65 Años Después [Parte 1]

La nube en forma de hongo
sobre Hiroshima

En las últimas fases de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y después de 6 meses de intensos bombardeos de ciudades japonesas, el imperio japonés decidió ignorar el ultimatum enviado por las fuerzas aliadas.

El 6 de agosto de 1945, Hiroshima fue "perdonada" de un bombardeo tradicional y fue el objetivo de un nuevo tipo de arma experimental, cuyos efectos sobre una ciudad intacta pudieran ser observados y estudiados. Con el sobrenombre de Little Boy (Niño Pequeño), esta bomba era diferente a todas las antes vistas en cualquier guerra.

Little Boy

Little Boy y sus dimensiones de tres metros de largo por setenta y un centímetros de diámetro no la hacían más grande que las presentes en aquella época. Dentro de la bomba se situó el explosivo necesario para comprimir una serie de anillos de Uranio-235, con un peso de 64 kilogramos, lo cual desataría la fisión nuclear del material radioactivo. Menos de un kilo entró en un estado de fisión y aproximadamente sólo 0.6 gramos se convirtieron en energía pura.

Little Boy fue liberado del Enola Gay a una altura de 9,400 metros y detonó a sólo 580 metros sobre Hiroshima aproximadante a las 8:15 horas. La explosión que resultó fue comparable a 15,000 toneladas de TNT (15 kilotones). Una luz brillante, un pequeño sol de poco menos de 400 metros de diámetro que ardió a casi 4,000 °C a sólo 600 metros sobre el centro de Hiroshima. Cerca de la zona cero, todo lo inflamable ardió instantáneamente, el acero y el vidrio se fundieron y cientos de personas simplemente se vaporizaron literalmente.

La explosión creó una onda de choque que viajó con una velocidad mayor a la del sonido. Similar al estruendo de un relámpago y una sobrepresión de 5 psi (libras sobre pulgada cuadrada), tuvo un alcance de 2 kilómetros de diámetro donde provocó daños estructurales y fuego en los edificios de Hiroshima.

Cerca de 70,000 personas murieron a causa de la explosión de la bomba y la radiación subsecuente.

Hiroshima, antes de Little Boy

Hiroshima, después de Little Boy

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.

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:

PaLiNDRoMe!!

Yesterday was a Palindrome : 8-01-08

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.

Crystal Skulls

The crystal skulls have been subject to many legends and fantastic stories that lie on the paranormal. Just recently, the fifth (?) installment of the Indiana Jones saga featured them (I haven't seen it so...) but one story caught my eye. Since their "discovery", people have alluded on to these solid crystal quartz skulls special powers such as divination. Even games like Ninja Gaiden 2 have included them into the game.

Anyway, one legend says that King Phillip II saw the defeat of his army on the planed attack on England using "a death's head made from a single piece of rock crystal," lit by "a ray of the setting sun." Okay, this really is a play but nonetheless they have been widely known for their out-of-place artifact status as their manufacture could have been very difficult assuming their pre-Colombian origin.

Now to the legend: It is believed in the existence of twelve skulls of this nature, varying in size and quartz composition. It is believed that if these skulls are reunited at some location just before the end of the Mayan calendar (December 21, 2012) along with a supposedly thirteen skull, they hold enough power to prevent the end of Man.

How will man fall at 2012's Winter Solstice is unknown. No one knows what will happen this precise day and no one will until that day. I think it's BS what is posted in many so-called paranormal sites displaying legends and myths as truth. I might, as well, be a scientologist if I believed this crap. The fact is that I don't think the Mayans were trying to deceive the future generations with such an elaborate calendar, the deceivers are those who try to instill fear into those ignorant of the truth for control's sake. Pretty much like what the church (pick one you like) did and to my opinion, still does. Anyway, that path is one I will take shortly but this is about the skulls.

Just yesterday I read an article at the Discovery News website that it was found that many of the skulls were being studied after the first ones we're discovered to be manufactured with modern tools not available in the pre-Columbian era. They were examined with electron microscopes and the likes of which leave no margin of doubt. Now you don't jump ahead to conclusions that these tools were of alien origin, no, the marks found on these skulls are of terrestrial origin circa 1800.

