On Your Mark, Get Set, Let’s Find Planets!

The checkout and calibration phase for the Kepler spacecraft has been completed, and now the telescope will begin one of the longest and most important stare-downs ever attempted. Kepler will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at more than 100,000 stars searching for telltale signs of planets. Kepler should have the ability to find planets as small as Earth that orbit sun-like stars at distances where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans. “Now the fun begins,” said William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator for the mission. “We are all really excited to start sorting through the data and discovering the planets.”

During the checkout phase scientists have collected data to characterize the imaging performance as well as the noise level in the measurement electronics. The scientists have constructed the list of targets for the start of the planet search, and this information has been loaded onto the spacecraft.


“If Kepler got into a staring contest, it would win,” said James Fanson, Kepler project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “The spacecraft is ready to stare intently at the same stars for several years so that it can precisely measure the slightest changes in their brightness caused by planets.” Kepler will hunt for planets by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars — events that occur when orbiting planets cross in front of their stars and partially block the light.

The mission’s first finds are expected to be large, gas planets situated close to their stars. Such discoveries could be announced as early as next year.

We’ll be eagerly awaiting!

2-year-old British Genius has IQ of 156

Elise Tan-Roberts of Edmonton in North London is a most unusual 2-year-old with an IQ of 156, rated in the top 0.2 per cent of her age group.

And she's the youngest member of Mensa, the society for genuises.

Elise can name 35 capital cities, identify the three types of triangle, spell her name aloud, read the words "Mummy" and "Daddy" and recite the alphabet.

She was five months old when she spoke her first word, calling her father "Dada." She was walking three months later and running two months after that.

Before her first birthday Elise could recognize her written name and by 16 months she could count to 10. She is now able to do the same in Spanish.

At a playgroup, a mother gave Elise a toy animal and told her it was a rhinoceros. "'That's not a rhinoceros,' Elise said. It's a triceratops."

The little girl was born in London in December 2006 and has heritage in England, Malaysia, China, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Elise's mother Louise, 28, said she realized her daughter was different as soon as she was born, The Times of London said. She said Elise took "an unusual" interest in her surroundings.

"She just says things and you have no idea where she got it from. I don't set out to teach her loads of stuff, she just enjoys learning and picks things up. She's always on the go, she never stops."

Elise's father, Edward, a 34-year-old motor consultant, said: "Our main aim is to make sure she keeps learning at an advance pace. We don't want to make her have to dumb down and stop learning just to fit in."

Aam Hai Kya...

A little boy goes to a shopkeeper and asks ... 'Aam hai kya?'

The shopkeeper says ... 'Nahi. Hum Aam nahi bechte.'

Next day at the same time, the boy goes again and asks him ...'Aam hai kya ?'

He gets a little irritated and says... 'Aare Bola na, Hum 'Aam nahi Bechte'

On the third day, the little boy goes again and asks him 'Aam hai kya ?'

He gets wild and yells ...'Bola na naahi. Abhi vapas aaya to hathoda marunga sar ke upar'

The next day,the little boy comes again and asks him ..'hathoda hai kya ?'

The shopkeeper says ... 'Nahi'

The little boy smile and then asks ... 'Aam hai kya ?

Prolog grammar parser generator

Prolog has the capacity to load definite clause grammar rules (DCG rules) and automatically convert them to Prolog parsing rules. As an illustration, consider a typical kind of left-regular grammar for the regular language a*bb ...

S --> a S
S --> B
B --> bC
C --> b
For Prolog, rewrite this grammar something like this ...
s1 --> [a], s1.
s1 --> b.

b --> [b,b].
Notice that we have collapsed the last two rules into one. Do not be confused by the use of 'b' as both a nonterminal symbol and as a terminal symbol. In Prolog grammars, any use as a terminal symbol must always be within brackets '[..]'.

