Unarchive#10
This week, we have an article explaining the wonders of The James Webb Space Telescope, a financial segment on the use of Credit Cards, a cartoon Caption Contest, and a kafkaesque poem, ending it with a lineup of exciting recommendations, curated just for you!
Beyond 800nm.
Going past norms has been our greatest strength, Mankind’s reluctance to accept the ordinary has kept our species thriving through all of our existence. The James Webb Space Telescope reiterates this very trait of ours. Could one even ask for a better Christmas present? This Christmas miracle will allow us to travel time through light!
Telescopes like the Hubble capture light of wavelength less than 800 nanometers; James functions in the infrared spectrum. This revolutionary piece of equipment will allow scientists to look at what our universe was like about 200 million years after the Big Bang, which is 13.8 billion years ago! It's currently on its million-mile voyage from Earth to the second Lagrange point, where it'll orbit the sun. The James Webb Space Telescope is the perfect amalgamation of ingenuity, function, and adventure.
NASA has spent over $9.8B and has taken 20 years to develop the JWST. Conventional engineering solutions were inadequate as James faced unprecedented problems. Frigid operational temperatures, long traveling distances, complex spatial challenges to name a few. To detect the faint heat signals stretched out by our expanding cosmos, the JWST must operate in temperatures of -266.5C, that's just 7 degrees away from absolute zero! Tennis court-sized sun shields are in use to insulate the JWST from other heat sources. Specially designed reflectors are used to reflect the faintest heat signals to the infrared sensors; it gives the JWST its iconic honeycomb appearance. To ensure deployability, the JWST was folded up like origami!
"I don't get anxious about stuff I can deal with," said Dr. John C. Mather in an interview with Destin Sandlin from SmarterEveryDay before the launch of the JWST into oblivion. Currently, the JWST is fully deployed and on the last leg of its journey. This beautiful piece of advice from Dr. John C. Mather, the Senior Project Scientist on the JWST, does work wonders. In our personal lives, as we try and scale past set standards, let's have this nugget of wisdom in mind. This year, the JWST has gone Beyond 800nm; let's also go Beyond _________!
Caption Contest
Here’s this weeks cartoon :)
Got another caption in mind? Click Here to submit.
Weekly Fin-Bits
Credit Cards
You may have heard credit cards being referred to as mini loans. Well, that is because credit cards are essentially mini loans, aka credit. When you make a payment with a credit card you are not making the payment with your money, you are making the payment with the respective bank’s money. And at the end of each month, you pay the bank the amount of money you used.
For reference, if you pay with a debit card the money is instantly deducted from your bank account.
Credit cards have spending limits, these will depend on your salary, credit score, and your history with the bank. If you make your payments to the bank in a timely manner your credit score goes up. But if you make payments late then you will have to pay the bank extra, in the form of interest rates.
For example, if I bought a phone worth Rs 30,000 \- with a credit card, then I’m obliged to pay Rs 30,000\- back to the bank within the Due Date(Credit Billing Cycle). If I fail to do so, the bank will charge interest anywhere between 5%- 30%, so I could be paying up to Rs 39,000/- to the bank.
With that said what are the pros and cons of credit cards:
Pros:
Emergency payment - such as for medical reasons with no money in your account, you can pay with a credit card and pay back the bank at the end of the month.
Fraud - you report it within 3 days then you don’t lose any of your money
Credit cards come with a lot of rewards such as cheap airline tickets and insurance on vehicles
A good way to increase Credit Score.
Cons:
If you don't make a payment on time you will have to pay interest
The idea of not spending your own money may lead to overspending
If you can make your credit card payments on time to the bank then they are a good option.
Ice Breakers
In 1975, the CIA had a heart attack gun, it kills people and then the dart denigrates. (Click Here)
Napoleon was once attacked by thousands of rabbits. (Click Here)
Icarus — The man who flew too close to the Sun.
With glorious wings of wax, he flew,
hastily; because the love of his life
blazed brighter than usual to mark her presence
amidst the blue, boundless sky, as she awaited
the arrival of Icarus;
alas, they knew not of their incompatibility—
her fiery heart burnt his wings to smithereens;
he fell for her existence yet again,
only this time, he descended to his tragic death.
“For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning."— 'Little Gidding' by T. S. Eliot
Weekend Wind-downs!
TEDx Talk
Many of us draw stick figures, this video teaches us to take it up a notch by allowing us to "stick" in some emotion.
TED-Ed
Ever wondered how a tablet knows where to go? Or how it knows what to do? It's simple they just hail a cab on one of our million blood cells.
Song
People leave, but their memories stay with us for a long time. This song is so peaceful yet so heart-wrenching at the same. It makes you go into a world of despair but brings you back too. (YouTube)
Book
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Love, Devotion, and Redemption. The Count of Monte Cristo is a story of revenge and redemption which is presented in the motive of love.
TV-Show
The easiest way to imagine how Hollywood conceives the Metaverse (A Realtime Virtual-Reality world) is to look at Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One! In a world on the brink of collapse, a talented gamer takes the lead in a series of challenges to win ownership of a massive virtual reality universe!
Thanks for reading! We’ll see you in 2 weeks.
We’d like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to tedxmvjce@gmail.com.
Krithi Vangala, Editor-in-Chief
Akhil Bobby, Editor-at-Large
Joel Thomas Chacko, Writer - Beyond 800nm.
Vishal Gali, Writer - Weekly Fin-Bits
Icarus, Writer - Icarus, the man who flew too close to the sun.
Spoorthy Kannur, Cartoon Designer
Sathvik Swamy, Photographer