These frauds were demystified, but I must admit that it was a very romantic idea that these skulls were made by such advanced civilization and possessed an unknown task/purpose that marveled every one who knew of their existence.

Andromeda in Our Skies

Once I had a very interesting chat with a friend of mine in which I knew Andromeda was on a collision course with the Milky Way, our own galaxy. There are two questions I still remember:

1. Will that collision destroy our Sun or our Solar System?
2. How will the night sky look like during that event?

Well, I've done my research and found very interesting things about this topic. First, the event will take place four billion years from now and although the two galaxies will pass through each other at a velocity of 1,000,000 mi/h (yes, a million), the duration of the crash will last millions of years. This suggest that our descendants will not be amazed by their night sky as it will be always the same to them as our night sky is to us, oblivious to the changes it has gone through. Our Sun will be safe in this collision as the space between stars is so vast there's no chance of being hit by another star. So there, we're safe if we, as humans, make it that far. So there's the answer to question number one: We are safe, at least our sun and planets.

The second question is how will the night sky look like when this happens? Well, at the beginning the Andromeda galaxy will be visible to the naked eye in a very dark night approaching us until we see it crossing through the Milky Way (the starry band we see at night, that's our galaxy seen sideways). Different from the picture below, Andromeda will not be as shiny, it will have the same luminosity as the Milky Way. In the end, the merged galaxies will settle as a big elliptical galaxy in which new stars will be created due to the crash. Take a look at the pictures and be amazed at the greatness of the Universe!

In the first picture, Andromeda will appear as a smudge in the sky.

Once Andromeda is close enough, it will appear cutting through the Milky Way.As the collision compress the gases within the galaxies, massive stars will form.
Many of the new massive stars will go supernovae, like cosmic firecrackers.
Once the collision stage slows down, the resulting image on the sky will be the core of the new elliptical galaxy and no trace of the spiral galaxies will remain.

This event has occurred millions of times before, is happening as we speak and will occur millions of times in the future. Just think about this: there's an estimate of about 100 billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies in the universe, which makes me think of a previous post.

Cheers!!

Mirrored Divinity

Leonardo Da Vinci is considered a genius in the art movement. He was not only a painter, but a sculptor, architect and inventor. It is said that he was part of a more 'obscure' movement, and by this I mean 'underground'.

All his annotations are written from right to left (contrary to the usual western writing of Left to Right), thought to be developed for efficiency for a left-handed Leonardo. This writing style can be deciphered by putting a mirror and reading the mirrored image.

This is thought to be the key to that movement. A movement that hid their beliefs in sacred paintings from a vengeful Vatican. There's a book that explains this movement and the discoveries they have made.

Geekiness

I find geekiness comes in different "flavors". There's computer geek, movie geeks, trekkies (Star Trek geeks) and their sworn enemies: the Star Wars geeks, console geeks (xbox and ps3 fanboys). I could go on and on but the point here is that although I took this test, you can't find how geeky a person is with only 22 questions. Do the test and you'll know what I mean.
59% Geek

Supernova

I have been hearing all this so-called news about the brightest supernova ever. They say the explosion was 150 times brighter than the sun, others that the explosion itself was 150 times larger than the sun. They can't understand this type of events. What really was 150 times larger than the sun was the actual star before the nova. This occurred 240 million light-years away, 240 million years ago. But the light just reached us six months ago in September, the name of the supernova: SN 2006gy. It was 50 billion (that's 50,000,000,000 for americans) times brighter than the sun, outshining 10 times its own galaxy lasting 70 days! The damnest thing is that its too far away to be seen with the naked eye, but I have a surprise for you, keep reading.

This Supernova, the largest ever observed began expelling most of its mass prior to the explosion, which is happening in our own galaxy, a star named Eta Carinae may "be on the brink" of an explosion (chances are, it already has). Scientists say that this event may be the best "star-show in the history of modern civilization." Eta's supernova would be visible from Earth during day and night and would be visible for only a couple of weeks.

Prepare the snacks mates, in a few thousand years (if not tomorrow) Eta's show will be the talk of the moment, only in the Southern Hemisphere, bad luck for us North-hemisphereans.

As a bonus, have a view of the "Pillars of Creation" at the Eagle Nebula.

