Alien Builder Game

Alien World Builder

Stardust

Vaanvizhi stood, leaning on the ancient stones of Stonehenge. Cool stones in a cold climate. The stones had been shifted by people with no access to technology, and placed in alignment with the heavens. Her bank account was now down to a few hundred Euros, but she had still splurged on the ticket to come here. To touch the stones, not just look at them. To be in touch with the thirst of the human mind - the passion to understand and to thrive. She closed her eyes, letting the energy of the place wash over her. She walked away. There was a flight to catch, after all. 

She settled down in the flight, staring out the window as it took off, and Big Ben and the Millennium wheel turned into specks. She had spent a week in London, had taken a train to Shropshire, walked in Hyde Park, paid her respects to Isaac Newton, and visited 221B Baker Street. What magic had the authors woven?

Suddenly, a passenger approached her. “You are Vanvizzy, right? My daughter loves your books. They are magical!” Vaanvizhi smiled. She always forgot. She was also a bestselling author now. She talked to the woman about her daughter. “Wants to be a scientist when she grows up. She is 9.” Vaanvizhi looked out the window and sighed. A nine-year old budding scientist. She smiled back.

As the conversation drew to a close, she found her mind wandering once more. She thought of all the places she had visited in the last two months. The Great Wall, the Pyramids, the Incan civilizations, the Smithsonian museum - and through it all, she had seen the same thing - thirst. Humanity's insatiable thirst for knowledge.

Her plane landed and she checked into a hotel. She needed to sleep. The next day was going to be special.

At the crack of dawn on the next morning, she boarded a bus to a cliff. Bungee jumping. She would not have done this earlier - she was afraid of paralysis. Not today. 

She was fitted with safety gear and hooked up to a harness. There was a river running at the bottom of the gorge. With a joyous shout, she leapt off the platform. The rush of adrenaline as she leapt off the edge was exhilarating. She was pulled back up - way too soon. But there was one more thing she had to do today. 

A few hours later, she was at the open door of a plane, with an instructor strapped on her back. They jumped - and fell, speeding towards the ground below. 

“9.8 meters per second squared, time to reach terminal velocity…” A voice in her brain started. She shushed it. She was going to live in the moment. The parachute opened and they slowed. She was in the sky. She was home. This was what had always grounded her, what had driven her to pursue her passions.

As she landed safely back on earth, she was ready. She checked her account again. Almost empty. Good. It was time to go home, to return to the city where she was born. The only place, really, where she could claim to have roots. She had grown up in an orphanage, without any family, but had built a tight circle of friends. Her eyes were always on the sky. She loved to stare at it. Loved to focus her telescope and watch a fuzzy spot develop features, loved to stare at pictures looking for moving objects, loved to look at it through math, through equations. Vaanvizhi - literally "Sky Eyes" - did the politician who named her at the orphanage annual day even know how accurate it was?

She had always wished for a family. But for the last few months, she was glad to have not had one. The findings that had sent a chill down her spine. The sterile rooms, the teamwork, the monitors - she had watched skilled hands do things she could not. Skilled hands and scientific minds. How many lives had they saved in the history of humankind? This time though - it ended in a hushed conversation: We have done all that we could. There is nothing more that we can do. Go, do what you need to do. 

She had kept it from her friends, but if she had a loving family? Could she have kept it a secret? Could she have done all that she had? She might have wanted to stay with them instead of traveling around the world. But then, could she have witnessed their pain? Those questions would go unanswered. Her friends, who were wondering what she was up to, would get an answer very soon. She didn't stop to collect her baggage. She didn't have time. 

As the cab wound its way through the city streets, she gazed out the window, taking in the sights and sounds of her hometown. The city had changed, and so had she. The cab driver, a young man with a big smile, asked her about her job and her travels, and she found herself opening up to him.

