Information Technology in Pakistan

WHY is it that all government decisions are based on circumstances or happenings as they existed fourteen centuries ago? Could it be ignorance stemming from lack of education?

The prime vital issue of the nation's education has from the birth of the country been the last on the lists of priorities of all our governments. The majority of the ministers who have been given the education and science and technology portfolios have not only been unconnected with either the field of education or of science and technology but have largely been uneducated men, the word uneducated' being here used in the profound sense of the word. For instance, in the last two governments, the second for both Benazir and Nawaz, Benazir's federal education minister was one Khurshid Shah, building contractor by profession, and Nawaz's, of all people, the proven corrupt and uncouth Ghous Ali Shah. And this in a land where the world's first university was established in 700 BC at Taxila, the ruins of which still stand at a few miles distance from the capital city.

By comparison, the government of General Pervez Musharraf has chosen an educationist as its education minister and the science and technology portfolio has been handed over to a scientist, Professor Dr Atta-ur-Rahman. Professor Rahman, in a speech delivered at Islamabad last Friday, told his audience that good governance is not possible without there being a merit-based challenging education system." If Pakistan wishes to forge ahead, he rightly said, education must be the main priority. Worthy of remark is the startling fact that the total GDP of all the Islamic countries put together is half that of Germany and a quarter of that of Japan in spite of the fact that the Islamic countries control 74 per cent of the world oil business. This low GDP rating is the result of a low level of education, the only area in which countries such as Germany and Japan have the advantage.

Now for the bad news. Information technology and the Internet are controlled by the antiquated inefficient Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited which is overstaffed, and is incapable of even publishing a telephone directory which lists current information. The present board members of PTCL who direct the affairs of the company are: Bureaucrat Abu Shamim Arif, Secretary Information Technology and Telecom Division, a flip-flop non-technical man; Zafar Ali Khan, Secretary Privatization Commission; Major General Mohammad Tariq, described as Signal Officer in Chief'; Mohammad Yunis Khan, Secretary Finance Division, Finance Ministry; Arshad Mahmud, Member Finance PTCL; Akhtar Ahmad Bajwa, Member Operations PTCL; Dr Altamash Kamal of Xibercom; Dr Awais Kamal, Managing Director of LT Engineering and Trade Services (Pvt) Ltd; Syed Mazhar Ali, Chairman IT Commission; Zafar Usmani, CEO Mobil Oil Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd; Fakir Aijazuddin, Chairman Arts Council Lahore; Barrister Rafiuddin Ahmed of Orr Dignam; Syed Zahoor Hasan, Associate Dean of LUMS; Asghar Dawood Habib, Chairman Habib Sugar.

These men have been asked to provide an undertaking one clause of which states: I am not a defaulter in repayment of any loan amounting to Rs.1 million or more as adjudicated by a court of competent jurisdiction or a tribunal within the meaning of Section 187(1) of the Companies Ordinance 1984. "This ipso facto means that if one of them is a defaulter to the tune of Rs.999,999 he is qualified to sit on the board. Another undertaking stipulates : I shall, to the utmost of my capability, ensure and safeguard the interests of the government in PTCL during the tenure of my directorship. Any lapse shall make me liable to be proceeded against under the relevant laws."

With due respect to all, it is difficult to conceive of a respectable responsible individual putting his pen to either of these two undertakings? After all, there is no compulsive reason, no guns are held to any heads. Should they not be guided by the dictates of their consciences and what is good for the people?

More bad news. PTCL is establishing two National Access Points (NAP) in Karachi and Islamabad to block Internet telephony and pornographic websites. (APP, July 13.)

The NAP aims at directing all Internet traffic in and out of the country through two PTCL controlled gateways. Whilst this is still a proposal, it is increasingly obvious that elements within PTCL, with the tacit support of our insecurity agencies and other government elements, are trying to push it through as fast as possible.

This must be vehemently opposed. It is fundamentally faulty and has the potential to cause catastrophic damage to the information infrastructure of the country.

