Ubuntu Now

Ok, so I just installed Ubuntu 8.04 (one year later, i know =P)after an unsuccessful install a couple of days before. I don't know what went wrong the first time as I used the same disc for this installation.

Anyway, this is my first post in a Linux OS and I must say this is better than Windows, but I still have a lot to do so Ubuntu runs as I want it to. I'm a n00b so this will be trial and error. First thing is getting the right resolution for my 32" widescreen TV, getting a decent IM program that can handle GTalk and MSN Messenger.

This is a move I've wanted since a year ago but could not do it due to the large amount of crap I needed to back up.

Anyway, I hope one day I'll understand how to modify Linux as I did with Windows.

Cuando Estoy Solo

A veces, cuando estoy solo,
Cuando siento que ya nada importa,
Cuando mil preguntas invaden mi alma.
Cuando me pregunto si estarás pensando en mi,
Si estarás pensando en volver,
Si volver fuera lo correcto.

A veces, cuando estoy solo,
Cuando siento que ya nada importa,
Desearía tener una esperanza,
Y abrazarla y no dejarla ir,

Y abrazarte y no dejarte ir.....

Mathematically Beautiful

Thoughout the ages, artists and sculptors from all around the world and since all of them tried to represent the beauty of a human face over a canvas or out of stone. All of them, as all of us mortals, seek beauty and it is said that we all have different tastes but it has been proven that beauty conforms to a mathematical stencil of the human face as proportioned to Phi.

Phi [φ] is a number that represents the ratio between two numbers to be approximately 1.61803398... Through his work in maxillofacial, Dr. Stephen Marquardt has performed the study, involving a pentagon and a decagon as the base for this "mask of beauty".

Dr. Marquardt found that this mask didn't fit a specified race of gender, it could fit almost on every piece of art that exemplified the proportionally beautyful human face and could fit in every human face as well (proportionally beautiful, of course). I find this to be an extraordinaire concept. That what we find to be beautiful, almost all comes down to this number, Phi.

But not only Phi is connected to the human face, but in architecture, paintings, and nature as well. The facade of the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Parthenon are modeled after a study with Phi, also known as the Golden Ratio in architecture. Several paintings and sculptures are modelled after Phi as well, just take a look at the bust of Queen Nefertiti. We can find this numer from sunflowers to the arms twisting around the center of a spiral galaxy to the very shape of the helix of Earth's lifeforms' DNA making this number somewhat of a building block of natural beauty.

Everywhere we look around, we find a relationship to beauty through this proportion of beauty which makes me think: If this number correlates to everything natural that our senses define as beautiful, could life elsewhere develop a form and shape that fits this proportion? Could intelligent beings from other solar systems (or even parallel unverses) conform to our "rules" of beauty?

Not everything is beautyful, but this number, this proportion, cannot be specific to this planet, doesn't it?

Fractal Representation of Phi

Two months ago, a friend of mine pownced an article about the appearance of a crop circle that a scientist decyphered to be the fractal representation of Pi (3.1416...). I won't explain it because it is already explained here, but I wondered what would Phi (1.618...) look like with the same representation technique and decided to make my own.

BaCK aND BeauTiFuL

Yesterday I got Leonor back from repair and she's as beautiful as when I got her. Let me tell you how this story went:

After fate set me in a course of a series of shit-happens events, which one was when I drove over a low lighting post base, three or four days later I was told about the delivery day I was to have her back. This day was August 21 IF all the requiered pieces were available on site, which is almost never...

Anyway, I went the 20th and she was ready but I didn't had the money available in my account yet so I went the 21st. She was ready but for a couple of paint details I wanted fixed so yesterday afternoon (the 22nd) I picked her up ready and beautiful.

Glad she's back...

Solar Eclipse

The eternal dance of three celestial bodies,
in a magnificent display of natural beauty,
fusing light and darkness, in a perfect sense.

The Strings of Everything

I am going LuC:D this eventful evening. Well, it was not so eventful after all, but some things DID happen. Anyway, what will be the topic now?

