Samit Sharma
Published February 12, 2016
It’s that time of the year.
That time when cheesy and creepy cross roads. Typical St. Valentine’s Day things are cheesing up the air. Everything’s pooping hearts, flowers, terrible poetry and bears. Which is ironic, because if you try to cuddle a real bear, it’s gonna break your neck. St Valentine was trying to preach love, but somewhere along the way, media and social convention crapped it all up.
Saint Valentine was a Roman priest during the third century. The then Emperor of Rome, Claudius II banned marriage because supposedly, married men were bad soldiers. Valentine broke this edict and performed marriage rites for couples. So he was imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against the Emperor’s orders. Then executed by beating, stoning, and decapitation in 269 C.E. But before died, he wrote a letter to his follower Asterius’ daughter, which he signed ‘from your Valentine‘. And thus started an unnecessary stalking tradition endorsed by some Popes and Geoffrey Chaucer. We really really need to get our priorities straight.
Moving on, yesterday Einstein proved his General Theory of Relativity right. Again. Over a thousand scientists for the Laser Inferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration proved that Gravitational waves exist. Here me out: Einstein predicted that objects with a big gravitational influence curve the Space-time fabric.
And objects that move through the Universe cause ripples as the do. All objects: small or large. These ripples are gravitational waves. However, proving their existence was very difficult, as these ripples were too weak to be detected. Black Holes that move at rapid speeds have a sizable gravitational field and thus bigger gravitational waves. LIGO men detected gravitational waves coming off of two black holes, 29 and 35 times of our sun respectively revolving around each other.
Ta-da. Gravitational waves detected. Einstein’s still right. Even after a hundred years.
Tis, mate was the Weekly Email Blast, email 47. Happy weekend !!!
All Things Sam 