One fundamental and obvious principle of network design is the provision of multiple pathways. The more pathways there are, the more robust the resulting network. To some extent we already have this redundancy in our exiting Internet access, but rather than introducing additional pathways to the Net, the NAP proposal aims at reducing these to two choke points to be controlled by our very own PTCL, an organization renowned for its unreliability, inefficiency, incompetence, and zero-level customer service.

Within the next few years, global services will permit direct satellite access. If the NAP logic is followed, these services would also be illegal in Pakistan. Is this what a country endeavouring to leapfrog into the information age should be doing?

NAP also raises the question: are we serious about attracting foreign investment in information technology (IT) when we have an organization intent on controlling and dictating as to which pathways the people may use to access the net? Even the relatively totalitarian UAE now allows direct rooftop-to-satellite Internet connectivity, completely bypassing the Etisalat Infrastructure. And here we are, proposing the reverse.

PTCL itself admits that it has no way in which it can estimate the revenue lost to Internet telephony. The number being thrown around is $ 2.8 million per year which is at best an exaggerated guesstimate, and a figure which amounts to less than a fifth of one per cent of PTCL's total revenue. Is this minuscule
loss sufficient justification to thwart and sabotage a national objective - the swift expansion of IT in Pakistan?

With two years to go until PTCL's monopoly expires, is it not time that it started to experience the real world, where markets dictate tariffs, where better technologies replace the obsolete, where customers decide what services to use, where only the efficient and competent survive? Rather than all this, PTCL is aiming at retaining its monopoly over international data traffic and hoodwinking the nation in the process.

NAP also smacks of Big Brother. In a country such as this, it is likely that NAP will be used to block access to information that someone decides will damage national security' or the ideology of Pakistan' or the national moral fibre'. Does not NAP itself raise national security concerns by providing enemies within and without with exactly two large targets to take out if they wish to cut off the entire country's access to the Net?

That there are minds in Islamabad in this 21st century which are seriously considering this proposal is, sadly, not surprising. After all, not so long ago capital minds did consider e-mail messages from MQM supporters abroad sufficient cause to ban the Internet in Pakistan. However, all should take heart from the fact that Pakistan has survived the fax machine and the satellite dish, both of which were delayed for years as the same convoluted reasoning was used against them as is now being used to justify NAP.

The ball is in the court of Minister Herr Doktor Professor Atta-ur-Rahman, in charge of information technology and of the dreadful PTCL. Academically, he was a First Division student, he has a PhD and a Sc D from King's College, Cambridge, of which college he was a Fellow from 1969 to 1973 when he was discovered by one of the greatest scientists of Pakistan, Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, and brought to the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry at the Karachi University.

At HEJ he was responsible for buying certain equipment from Japan. When the Japanese offered him a kickback of around Rs.25 million, he asked them to donate the amount to his Institute, which they did. He is a cousin of the people's barrister, Mohammad Gilbert Naim-ur-Rahman, and grandson of our good judge, Sir Abdur Rahman. We can surely trust him to take the right decision as to NAP or no NAP. He would surely rather continue to meely direct the affairs of HEJ, which he still does, than to additionally remain a minister and do wrong.

EI Patron in the House of the Scorpion

What if there was a world with clones? There would be a way to live for up to 100 years effortlessly, have easy transplants, and maintain a precise memory. But, the recipient would be taking organs from someone else. "So what", he or she may justify, "they're clones, they are inferior. They don't matter because they are stupid." But what if someone had the power to allow them to be of normal intelligence? He or she might think that he or she is doing the clone a favor, but when the clone is killed for spare parts it's an even worse situation than with a retarded clone. Not for this "bandido" (Farmer 37). El Patron is a cruel, selfish, heartless man who clawed his way to power in his youth and rules people with fear, though he is powerful, he is always nagged by the fact that he may lose everything. There is no way on earth he would let that happen.

El Patron believes he is doing the clones a favor by allowing them to be smart, but in the end he uses them just like all the other clones in the world - for his own personal use. Esperanza, a fierce No Drug activist, once wrote that ?a more evil, vicious, and self-serving man (than El Patron) could hardly be imagined? (Farmer 170). Though the practice of murdering clones is widely accepted in the book, it is morally wrong, and most people would at least have second thoughts about killing someone. Even with his dragon hoard, which he just lets sit there untouched and deeply protected, El Patron becomes outraged with even the slightest of a suggestion towards giving anything away. He is so self-centered, in fact, that at his death greed took over and all of the people inhabiting his part of Opium were silenced and added to his hoard.