*EDIT*

Here you can take a look at the animation prepared by NASA. First, the matter release in the shape of two spheres, then the moment of truth. This thing would have looked gorgeous.

Bye bye Boris

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, age 76, died today as a result of heart problems. He was responsible of, according to experts, helping develop a "vibrant" economy through harsh methods. This resulted in resentment by many russians who lost their life savings not to menion their sons/brothers/fathers in the war against Chechen rebels. He also presented himself drunk on several international summits hehe.

Touchscreens to the max!

Who wouldn't like a TS like this??!!

Talk in your Google Homepage

Good news to all of you who are blocked/shut off the outside world in an attempt to increase productivity at the workplace. If you have a Google Homepage, you may have Gtalk in it. Check out the following, directly from the Google Blog:

"We created the Personalized Homepage to help you gather all the things you care about on Google and across the web in one place. And since one of the things we all care about is communicating with friends, today we're excited to unveil a new version of Google Talk for your Personalized Homepage. The Google Talk Gadget lets you see your contacts and chat with your friends right on your homepage, and you don't have to download anything to start chatting. We've also added a few new features to make your chats a bit more colorful, like the ability to view YouTube videos and Picasa Web Albums photos in your chats. And just like many other gadgets, you can also add the Google Talk Gadget to your own webpage or blog.To see the Google Talk Gadget in action on the Google Personalized Homepage, check out this short video. You can also read more about it on the Google Talk Blog. Then go ahead and add it to your homepage."

So check it out, enjoy the freedom...

bad news and a dream

Diez días han pasado desde mi último post. Equis, ofrezco una disculpa ja. Total, para no hacerla muy larga, pues no tengo tanto tiempo como quisiera para esto, ayer me puse a jugar Project Gotham Racing 3. Tenía un buen de no jugar y pues quería correr mis Lambos un rato. Pero oh sorpresa, al acceder al juego, me indica que ha creado un nuevo perfil..... Q? un 'nuevo' perfil??? si yo ya tenía uno!! Revisé en mi Memory Card y todo se ha ido, referente a PGR3. Lo voy a ver por el lado amable e intentar comprar todos los Lambos del juego.

Ayer fue mi cumpleaños y estaba con mis camaradas pisteando en un depa (no el usual) y me pongo una de las que ya no aguanto. Total, en el jale me dan el día y fue uno de mis mejores cumpleaños, pero un sueño a fin de cuentas jeje.

Les dejo unos videillos de Hoffman...

Parte 1


Parte 2


Parte 3


Parte 4

iPhone y el futuro

Ya vi el aparato y se ve muy bien. Tiene mucho potencial y abriría un nuevo mercado a Apple, ya que todos los teléfonos que también son reproductores digitales son, por falta de otras palabras, una porquería.
¿Por qué digo que el iPhone tiene mucho potencial? Porque tiene muchos obstáculos que si no los eliminan pueden generar muchos problemas.¿Quieren que las enumere? ahí van pues:

1] Tiene un costo muy elevado, se quejaban del PS3 y su SRP de US$599, pues este telefono va a tener dos paquete (gracias a Dios): el de 4GB tendrá un precio de $499 y el de 8GB, $599. ¿600 dolares por 8 gigas? Sip, es un Treo y muy limitado porque no tiene ranuras
de expansión de memoria*.

2] Como saben, Apple estuvo trabajando junto con Cingular y llegaron a un acuerdo de exclusividad. ¿Qué significa esto? El iPhone estará bloqueado de fábrica y no funcionará mas que con Cingular y será vendido a través de un contrato de solamente 2 años con mensualidades de entre 50 y 100 dolares.*

3] Cuenta con una pantalla muy grande, sensible al tacto, pero, ¿has visto cómo queda tu celular despues de hacer una llamada? Una capa de aceite lo cubre todo. Imagínalo en la pantalla del iPhone. ¿Y los rayones? Esos podemos no mencionarlos.*

4] Sigue Apple con su batería empotrada a los aparatos. No la puedes quitar y la batería tiene una duración aproximada de 16 hrs.*

5] El nombre lo registró Cisco antes que Apple para un teléfono IP que estaba desarrollando. En estos momentos se está llevando a cabo una guerrita por el nombre, a ver quien gana y se lleva el nombre. Apple debería de considerar esto y comenzar a buscarle otro
nombre igual de catchy al celular.*

6] Al parecer no podras cargar third party apps al iPhone. Te quedarás con lo que te venga en el iPhone.