As they talked, she suddenly turned philosophical. "Nothing is eternal," she said in a practical tone. "Everyone will be forgotten, someday. If mountains can be ground down into the Earth, what are we?" The cab driver listened intently, his expression thoughtful, “I was in school when the city flooded, madam,” he said. “I was so happy when they closed the school because of rains, but then water came into our house. You know - there was a couple in a posh apartment in my street. They had an Audi. When the water came, they were in the same rescue camp next to me. You are right, madam. Nothing is forever. If God decides…”

She listened, entranced. But as she did, she caught herself. Why so much philosophy? Was this what they meant by "the surge" in those medical drama reels she loved to downvote? Was this the lamp burning brightly just before it was extinguished? She felt a shiver run down her spine as the cab came close to her destination. The beach. She asked him to stop. It was 9 PM.

The driver turned to her, his eyes serious. "Ma'am, It is not safe for you to be alone at the beach at night. Let me take you to a hotel nearby? It's there on all the websites, it is very safe. You can come back at sunrise. It will be beautiful then." Vaanvizhi smiled, and got out of the cab. Safety had no meaning anymore.

The cool night air enveloped her, and she breathed it in deeply. She walked along the long line of statues and monuments. People who had made a mark on human lives. They would be remembered as long as humanity itself existed.

She kicked off her slippers, dropped her backpack by the road and started walking towards the sea. A long, quiet walk. No other beach was this beautiful. She heard the sea before she saw it. She walked right up to the water's edge, the waves lapping at her feet. The full moon seemed to hang in a cloudless sky. Its light illuminated the sea. It was rougher than usual, the water an inky dark blue. It was a far cry from the cerulean hue it took on during the day, but it was no less beautiful. She was touching the ocean that connected all of humanity, the fount of life, the water that made the Earth look like a blue marble from space. The pale blue dot, humanity's fragile home.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bottle. It was a powerful sedative - slightly psychedelic. She had never craved intoxicants - the stars had been enough for her. But today, she needed it. It was almost time. Her calculations were always right. 

Her mobile phone suddenly sprang to life, ringing loudly in the stillness of the night. She pulled it out, and saw that messages were pouring out in one group - “Planetary Defense.” It was a stream of "Goodbye"s and "We did our best"s. She added her own message, her fingers typing out the words "We will be, in another form. We are made of stardust." 

With that, she drank down the contents of the bottle, feeling the liquid burn its way down her throat. She threw the phone into the ocean and the bottle down onto the sand, and lay down, the sea gurgling around her, staring at the moon and stars.

As the sedative took hold of her brain, a bright object rose from the horizon, brighter than all the stars. It grew brighter as it blazed its way across the sky, moving behind the buildings of the city. A few minutes later, the ground beneath her shook. An asteroid had slammed into the Earth in Western Africa. 15 km wide. 

As the last vestiges of consciousness left her, and the Earth began to shake in earnest, Vaanvizhi thought of the pale blue dot. It would burn, shake, drown and survive. But without humanity. And she was going back. Back to stardust.

Note: 

The pale blue dot refers to this picture:

Earth (the dot in the middle) as seen from 3.7 billion miles away by the Voyager 1 spacecraft, on 6/6/1990 

Here is the accompanying passage by Carl Sagan :

... Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Wingardium Leviosa! My talk on the Persecution of Witches

Presumed Guilty - A different take on the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale

Griselda hummed as she watered her plants. Her garden had little-known medicinal herbs, large, juicy fruits and vegetables, and a plot of grain. Having tended to her garden, she went to milk her cows and collect eggs. Her mind was on the rest of her work that day. She had to cook, brew her medicines, set her cakes and churn butter before the Sun rose high enough to light up her study table.

The cottage deep in the forest was convenient for a lot of things. The soil was fertile and her animals were happy. There were no intrusive eyes here, no ‘helpful’ advice on hiding her intelligence to win a husband and no gossip about her avoiding church. She was free to read her precious collection of books, and to interpret and contemplate religious texts. Hunters passed the cottage regularly, and they carried her medicines and funny-shaped cakes to the village. The money from this was enough for her needs.