When loaded into Prolog, these grammar rules are translated into the following clauses
s1(A,B) :-
'C'(A,a,C),
s1(C,B).
s1(A,B) :- b(A,B).

b([b,b|A],A).
'C' is a built-in Prolog predicate whose intuitive meaning is "connects" and whose definition is ...
'C'([A|B],A,B).
One can use the grammer as a parser ...
?- 'C'([1,2,3],1,[2,3]).
Yes

?- s1([a,a,a,b,b],[]).
Yes

?- s1([a,b[,[]).
No
... but not as a generator ...
?- s1(S,[]).
... (infinite loop)
The use of a Prolog grammar as a generator is uncommon. We will see that most useful grammars are specified for the sake of parsing, not expression generation.

Here is a clause tree, with root s1([a,b,b],[]) ...



Pairs of parameters like [a,b,b] and [], as in the root of the tree are said to "represent differences". Thus, the parameter pair [a,b,b] and [b] represents the difference [a,a].

The reason that the Prolog (left-regular) grammar cannot be used to generate sequences is that the grammar is right-recursive. There could be any number of a's at the beginning of the sequence S, and the first clause for s1 could be used repeatedly. The following derivation reveals the problem ...



Here is an alternate Prolog grammar (in context-free form) for a*bb that could be used also as a generator ...
s_1 --> a, b.

a --> []. % empty production
a --> [a],a.

b --> [b,b].
With this grammar ...
?- s_1(S,[]).
S = [b,b] ;
S = [a,b,b] ;
S = [a,a,b,b] ;
...
By the way, the empty production (2nd grammar rule) will be loaded as the following clause -- which means either consume nothing (when parsing) or generate nothing ...
a(A,A).

Exercise 7.1 Explain why this grammar will generate sequences.

Exercise 7.2 Specify a Prolog grammar for the language of sequences consisting of a's followed by an equal number(zero or more) of b's. Recall that this language is context-free but not regular.


For non-context-free languages one can use Prolog grammars with parameters -- a clever device -- bracketed, embedded, Prolog goals -- for specifying context (or other) information. For example, consider the following Prolog grammar for sequences of equal numbers of a's followed by b's followed by c's ...
s2 --> a(N), b(N), c(N).

a(0) --> [].
a(M) --> [a],
a(N),
{M is N + 1}. % embedded Prolog Goal

b(0) --> [].
b(M) --> [b],
b(N),
{M is N + 1}.

c(0) --> [].
c(M) --> [c],
c(N),
{M is N + 1}.
Exercise 7.1.3 Load the s2 grammar and test is on various inputs, both as parser and generator. Also, look at the Prolog listing so as to see how the embedded goals are handled.

Mix Pics

The Cocoon

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly, and he brought it home. One day, a small opening appeared in the cocoon.

The man sat and watched the cocoon for several hours as the butterfly struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making progress. It appeared as if the butterfly had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no farther.

The man decided to help the butterfly in its struggle. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the co coon...

and the butterfly emerged easily.

As the butterfly emerged, the man was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expectating that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge, and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would contract, and the butterfly would be able to fly...

but neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spend the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle were required for the butterfly to be able to fly.

The butterfly must push its way through the tiny opening to force the fluid from its body and wings. Only by struggling through the opening can the butterfly's wings be ready for flight once it emerges from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If our Higher Power allowed us to go through life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been...

and we could never fly!

Spread your wings and prepare to fly,
For you have become a butterfly...
Fly abandonedly into the sun!

Zindagi hai Choti, Har Pal Khush Raho

Wonderful thought..............

Zindagi hai choti, har pal mein khush raho...

Office me khush raho, ghar mein khush raho...

Aaj paneer nahi hai, dal mein hi khush raho...

Aaj gym jane ka samay nahi, do kadam chal ke hi khush raho...

Aaj Dosto ka sath nahi, TV dekh ke hi khush raho...

Ghar ja nahi sakte to phone kar ke hi khush raho...

Aaj koi naraaz hai, uske iss andaz mein bhi khush raho...

Jise dekh nahi sakte uski awaz mein hi khush raho...

Jise paa nahi sakte uski yaad mein hi khush raho

Laptop na mila to kya, Desktop mein hi khush raho...

Bita hua kal ja chuka hai, usse meethi yaadein hai, unme hi khush raho...

aane wale pal ka pata nahi... sapno mein hi khush raho...

Haste haste ye pal bitaenge, aaj mein hi khush raho

Zindagi hai choti, har pal mein khush raho