Power is what El Patron has worked for and what he fears of losing. Unthinkingly describing the drug lord word for word, Tam Lin once said that ?Power is a drug, and people like me crave it? (Farmer 243). Though his business is illegal to the rest of the world, he never seems to show any concern about what everyone else?s laws are and he proceeds with what he had planned. Matt and all of the other clones he had created are mere examples of this. Clones were not allowed to be intelligent, but he decided to break the rules for himself. Though El Patron is powerful, there is usually resistance to a supreme ruler of a country and he needs to be extra careful to not give anyone a chance to find a weakness.

El Patron is somewhat insecure about people betraying him and does not want to give anyone the chance to even think of doing so without proper punishment. He won?t even consider giving things to the poor and needy, and when it is suggested, he exclaims ?Give things away? Was that why I built an Empire greater than El Dorado?s?? (Farmer 184). Though he is immensely powerful, he still takes several precautions to be sure that there is no chance for him to lose his ?hard-earned? authority. An example of this insecurity is El Patron never letting people go. Celia once stated that, ?From that moment on, I belonged to El Patron. I will always belong to him. He will never let me go? (Farmer 143). Even Matt noticed certain hostility in her voice when she said the last part. While she was talking about why MacGregor couldn?t take Tom, she told Matt, ?Once El Patron decides something belongs to him, he never lets it go? (Farmer 139). Eejits are also a good example of how he tries to keep supreme power. So that he doesn?t have to worry about revolts or any kind of opposition, anyone who questions his authority and security by crossing into the boundaries of Opium is immediately turned into an eejit - harmless and lifeless. Someone with a computer chip in their brain is about as threatening as a mouse.

In conclusion

El Patron is a greedy man who wrongfully uses his hard-earned power for evil uses. Maybe, in all of his wrongdoings, he leaves room for allowing Matt to make the right decisions that he never made himself. Matt would have to desperately want to be a horrible person to turn out similarly to El Patron.

GOOD BYE FOR THE NEXT POST.

Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder

There is countless number of harmful elements in the environment surrounding humans. Many are concrete things such as poisons, bacteria, and viruses. But there is also the untouchable danger of the human mental weakness. The idea of a certain thing being “in” or in other words popular can be quite harmful even though it does not seem so. The ease into which people fall into the modern trends is astonishing and should be alarming. One in particular that is rather disturbing to analyze is the ideas of beauty that are perceived by some people. Beauty can be interpreted in many ways and some say “it’s in the eye of the beholder”. Reality is that many only see beauty as a difficult or impossible vision and go to extremes to achieve the unachievable. Beauty is a toxin for lost teens or gullible adults; it tricks them into changing their own characteristics to try to be attractive. Beauty can be what you want it to be and the positives of trying to reach nowadays “true beauty” are nowhere as near as the negatives. Logic can help put things in perspective, next time you feel ugly think about what you are both inside and out.

One must believe oneself beautiful in order to have the self-esteem to thrive in life. Confidence is a common ingredient in beauty writes R.Odes from the The Look Book. The time and money wasted on trying to become beautiful is ridiculous. It only takes minimal efforts to try to be yourself and you can impress by your special attributes. Confidence gives good impressions which in turn lead to relationships. The fact that no one is perfect even though some may think they are causes adaptation of the flaws someone has. Make your own beauty is the final statement by the “Own your own Look” passage. The passage can be translated into a basic beauty is what you think it is statement and it holds true for people that do not succumb to the pressure of modern beauty.

“They tend to stay away from socialization, because they feel that they are not thin enough and therefore rejected by society and they deny the fact that they are suffering from anything” sadly this is a description of anorexia by the website “soberrecovery.com”. Women are the main focus of weight problems such as anorexia or bulimia common called diseases. Females get tricked into believing that any fat at all is ugly and horrible. The truth being they are extremely underweight and unattractive. Models now all seem to be pole thin and women models are known for there outer beauty. Another problem that occurs when traveling the path to perfection can be plastic surgery. The ultimate transformation plastic surgery can turn into an addiction and ultimately lead you to a deformed figure. Not to mention the cost of operations that can run anywhere from $60 to $10,000 according to “infoplasticsurgery.com”. Dove has started a campaign against the media image of beauty. There are multiple videos of women being photo shopped to impossible to reach images. So why waste money and time and effort to try and reach something that can’t happen?