As Griselda turned to enter her cottage, she spotted movement among the green bushes. She went closer, and saw two pale, tired children - a girl and a boy. She helped them inside. Once the children had had their fill of her cakes and milk, Griselda asked them how they ended up in the middle of the forest.

“My name is Hansel, and this is my sister Gretel.” the boy answered. “Our stepmother chased us out when our father was away, and we got lost in the forest.”

Hansel looking through her books. After a few days, Griselda noticed that H“How long have you been wandering here, child?” Griselda asked, frowning in concern.

“A week” said the girl, yawning. Her eyelids started to droop.

Griselda put them to sleep on beds of hay. “Stay and get your strength back, children.” She told them. “The next time the hunters come, they can take you back to your village.”

The next morning, Gretel awoke as Griselda was tending her herbs. She started imitating Griselda, pulling out herbs. Griselda stopped her gently “Wait, child, let me show you.” she said, and taught Gretel how to pluck the herbs carefully.

Gretel followed as Griselda cut up the herbs and started boiling water in a cauldron. “Do you want to help?” asked Griselda. The child nodded fervently. Griselda laughed, and showed her how to stoke the fire with logs. Gretel happily kept the fire stoked, watching Griselda brew and mix her concoctions.

That afternoon Griselda saw Hansel looking through her books. She went in, picked out an appropriate book and handed it to him. As his hands brushed hers, she felt how thin the child was. She patted his head and said “We'll have to fatten you up” and left the room.
The children spent their days playing in the garden, with Gretel helping Griselda, anansel was subdued, and acting nervous whenever she was around. She felt the child's forehead to check for a fever, but he flinched at her touch. That night, as she went to bed she heard the children whispering.

“Gretel, we have to get away!” Hansel's voice was frantic.

“But why? I like it here!” Gretel answered.

“If we don’t, that woman will cook and eat us!!” Hansel said, now in panic.

“Why would she? She's nice, isn't she?” Gretel wondered.

Hansel took on a storyteller's tone as he said, “Gretel, you are too young. You haven't heard the stories, Griselda's a witch” Griselda knew what was coming, but she listened to the children converse.

“A witch?”

“Yes. She cooks and eats children. That's why none of the children who go into the forest return. Did you see her feel my bones? She wants to fatten us up and eat us”

“No, she just wanted to see whether you're thin. She’s not a witch, Hansel. She doesn't ride a broomstick!!”

“All witches don’t ride broomsticks, silly! Some of them just read books with all sorts of pictures, do too many things, and don’t talk to other people. Mother has told me that. So did teacher. She’s a witch, Gretel, we have to get away.” Hansel was gripping Gretel's shoulders, shaking her.

Griselda felt a chill. She had seen women being hanged for being witches. If the children went to the village and gave their testimony, nothing could save her life. The children would not get lost again, for the hunters were very close by - the animals' nervous behaviour that day had told her that. She had to act immediately.

For a moment, she thought of killing the children, but she knew she would never go through with it. She had to leave, and make sure she wasn’t followed. She tied her books, seeds, and other important belongings into a bundle and hid it in the hollow of a tree outside. She went into the kitchen, made her salted meat into a rough form human form and threw it into the fire. Then she climbed up the tree and waited. As she hoped, the smoke woke up the children, who ran out of the cottage.

As Griselda waited, the fire flared up, consuming her cottage. The hunters came running at the sight of the fire. They gathered up the children and heard their stories, then searched the cottage and found her 'body' among the ashes. They ransacked her cottage and took her chickens and cows. Some of them picked up logs of burnt wood. Then they went into the village, shouting “The witch is dead.”
Griselda got down from the tree and made her way through the forest. She had her green thumb, her books and her knowledge. She would make a living somehow.

