Yes, I can count too.
Stay Up Late to See Something Odd
Quite frankly I don't see what the big fuss about all this is. I got so many emails about it. Time was created by man, its not like this is a natural phenomenon. So someone decided a long time ago that everyone, with the exception of some cultures, will read left to right. Then many many years later someone decided that time can be represented numerically. The next step was that the numerical chronological stamps would be time followed by date. Ooookay so naturally we could see this one from a mile away. Any child that knows how to count could have observed this so why is it that people are getting so excited?
You know what makes me ooh and ahh? That in a right triangle, no matter where you are, the sum of the distance of each leg squared equals the distance of the hypotenuse. To make this even more amazing this theorem was proven by a man named Pythagoras in ancient Greece.
Here's another one. As long as an object isn't approaching the speed of light (special relativity theory), its force is equal to the mass of the object times its acceleration. F=ma. It always works and it was elucidated by Sir Issac Newton during the renaissance. Thats fucking amazing to me.
You know what's also amazing to me? That every living organism on this planet is encoded for using the same digital code, composed of the four bases A, G, C, and T and that scrambling those four digits in different ways makes all of the life that is currently on this planet. This discovery, perhaps one of the most profound discoveries of the 20th century, was made by the concerted efforts of Rosalind Franklin (I put her name first because she really found it first), Watson, Crick, Avery, McLeod, and McCarty. Thats fucking amazing!
I know this post is horribly erudite but I find it really depressing that people are mystified that at an insignificant moment, on an insignificant day, on an insignificant year, on an insignificant planet, the time will read 01:02:03 04/05/06. There is so much more happening in and around us for us to be in awe of. If people would only take the same amount of time to step back look at it and reflect on it as much as they are this phenomenon it would be something awesome in itself.
Quite frankly I don't see what the big fuss about all this is. I got so many emails about it. Time was created by man, its not like this is a natural phenomenon. So someone decided a long time ago that everyone, with the exception of some cultures, will read left to right. Then many many years later someone decided that time can be represented numerically. The next step was that the numerical chronological stamps would be time followed by date. Ooookay so naturally we could see this one from a mile away. Any child that knows how to count could have observed this so why is it that people are getting so excited?
You know what makes me ooh and ahh? That in a right triangle, no matter where you are, the sum of the distance of each leg squared equals the distance of the hypotenuse. To make this even more amazing this theorem was proven by a man named Pythagoras in ancient Greece.
Here's another one. As long as an object isn't approaching the speed of light (special relativity theory), its force is equal to the mass of the object times its acceleration. F=ma. It always works and it was elucidated by Sir Issac Newton during the renaissance. Thats fucking amazing to me.
You know what's also amazing to me? That every living organism on this planet is encoded for using the same digital code, composed of the four bases A, G, C, and T and that scrambling those four digits in different ways makes all of the life that is currently on this planet. This discovery, perhaps one of the most profound discoveries of the 20th century, was made by the concerted efforts of Rosalind Franklin (I put her name first because she really found it first), Watson, Crick, Avery, McLeod, and McCarty. Thats fucking amazing!
I know this post is horribly erudite but I find it really depressing that people are mystified that at an insignificant moment, on an insignificant day, on an insignificant year, on an insignificant planet, the time will read 01:02:03 04/05/06. There is so much more happening in and around us for us to be in awe of. If people would only take the same amount of time to step back look at it and reflect on it as much as they are this phenomenon it would be something awesome in itself.
posted by Adam at 1:02 AM
14 Comments:
yeah, some hooker at work sent me thing that was all "123456" and i was all, that's the gayest shit i ever heard.
I saw a post about this on My Secretive Life and I didn't even get it and THEN I read this and I say the sequence...duh! And to think it is 1:30 AM now and I guess I MISSED IT!
I like your scathing bitterness at the insignificance of it.
And I find those more important things amazing too.
you are such a geek and i love you for it.
they mentioned those corresponding dates on the news last night ... i couldn't keep myself awake long enough to witness the event
What I find interesting is the sheer amount of Viagra/Clialis/Penile Enhancements spams that have gotten circulated since Al Gore invented the Internet:
I'm guessing that the net amount of energy required to ciculate that much spam must have created an energy deficit that will result in the universe imploding inward toward a singularity, perhaps sometime in May or June of this year. :P
I'm so happy you mentioned Rosaline Franklin, who is often left off as though her contributions didn't matter (I suppose because she was female. In fact, when naming our dogs (sorry Ms. Franklin) we chose the name Rose in honor of Rosaline Franklin and always mention her when asked why we chose that name. Just a way to pay her a little homage.
What? I can't believe I missed this momentous occasion. How come everyone else got a gabillion emails about it, and I got nary a one? I feel unloved.
I love the beautiful simplicity of the equations you mentioned. They blow my mind if I think about them too much, though. Maybe that's the reason I'm not a math geek?
Wow, so much bitterness.
I hope none of the people that e-mailed you about it read your blog. Otherwise, you just bitch slapped them publicly with sarcasm.
I personally thought it was interesting. Not a huge deal, but certainly a fun tidbit.
I am confused about people staying up to see it though. Why don't they just do it this afternoon at 1:23?
Bring on the erudition, Krebs (or should I call you Mr Cycle?). And that date thing... gotta love it. I changed my major on 8/8/88, and that's burned into my head forever. Doesn't "mean" anything, but it's there.
Oh what joy it will bring to my life when those emails are actually relevant here in the UK next month!
(as jeff said dd/mm/yy here as opposed to mm/dd/yy)
Seems this phenomenon made its way into my inbox as well.
I wonder if Nostrodamus predicted this one too? ;)
Mr. Krebs,
Let's not forget that Pythagoreans thought that anyone who shared the secret of the right triangle should be killed. It's weirder out there than we think...
from Wikipedia:
The Pythagoreans observed a rule of silence called echemythia, the breaking of which was punishable by death. Porphyry stated that this silence was "of no ordinary kind." The Pythagoreans were divided into an inner circle who learned the more detailed and exactly elaborate version of this knowledge, an an outer circle who listened to lectures that Pythagoras gave out loud from behind a veil. They were not allowed to see Pythagoras and they were not taught the inner secrets of the cult. Instead they were taught laws of behavior and morality in the form of cryptic, brief sayings that had hidden meanings. The "outer" recognized the "inner" adherents as real Pythagoreans, but not vice versa.
The Pythagorean society is associated with strange and superstitious prohibitions, such as not to step over a crossbar, and not to eat beans (for the inside of beans 'contained' human embryos. Beans, black and white, were the means used in voting. The Pythagoreans are known for their theory of the transmigration of souls, and also for their theory that numbers constitute the true nature of things. They performed purification rites and followed and developed various rules of living which they believed would enable their soul to achieve a higher rank among the gods.
It's turtles all the way down.
The Troll
I'm totally with you on this.
There is something almost religious about delving into biology...all the other wonders of the world kind of pale in comparison.
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