Nature and its surroundings whatever happened to its beauty? For centuries natural beauty has been in our own environment. Creations beyond our knowledge and pleasant to the eyes view as heaven itself. The idea of beauty does not have to pertain only to humans it can be in nature, in a painting, or a melody. It all leads back to what our own unique perspective perceives as beautiful. The website breaks beauty into three categories nature, man made, and inner beauty. Inner beauty an abstract form of beauty can be stronger than outer looks. One’s personality and character can be beautiful. People judge every day some more on outside looks some more on inside quality but it is still a factor when being analyzed by others. Generally inner beauty is seen as nice and friendly. The three beauty categories are important in understanding what real beauty is; beauty is the variety of perceptions that cause pleasant stimulation the observer cognitively.

Beauty it is a delicate subject to define and analyze. The idea of beauty has been twisted into unachievable forms by media, trends, and marketing. To reach pretty status many have gone anorexic, bulimic, or have been addicted to plastic surgery. The money spent on beauty products is unnecessary and accomplishes very little. Confidence in one’s self is needed to become comfortable with the body one has. The pressure to get better physically can amount but mental strength is the key to block off negative thoughts. Beauty can be broken down into three categories natural, inner, and man made. Natural beauty being the creations in our environment such as the ocean, trees, or mountains. Inner beauty is vital to the overall persona of someone. Being attractive but stuck up won’t get someone far. Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder and is the combination of inner and outer build perceived by others.

GOOD BYE FOR THE NEXT POST.

Memories of the Ivory Coast

Many people have never heard of the Ivory Coast. It is a vivacious country in my opinion, having lived there and experienced some greatly memorable along with not so pleasurable moments. This West-African Republic was once a French colony where my grandparents and parents lived and immensely appreciated the exquisite quality of life. Unfortunately, this did not remain for very long after 1994 and the death of the long standing President Houphouet- Boigny. Although the natural beauty of the vegetation and African spirit as a whole still remains to this day, the way of life, activities and richness of the country have all deteriorated. Political problems are the main reason for the decline and it became quite dangerous when the young local militia in Abidjan, the capital city where my family and I were living, turned against the French and other Europeans during November
2004.

At noon on Thursday 4th November I received a call at home from my teacher informing me of riots happening in a nearby district, blocking the route to school. Hence lessons would be cancelled until Monday. My first reaction was not that of real surprise for this was not the first time this had occurred. I had already been obliged to change from the French school to the International school following the second attempted putsch in Ivory Coast on 19th of September 2002 when the situation had also turned rather chaotic. The first coup d’état had been in December 1999, when President Bedié was ousted and fled to France. Demonstrations and riots were not unusual after that, meaning I occasionally missed one or two days of school. However, this time
was not quite the same.

I did not go back to school that afternoon or the next day, but enjoyed tranquilly swimming in the pool, given the terrific weather of that tropical region. It was on Saturday 6th November that severe happenings began to occur and for the following week we had to stay at home for safety, as did all other foreigners. There had been attacks in the Northern part of the country. Government aeroplanes had bombed the cities occupied by the current President’s political opponents’ (called ‘rebels’). Everything went downhill from there. The next thing, the Government aeroplanes were bombing the French military base killing nine French soldiers. France immediately retaliated and destroyed all the Ivorian aeroplanes, on the ground, causing no casualties but stopping further air attacks. This action infuriated the young local militia, in the capital city of Abidjan, and violent demonstrations started against the French.

My Mother, Father and I had been isolated in our house for a few days, luckily always being informed of events by phone calls from fiends, radio, television and internet. We felt quite safe being in a secure area with ambassadors and ministers living nearby having good security. We ourselves had a day guard and night guard, not forgetting the dog that could scare off any eventual attackers. Unfortunately we heard news of rioters entering homes and looting all possessions but even worse, attacking people and abusing them. When we were told that the looters were in our road and knocking on the doors of Europeans, we began to worry.