Note:
During the medieval period (1600 – 1800), independent and non-religious women were often accused of witchcraft. Several of these women were executed. These essays probe this in detail:
1. http://voices.yahoo.com/the-persecution-witches-its-impact-women-176318.html
2. http://www.sott.net/article/149529-Control-of-Uppity-Women-Behind-Witchcraft-Accusationshttp://www.sott.net/article/149529-Control-of-Uppity-Women-Behind-Witchcraft-Accusations
The original story of Hansel and Gretel is here: http://www.mordent.com/folktales/grimms/hng/hng.htmlhttp://www.mordent.com/folktales/grimms/hng/hng.html

Step out of your comfort zone!

Humorous speeches to me are a bugaboo. I've had two washouts - one before I gave my icebreaker which can be put down to inexperience, and one after I had received the title of Competent Communicator last year. The second time, I was ready to leave Toastmasters, or forever give up my dream of making the audience laugh.

But as this year's contest announcement came, I had an idea - make a few hilarious incidents in my life into a speech. I typed up the script and I started to practice. But there was a BIG problem. The script required me to step completely out of my boundaries, my serious self, let go of all my inhibitions. It wasn't a step out of my comfort zone that was required, it was a launch from the Earth to the Moon.  I did not know whether I could!

Then came one of the most surreal experiences in my life.  My next project (ACS 3) is a story with a moral and I've been struggling to find one that is suitable for a grown up audience. A week before the contest, I was about to drift off to sleep when a speech just came to me, fully written. I felt like I was reading through a written script - I knew when to use voice modulation, what gestures to use, where to stand and when to use emphasis, all in an instant. The speech was based on Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott" written in 1842. A poem I loved, but the speech had a moral that I had not thought of or read anywhere else. I typed it out as it came to me. 790 words. I checked the manual. 5-7 minute time limit. It was perfect. My subconscious had presented me with a fully drafted and timed speech. 

The speech is about a lady who sits in a stone tower, weaving a magic web because she is cursed. A voice has whispered to her that if she looks upon the towers of Camelot, "a curse will befall her." For years and years, she sits, watching the world go by in a crystal mirror. Finally one day, on seeing Sir Lancelot as a flash in her mirror, she leaves her weaving and looks out. She sees Camelot, her web floats out, her mirror breaks. She leaves the tower in a boat. She sings a sad song as the boat moves towards Camelot and dies before she reaches Sir Lancelot.

The moral of the story, according to the speech that popped up in my head - she did not know what the curse is. She spent her whole life locked in a tower because of her fear. The fear of the unknown was so overwhelming that she did not let go even when she left the tower. Ultimately, she died without ever having seen anything but shadows. So, dear Toastmasters, do not let whispered curses rule your life. Do not be satisfied with shadows. Step outside that fortress, leave your comfort zone. Seize opportunities!! That was my conclusion. But before I could deliver this speech, I had to face the humorous speech contest.

On the day of the contest, my hands shook and mouth ran dry when I wrote down the title of the script. I was standing outside the room most of the time. I was not this nervous for my icebreaker - I had not been this nervous since my schooldays.  I was ready to pull out from the contest till the moment my name was announced. It was so far beyond what I was comfortable doing, that my knees shook and hands shivered when I took the stage. The room was suffocating and I was hyperventilating when I finally shook hands with the contest chair, and I ran right out of the room. Only when I left the room and my heart slowed down did I realise, I had made an audience laugh!

My objective on taking the stage was to get through the speech with a few laughs. I ended up winning the contest. 

When I came back home, when I opened up the "Lady of Shalott" script after dinner, I finally knew where the script had come from.My subconscious mind wanted me to leave my comfort zone.  An ordinary subconscious gives you dreams that tell you what to do. A Toastmaster's subconscious? It gives a seven-minute speech!

