Number. Program to Check Whether a Number is a Disarium Number or Not. Program to Check Whether a Number is a Fascinating Number or Not. Program to Find the GCD / HCF of Two Numbers. Program to Find the First 'X' Prime Numbers. Program to Extract Words From...

Sears, once the largest retailer in the world, is now facing bankruptcy. The company, which did not turn a profit since 2010 and was $134 million in debt, recently approached several banks to prepare for bankruptcy filing. Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on October 15, 2018. The company said that it would close 142 Sears and Kmart stores before the end of the year. Its CEO, Eddie Lampert, would step down as well. Sears - A Retail Giant Richard Warren Sears started a mail order watch business in 1886 called the 'R.W. Sears Watch Company'. Within the first year he met Alvah C. Roebuck, a watch repairman. The next year, they relocated the business to Chicago. Sears started off by selling watches, diamonds and jewellery. The company continued to do so until it noticed the stagnant and dormant retail market. It soon realised that there was absolutely nothing to stop it from selling anything and everything. Being a mail-order business, Sea...

Alright, since almost all of my friends face issues while downloading my backgrounds from Dropbox, I've decided to make this short post to explain this excruciatingly simple process. Let's dive right in: iOS: Step 1: Once you tap a Dropbox link, you'll be directed to this screen. Just tap the cross or the 'Or continue to website' button. Step 2: On this screen, simply tap the three dots in the top-right corner. Step 3: Select the 'direct download' option from the menu which pops up. Step 4: A new tab will open up and an image will start loading. Let it load completely and long-tap it. Step 5: Select the 'Save Image' option from the menu which pops up. Step 6: Go to your images and open the 'Camera Roll' folder. You'll find your background there. Step 7: Voilá! Just set the image as your background. Android: Step 1: Once you tap a Dropbox link, yo...

Shady's back, tell a friend. A few hours ago, Eminem released a new album called 'Kamikaze'. It has been named so because he did not promote the album beforehand. It just came out of the blue.  Since I'm away from home, I had no plans to write a blog post. However, I'm just too hyped to sit here and not talk about the album. So, here's my short review of Eminem's new album. Eminem's 'Kamikaze' is a breath of fresh air. The summer season was a little dull for the rap genre of music. People were not anticipating anything new (and great) to come out this year. However, Eminem's 'Kamikaze' dropped just in time. This album, produced by Dr. Dre and Eminem is exactly what the fans needed. In this album, Eminem has decided to destroy the stupid mumble rappers once and for all. He has also roasted Trump. Eminem's rapping skills are in top form in this album. The song 'Lucky You' has become on...

Alright, first of all, I'm sorry for not posting anything here for quite some time. I was a little busy organizing an event at school and covering up everything that was done in class. With that out of the way, I present to you my favourite Dragon Ball Super moments - Part 2. In this part, we'll focus on the Future Trunks Saga. Future Trunks is one of my favourite characters in Dragon Ball history. He's the son of future Vegeta and future Bulma. He is a caring, pure-hearted half-Sayajin who is ready to do anything to save the ones he loves. We have been introduced to his characteristic traits in different ways from his introduction in Dragon Ball Z to his farewell in Dragon Ball Super. The Future Trunks Saga further develops this amazing character and is therefore, one of my favourite sagas in Dragon Ball. 1. Future Bulma's Death: In the alternate timeline, Future Trunks is running and hiding from a mysterious being, causing destruction all over w...