We had already taken the precaution to close the curtains upstairs to block the view from the outside, in case the sight of furnishings would tempt the rioters. All the iron gates around the house were shut and we took out our English passports. We had to be prepared to come face-to-face with the demonstrators if they decided to break into our house,and hopefully, by only talking in English and showing our passports, they would not harm us. My mother, who is French, used my current English passport, whilst I took my old one; we hoped that this would not be discovered. I was feeling tense as my parents and I sat downstairs in the lounge with closed curtains trying to remain as quiet as possible, attentively listening for any external noises. We did not dare turn on the air conditioning knowing that it would make a noise outside, and the last thing we wanted was to attract attention towards ourselves. I cannot recall exactly what was passing through my mind at that time but I know I was praying and hoping with all my might that we would be alright. I trusted my parents and what my father was telling us to do.

All of a sudden the dog began to bark and listening intently we could hear chatter and cheering coming nearer and nearer. It was certain that the rioters were now outside our house and it was so frustrating not to be able to see them or know what they were planning to do. My heart was throbbing; I tried to continue hoping optimistically that they would just move on down the road and not attempt to enter our house. We hardly dared breathe we were so afraid that the protestors would be aware of our presence. Time passed by, slowly, yet nothing happened. My father decided to go upstairs and look through the bedroom window to see out onto the road. The rioters, who were mainly young men and women, were emptying the house opposite of its entire contents, all the furniture and appliances. They were carrying out everything with no exception, even toilet seats, on their heads and taking things away by truck or foot. This lasted for a couple of hours, during which time my father took the opportunity to call an Ivorian friend whom he thought may be able to help us. In the space of an hour, 3 military police and my father’s friend were at our house. The minute they appeared in our road, the looters fled leaving debris all over the road and the scattered belongings of the opposite house. We immediately felt relieved that we were no longer in danger and were further protected by the soldiers staying with us for a few days until all had calmed down.

After that day we felt no more fear and were less targeted by the rioters. At the end of the week we were then evacuated from the country by the British Army and flew to Ghana on a RAF plane. Although it was quite frightening driving to the airport it was a huge relief to finally board the plane and fly off to neighboring Ghana and then back to the UK. It felt quite unreal being back in England when just a few days before we had been virtual prisoners in our own home. All the tension we had felt since the beginning of the problems was released as we arrived back in Woking one bitter morning. It suddenly dawned on us how fortunate we had been not to get attacked or be affected in any way. At last we could unwind and be grateful to be together as a family, safe.

Since November very few European families are living together in the Ivory Coast, given that many offices and the international schools have been damaged and are therefore closed. My father is still living there as are many other businessmen in order to keep their businesses running, but the political problems in the Ivory Coast are not yet
over.

Looking back at everything now, I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to predict what tomorrow will bring, and it is for that reason that you should live every day with a smile, knowing that you are so lucky for what you have. This is certainly my lesson learnt
coming so close to what may have happened.

GOOD BYE FOR THE NEXT POST.

First Impressions in Business

First impressions are forever going to play a role in human behavior. Anytime a person is in a situation for the first time, her or she forms an impression of the other party. First impressions take seconds to form, but can have major implications if the wrong impression is portrayed. Very little about the other person is left untouched by our subconscious minds during the formation of the first impression. We tend to think that we have figured out who the whole person is, all within a single minute. This creates immense pressure on us to ensure that the right first impression is portrayed.

The formation of the first impression happens very quickly. As stated by Jane (n.d.), "it takes just 30 seconds after meeting to form key impressions about an individual's education level, career competence, success levels, personality, trustworthiness, social background and sense of humour" (p. 7). In just 30 short seconds, we are capable of forming an impression of someone that spans just about every aspect of their life. One of the most important situations we encounter where the first impression is emphasized is the job interview. Evans (2007) states that the hiring managers frequently use the first impression of candidates to base their hiring decisions. The author goes on to explain that this is why it is so important that we make great first impressions, because it just might be the last impression we get (Evans, 2007). There are many ways one can influence the first impression formed by the other party. One must be willing to be intentional and to think about his or her attitude, appearance, and nonverbal cues when interacting with others. In addition to the familiar job interview, we also experience first impressions in our everyday life. Helmstra (1999) points out that "we begin to form our first impression of the people around us as soon as we see them, often well before we actually meet and the first words are exchanged" (p. 71). When you first walk into a public place, your body language and facial expressions are seen by others, and people immediately begin to form an impression of you.

