Go see Shelby Oaks this weekend!
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
International System of Units (SI) Prefixes
International System of Units (SI) Prefixes
A complete reference from quetta 1030 to quecto 10-30, as of the most recent update in 2022.
| Prefix (Name) | Symbol | Factor (Power of 10) |
|---|---|---|
| Multiples (Larger Quantities) | ||
| quetta | Q | 1030 |
| ronna | R | 1027 |
| yotta | Y | 1024 |
| zetta | Z | 1021 |
| exa | E | 1018 |
| peta | P | 1015 |
| tera | T | 1012 |
| giga | G | 109 |
| mega | M | 106 |
| kilo | k | 103 |
| hecto | h | 102 |
| deka | da | 101 |
| Base Unit | — | 100 |
| Submultiples (Smaller Quantities) | ||
| deci | d | 10-1 |
| centi | c | 10-2 |
| milli | m | 10-3 |
| micro | 10-6 | |
| nano | n | 10-9 |
| pico | p | 10-12 |
| femto | f | 10-15 |
| atto | a | 10-18 |
| zepto | z | 10-21 |
| yocto | y | 10-24 |
| ronto | r | 10-27 |
| quecto | q | 10-30 |
For information on ciphers and other topics:
Pager Code Look Alike Cipher Tool: This is the full 26-letter system that uses visual tricks with numbers for every letter from the 1990's before texting. This cipher will translate messages into this OG secret messaging. [Try out this cipher tool on your own messages.]
Beeper Codes: Need a super-fast message? These are simple, standardized three-digit messages used as quick status updates (e.g., 143 for "I love you"). [View the Beeper Code Dictionary]
The Number Converter Utility: Convert numerals to words and words to numerals! [Type Your Number and Convert it!]
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Old Fashioneds are always a different everywhere
Old Fashioneds are always a bit different everywhere. I didn't used to try them, but now it's become a point of study to try one at interesting places, like Speakeasies.
Monday, October 20, 2025
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Habitable Pit-Stop with Mars
The dream of a second home on Mars is often seen as a challenge of human ingenuity. But on the cosmic scale, it’s a desperate race against time. Our Sun, the very source of energy for life, is slowly turning against Earth. As energy output from Sun increases, the Circumstellar Habitable Zone retreats further. This makes Mars an urgent and multi-million-year stepping stone for humanity’s survival.
The Circumstellar Habitable Zone is Moving Out
The concept of habitability around a star is defined by the Circumstellar Habitable Zone (CHZ). This is the range of orbits around a star where a planet's surface can maintain liquid water. Our Sun, a middle-aged star, is becoming steadily more luminous, just moving this zone outward.
Earth's Dire Timeline: The Sun's brightness is increasing by about 8 to 10% every billion years.[1] This is already pushing Earth toward the inner edge of the CHZ. In as little as 100 million years and certainly within the next billion years, Earth will be plunged into a runaway greenhouse effect as its oceans boiling away. Our time on our home planet is finite.
Mars's Opportunity: Ironically, this same increasing heat will eventually place Mars near the outer edge of the CHZ. Mars will orbit within a zone that offers a potential habitable temperature range. If we could restore its atmosphere, the Red Planet would be perfectly positioned to benefit from the slowly brightening Sun, giving humanity at least hundreds of millions of years of breathing room.[2]
Why Full Terraforming is Difficult
While the solar timeline is measured in millions of years, the challenge of terraforming Mars is an immediate and difficult engineering problem.
Current scientific consensus, backed by decades of data, holds that full-scale terraforming (making Mars entirely safe for unsuited humans) is currently infeasible due to three major hurdles:
1. The Carbon Dioxide Shortage[3]
The main obstacle to global warming on Mars is a lack of accessible greenhouse gas. Studies show that Mars simply does not have enough accessible carbon dioxide in its polar caps and crustal reserves to create a thick enough atmosphere for stable liquid water and human survival.[4]
To overcome this, we must import billions of tons of matter from the outer solar system:
Targeting Icy Bodies: The most promising method involves harvesting volatiles from ammonia-rich asteroids and comets. We'd use advanced propulsion (like mass drivers) to redirect their orbits so they collide with Mars.