Well, the other day I was stumbling around some videos until I stumbled on the first part of three (there may be more, I don't know) videos that explained the String Theory. This Strings are supposed to unify two theories that by themselves, explain perfectly everything within their realm. One is the Theory of Relativity, which deals with one of the four forces that rule everything in the universe: Gravity; and the other is Quantum Physics which deals with the other three forces that describe the smallest of particles: Electromagnetism, Strong Nuclear Force and the Weak Nuclear Force. This four forces coexist in the same universe but until now, we have yet to understand how to unify this two branches of physics and the String Theory is said to be the bridge between these two and not without controversy, of course.

Enough chit-chat, let's get to the videos:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

SeaSoN FiNaLe

Over time the construction site I'm working at, has been the epicenter of emotional (and financial, for some) situations for all that have worked (or are still working) here.

Since the project's beginning, infinity of stories have been weaved, each forming part of a "Season", as I liked to called them. Every season has an end and in these "Season Finales", stories concluded and gave way to more stories, each deeply linked to a greater scheme. Some of them ended well for some, and for others the result wasn't as satisfactory as they thought it would.

As we battled our way through some obstacles and got over them eventually, a time comes when not every obstacle can be effectively defeated. Some of these stones-in-the-road cannot be overcome, not because we can't but because they are out of our reach. Decisions made by people with an entirely different point of view ($$$) can pose an inescapable obstacle to many people.

Through difficult times we have traversed but now we face the repercussions of a choice made by a power greater than us and we are left in a limbo. We must wait for the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place before assuming the outcome, for which there are two options.

If everything goes as planned, we stay and keep managing this massive building to its completion. If it does not go well we leave the project, and probably Mexico City as well, and placed into another project and not necessarily in the same state. I've been told that I have been already chosen to be in a project in another state but I truly wanted to return to MTY as I have unfinished "hearty" business, but that's a different story.

Anyway, this is it, the new Season Finale and even though the project continues, this may be our last in this project that was going too good. There's a deadline in August 20, then we'll see how it turns out.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted as soon as I find out our fate but if we have to leave sooner, I hope to return one day and get to see this project completed and successful. I'll keep you posted, k?

PaLiNDRoMe!!

Yesterday was a Palindrome : 8-01-08

Dynamic Architecture

In Dubai where, apparently, money isn't a problem will be home to a new kind of skyscraper. A rotating tower about 80 stories high, and each floor can rotate independently or as a whole fast enough to be noticeable during the day and slow enough so the resident won't get moving sickness.

The rotation will be powered by wind turbines located between floors that could provide electricity no only to the whole tower, but five more towers of similar size than the Dubai Tower.


Each floor can contract or extend as the user's will, creating an interesting array as it turns. This is one tower but physically, it will never be the same form twice (well, maybe it will but you get the idea, don't you?).

Each floor will be prefabricated elsewhere and put together around the central core, reducing costs and construction time. But this by no means each "villa", as they name each floor, will be cheap. The architect David Fischer, head of Dynamic Architecture, estimates a pricely cost of US$3,000.00 per square foot, leaving the largest Villa (12,900 sq-ft/1,198.44 m2) in for US$38.7 million and the more "modest" villa (1,330 sq-ft/123.56 m2) in for the low low price of US$3.99 million.

This is expensive even for Dubai standards, but hey, if you've got the money you better get over there and get in line because they're selling out like hot-cakes. That is if the project is approved, and if it is, then you would be moving into your own rotating villa by 2010. You can even park your cheap Ferrari in your apartment with the automobile elevator that will be available so you will not carry your bags of groceries all the way from the basement to your crappy Villa, huh? sounds nice, right?

If you had the money, would you spend it on something like this?

Watery Mars

Yesterday NASA announced that for the first time water in another planet had been probed and analyzed by a man made craft. The Phoenix landed on a mission to search for water, among other things and it has successfully proven water does exist on Mars.

The image on the top right corner indicates some traces of ice and 4 martian days later (1 Sol is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds long) and traces of ice have disappeared due to evaporation.

The Phoenix has not discovered organic compounds whatsoever but the mission has been extended five more weeks with a cost of 2 million dollars.

The area Phoenix landed was chosen because studies indicated deposits of ice could be found. Phoenix landed on a solid layer of ice covered only by a few inches of soil. This finding could accelerate a mission to colonize Mars as an essential element to survive is already there: water. Now the search for life, or its remains, continues.