After reading the first scenario of John as an extrovert, I pictured him as a friendly, very social and an outgoing person. I pictured John as social and friendly because in the story he talked with people all along his journey from the office, to the stationary store and back to the office. While he was waiting for the clerk to notice him, John engaged in conversation with an acquaintance. John also stopped and conversed with a friend he ran into on his way out of the store. In addition to the two previous conversations John already had participated in, he stopped and talked with a girl he met a few nights earlier on his way back to the office. John is being depicted as knowing a lot of people and taking time to stop and chat in practically every moment of the story. According to Lakshmi (2008) extroverts have a preference to spend time with people. This is evident in the story of John the extrovert since at every opportunity John stopped to talk and interact with others.

The picture I have of John after reading the second story which portrays John as an introvert is significantly different than what I pictured of John the extrovert. I picture John in the second scenario as more reserved, soft spoken, and someone who enjoys his solitude. In the second story, rather than John actively engaging in conversations with others on his way home, we see that John seemly avoids interaction with the people around him. As Lakshmi (2008) writes "one of the main factors that differentiates introverts from extroverts is their social skills. Introverts have an explicit inhibition in interpersonal contacts and most often tend to prefer solitary pursuits as compared to extroverts" (p. 65). In the second story we see that as John walks down the street, he sees a pretty girl whom he knows, yet he decides to cross the street to go inside for a drink. We do not know from the story why he decided to cross the street to avoid talking to her. However we can see that this portrayal of John the introvert is consistent with the viewpoint that Laksmi (2008) made of introverts preferring solitary pursuits. This is in contrast to how John the extrovert was portrayed. John the introvert did not engage in conversation with people he knew, as we saw in the street scenario, and also later when John enters the bar. While in the bar, John quietly waits for the bar tender while there were people around that John was familiar with. John waited quietly for his drink, then sat down at a side table to enjoy it alone and went home. John’s actions in the second story are consistent with an introvert who prefers ”solitary pursuits,” and is not as socially outgoing as your typical extrovert.

When rereading the two scenarios in reverse order, I have a different picture of John the introvert. My image of John the extrovert has stayed the same. However previously I pictured John the introvert as reserved and soft spoken. This time around when reading the introvert story first I wasn't so quick to say he was reserved and avoided conversations. This is because I did not have the story of John the extrovert who stopped to talk to everyone to affect the way I imagined John the introvert. The part in the introvert story when John crosses the street when he sees the pretty girl still sticks out to me and is a sign of John being more introverted. However the scenarios of him in the bar are left more to speculation. The author leaves out if John talks to some of the familiar faces he sees in the bar. Only after reading about John the extrovert first, whom actively engages in conversation, did I start to picture John the introvert as purposefully avoiding all types of conversation.

There is only one chance to make a great first impression, which can have lasting and lifelong effects. Our attire, our eye contact, our attitude, and the words we choose when communicating all impact the formation of the first impression. My first impression of the character John changed after assessing the two situations in a different order. I was able to judge his personality solely on his isolated actions instead of comparing the two personality types. It goes to show that human behavior and our opinions impact the first impression we make after interpreting a situation for only seconds.

GOOD BYE FOR THE NEXT POST.

What is Black Holes

In 1916, the German astronomer Karl Schwarzchild attempted to theorize how a star could shrink to become what he called a "Black Hole". Schwarzchild predicted that our sun would have to shrink to less than two miles in radius. He also predicted that even though the sun had shrunk its mass and weight would remain the same, which means that the planets would continue on their orbits, uneffected. Schwarzchild still questioned if stars could become this compact.