The Power of Ammonia: Ammonia is a powerful greenhouse gas. Crucially, when it decomposes in the Martian atmosphere, it releases Nitrogen. Nitrogen is essential because it is a non-condensing gas that would provide the bulk atmospheric pressure needed to stabilize liquid water.
Methane Imports: Another, less stable option involves importing hydrocarbons like Methane from worlds like Titan. While a potent greenhouse gas, its light nature means it would be quickly lost to space due to Mars's low gravity, making it a temporary fix at best.
Vaporizing with Mirrors: To release these gases quickly, giant, solar-powered orbital mirrors could be deployed to focus the Sun's energy onto targeted impact sites, flash-vaporizing the imported ices and initiating the greenhouse effect.
2. The Magnetosphere Problem [3]
Mars lacks a global magnetic field, leaving its atmosphere vulnerable to stripping by the solar wind. Any engineered atmosphere would be gradually lost over geological timescales.
The Fix: Novel, futuristic concepts aim to address this, with one of the most promising being the placement of a superconducting magnetic dipole shield at the Mars-Sun L1 Lagrange point. Another recent idea proposes generating a charged particle ring (a plasma torus) around the planet using material ejected from its moon, Phobos.
3. Partial Warming and Ecopoiesis
Recent research is pivoting away from "Earth-in-a-can" terraforming toward partial, local habitability on shorter timescales.
Engineered Dust: A breakthrough concept suggests using engineered nanoparticles made from Martian minerals (iron and aluminum) as atmospheric dust. This dust would efficiently trap heat, potentially warming the planet by over 50°F within months to decades. This will create an environment that is suitable for microbial life which is a crucial step for a future biosphere.
The Real Goal: This focus is on ecopoiesis, the creation of a minimal and stable ecosystem. This will make colonizing Mars with sheltered and self-sustaining habitats (paraterraforming) a much more immediate and realistic goal.
The Ultimate Finish Line
Even a perfectly terraformed Mars is only a cosmic pit-stop. In about 5 billion years, the Sun will leave its stable phase and swell into a Red Giant star.
Mars's Ultimate Fate: The immense increase in luminosity will cause the CHZ to surge outward, but far too quickly. Mars, like Earth, would ultimately be boiled and scorched before the Sun collapses into a White Dwarf.
The Final Destination: The CHZ will encompass the Outer Solar System, possibly thawing the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, like Titan and Europa. This will give us another 200 to 370 million years.[5]
The colonization of Mars is not the final answer to humanity's future. It is the crucial, nearest-term challenge that will force us to master the engineering needed to survive planetary-scale climate change. Eventually, this will prepare us to make the multi-billion-year jump to the frozen moons or perhaps even to a whole new star. The clock is ticking, but the red planet is the first stop on our escape route.
Also see:
Saturday, October 18, 2025
Number and Word Converter Utility
Need to quickly change a large number like 15,000,000 into its written form, or check the value of words for numbers that are verbosely spelled out? This simple bidirectional converter handles all your number-to-word and word-to-number needs for figures up to 999,999,999. It uses the U.S. standard (no hyphens, all lowercase) for word output. It's also designed to be very forgiving when you type words in, as it can handle extra spaces, mixed cases, and even words like "and" without reporting an error. Just paste a number or type out your phrase in the box. The result will instantly appear below. Tap the result box to copy the converted value.
Number & Word Converter
*Supports positive whole numbers up to 999,999,999.
For information other ciphers and topics:
Pager Code Look Alike Cipher Tool: This is the full 26-letter system that uses visual tricks with numbers for every letter from the 1990's before texting. This cipher will translate messages into this OG secret messaging. [Try out this cipher tool on your own messages.]
Beeper Codes: Need a super-fast message? These are simple, standardized three-digit messages used as quick status updates (e.g., 143 for "I love you"). [View the Beeper Code Dictionary]
The Spartan Secret: Encrypt Messages with the Scytale Cipher: Use one of the earliest codes to be employed in the World! [Scytale Cipher Tool]
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