Winter is coming - A story written for the Erudite Roulette - Mysore Toastmasters

“Winter is coming!” Papa Hamster shouted at his children. “Be quick with that food, Anka! Quick, with those feathers, Cobb!” Little Anka hurried to him and handed her over her load, and Papa Hamster put it in their food storage hollow. Mama Hamster was getting feather beds ready for the family. As soon as the ravens announced winter, the family would snuggle into their little den. But till then, Anka had to endure her father! “Anka, don't just stand there,” he said, right on cue. “Winter is coming!”

They worked till nightfall, and were back the next morning. But to their surprise, some of the food in the hollow had disappeared! Mama and Papa Hamster paced the floor, wrung their hands and scurried all over the den! But there was nothing to do, except fill it again!

Little Anka wanted to find out what had happened to the food. That night, she slowly slipped away from their summer home to the winter den, and kept watch. Suddenly the Earth began to shake! As Anka watched, the food in the hole started to disappear! She ran out to investigate. She could see lights far away, and there was a huge thing moving ponderously. As it moved away, the shaking stopped.

Anka went back into the den and pulled out the food from the hollow. There was a little hole in the bottom! Anka had solved the case!

When Anka told her parents, they were cross, but they were also impressed.

“Father, what was that thing?” Anka asked. “You were born in the summer, you've never known anything else.” her father said, stroking Anka's head. “In the winter, the humans drive huge trucks. And sometimes, the humans from them come into the forest!” The childrens' eyes grew wide in horror.

“You know,” Mama Hamster added, “before they built the wall? The humans used to come here all the time. And animals used to get hit by their big trucks!”

The children were scared, and when the ravens finally came to announce Winter, were more than glad to go into a torpor. Anka awoke one day to eat, and heard a strange noise. She carefully crept out of the den, carrying a stick in her mouth. If anyone harmed her, she could “stick them with the pointy end,” as her cousin Lon had told her.

To her horror, she found a group of humans sitting around a fire very close to the den. One of them had something glowing on its lap. Anka crept close to it, and saw that the box on the human's lap had more tiny humans inside!

And as she watched, one of the little humans in the box said something! Anka ran back to the den in shock. Later that winter, when she and her sister Tansa were both awake, Anka told her the whole story. “What did the little human say?” Tansa asked, her voice a low whisper. Anka whispered back, “Winter is Coming!”

Topic given by: TM Arjun

Misconceptions in Science - Questionnaire

As part of the requirements for my degree in Education, I did a survey. here are the questions. The answers are in the post that follows.

1. An astronaut inside a space station floats because

There is no gravity in space

The astronaut is too light to be pulled by gravity

The space station and the astronaut are falling at the same speed towards Earth

The magnetic force of the Earth repels the gravitational pull in space

2. Half of the Moon's surface is always dark *

True

False

3. In plants, respiration takes place

at all times, just like human beings

only during the day

only at night

Plants do not respire

4. Seasonal changes during the year are because of

The changing distance between the Earth and the Sun

Precession of the Earth’s axis

The constant axial tilt of the Earth

Changes in ocean tides

5. According to the theory of evolution

Humans are the most advanced organisms on Earth

Monkeys and humans have a common ancestor

Monkeys and humans will have a common successor

Human beings came from monkeys

6. A bullet shot from a gun will

Travel at the same speed at which it left the gun
Accelerate as it moves towards its target
Decelerate as it moves towards its target
None of the above

7. Moon phases are because of

The changing distance between the Earth and the Moon

The changing distance between the Sun and the Moon

The changing angle between the Sun, Moon and Earth

The changing brightness of the Moon’s surface

8. During a solar eclipse, when it is dark

Bacteria might multiply more than an ordinary day, because of the absence of sunlight

Our pupils are dilated, so more radiation enters our eyes as soon as the Sun is partially visible

Very harmful rays are emitted by the Sun compared to ordinary days

Radiation can be absorbed by our skin, much more that what is possible during ordinary days.

9. If you draw a line from the Earth to Mercury, Venus will fall on it.

True

False

10. All plants prepare their own food

True

False