In 1934 W. Baade and F. Zwicky predicted that the collapse of a star, strips the atoms of their electrons, thus making it a Neutron Star. He also predicted that these are only 10-15 miles in diameter with a density of about a billion tons per cubic inch.

The American physicists R. Oppenheimer and H. Snyder, in 1939, realized that Schwarzchild theory was only possible if the star was much bigger than our sun; approximately 3.9 times or larger.

In the early seventies, a x-ray source was located in the Constellation Cygnus. The x-ray source couldn't actually be precisely located but was narrowed down to a relatively small area. At this time it was very puzzling for the scientist.

Steven Hawking, in the seventies, came up with theoretical arguments demonstrating that black holes aren't entirely black and that it is possible for them to evaporate because they emit radiation. The radiation from a black hole comes from the mass of it, hence the black hole insinuatingly shrinks. While the radiation tediously increases, the mass slowly decreases. So as the radiation from the black hole increases the black hole shrinks and evidently vanishes.

In 1972, scientist pinpointed a radio emission in the same area. This is still puzzling to scientist today but all they knew was that it was originated from the same area as the x-ray source and apparently came from open space. The scientist watched this area for months and finally waited until the spot in space came over the star next to it. When it did there was startling results. The spot in space eclipsed the star next to it. The spot was then named Cygnus X-1 and was officially the first Black hole discovered.

Even back in Isaac Newton's time, scientist speculated such an object existed. So many questions had been answered by the discovery of this mysterious object, yet so many more generated.

A Black Hole is an object that is so dense not even light can escape its gravity. Sense nothing is faster than light, nothing can escape. A Black Hole is the evolutionary endpoint for massive stars at least 10-15 times bigger than our sun. If a star that big undergoes a supernova explosion, it may leave behind a burned-out, massive, super-dense remnant.

With no fuel to have the outward force the remaining star might collapse on its own gravitational force. The star eventually reduces to point zero volume and infinite density, creating a singularity. As the density reaches infinite, photons bend around the singularity and light emitted by the star is bent and is kept within a certain point called the event horizon by the intense gravitational field. Nothing will ever leave the event horizon of a black hole and because no light will ever leave the event horizon, it is referred to as a Black hole.

Contrary to popular belief, a Black hole isn't a cosmic vacuum that consumes everything. For example, if our sun were to become a Black hole the only thing that would change on Earth would be the temperature. The Earth would not be "sucked in". Only matter that entered the event horizon would be "sucked in".

Material that does enter the event horizon is pulled into a spiral. For example if there is a binary stars and one of them turns to a black hole and starts to feed off the brother star, the gas would be pulled into a spiral called the accretion disk. As material gets closer to the Black hole, it heats up and emits X-rays. The closer the material gets to the Black hole the more X-rays it produces.

According to Einstein, a Black hole is where time and space is warped and are different from the outside of the event horizon. So if a observer were watching a person fall into a Black hole from a safe distance, they would see the person fall normally until they entered the event horizon. Then the person would slow down and if the observer could stay alive for a few billion years they would see the person disappear into the singularity at the same moment the Black hole evaporates.

Even today, information about Black holes continue to amaze scientist. Images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory have capture, for the first time, two super-massive black holes circling each other. The black holes will whirl around each other for approximately 100 million years, until they merge.

The two black holes are about the same size as the one in the center of our galaxy and is about the mass of 100 million of our suns. The black holes supposedly are the remains of two separate galaxies that merged 100 million years ago to make the NGC6240 Galaxy. When the galaxies blended they left one extremely bright galaxy with two black holes circling each other on a collision course.

Scientist believe that in about four billion years, the billions of stars in the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxies will merge and a similar situation will happen with the two super-massive black holes of our galaxies.

Astronomers say that the two black holes of the NGC6240 galaxy are about 3,000 light-years apart and are traveling at about 22,000 mph. As the black holes grow closer and closer their speed will increase and nearly reach the speed of light before merging, about 671 million mph.

When the black holes merge, their momentum will be converted to gravitational waves and the black holes will spew radiation throughout the universe. Since momentum can't be stopped, the gravitational waves will travel infinite distances thus shifting the gravitational constant throughout the universe.

GOOD BYE FOR THE NEXT POST.