Te digo, no está mal. Es un producto dirigido a los jóvenes adultos que gustan de esos gadgets pero con ese precio, no todos lo podremos tener. Aparte me esperaré a que saquen algo mejor.

*(Información de expertos que lo han analizado basado en especificaciones que ha liberado Apple) 1 2

Un Mustang muy Italiano

El Mustang que hace poco hizo su aparición en el Autoshow de Los Angeles en el presnte año (2006) fue diseñado por Italdesign liderados por Fabrizio Giugiaro. Me gustaron mucho sus líneas, me recuerdan a un serie 6 y un Vantage por la forma, con rasgos de muscle car clásico y toques italianos como las calaveras y las puertas. El interior, digamos que me gusto el tablero, no es muy diferente al actual, el parabrisas que se extiende hasta atrás es impresionante; sin embargo lo que no me gusto nada nada fueron los "inserts" de pelo de caballo en los asientos y detalles de las puertas, aunque leí que, de sacarse en producción, sería un extra al carro.

Veremos, pues, el posible nuevo mustang, den click en la imagen para llevarlos al album de fotos:

Italian Mustang

Las fotos las saque de está página, por si les interesa leer el review.

D e a T H v s B L a C K

Originally I was going to write about What is that which makes music become 'pop' music, but after a hot debate (it wasn't that hot, it wasn't even a debate really) with a friend about what groups were black metal, which were symphonic black metal from those of Death metal and it's sub genres. According to what I read on Wikipedia (which IMHO is a valuable source of information, i can discuss this later) and to what i could get a grasp on and my ability to describe it is the following:

D e a T H M e T a L

What is death metal? Well, putting it simple: it's theme is based on death, this means it's lyrics are based on death, how it feels, killing somebody else, war, famine, disease, anything that leads to death. Classic examples of this genre are Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Carcass. Of course there is also a musical structure around it, which differs greatly from Black Metal. The use of aggressive/brutal riffs, fast paced drums and guttural grunts are a signature of this genre. I guess i will cite wikipedia as I may distort the meaning.

Death metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal that evolved out of thrash metal during the early 1980s. Commonly recognized characteristics include usually violent or dark lyrics which focus on death as a nihilistic metaphor (although lately more philosophy-based lyrics, such as those of later Death have become popular as well), chromatic progressions and a narrative or "story telling" song structure such that there is not a verse-chorus cycle as much as an ongoing development of themes and motifs. It is usually identified by downtuned rhythm guitars, fast percussion, and dynamic intensity. "Blast beats" are frequently used to add to the ferocity of the modern music. The vocals are commonly low gurgles named death grunt, growl, or death growl. This kind of vocalising is distorted by use of the throat and guts, unlike traditional singing techniques which discourages this technique.

If you are interested in learning more about this genre, check this article out.

B L a C K M e T a L

I will not waste any more of your precious time and move on onto the article:

Black metal started in the early 1980s with bands such as Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Mercyful Fate, and Hellhammer. The second wave of black metal, an essentially Scandinavian movement, started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, primarily in Norway. Black metal has gathered intense criticism from many sectors of society, for its brutal aesthetic, its misanthropic spirit, and the extreme right wing ideologies displayed by some musicians working in the National Socialist Black Metal subgenre. However, at the same time it experienced a meteoric rise in popularity among metal fans during the 1990s.

Black metal can display, but is not limited to, the following characteristics:

Guitars

• Fast guitars with alternate or tremolo picking
• Standard tuned guitars (In contrast to death metal which is typically tuned down.)
• Relatively thin guitar sound or relatively thick guitar sound—usually not in the middle.

Drums

• Double bass, blast beat, and D-beat drumming
• Fast, repetitive, aggressive drums, often with blast beats. At other times, the drums can take a slower role usually accompanied by a very dry and empty tone — especially for the effect of the atmosphere of the music. On occasion, some groups such as Burzum and Xasthur will dispense with drums altogether in certain song segments.

Lyrics and vocals

• A distinct "rasped" vocal style, a very guttural rasp, which is reminiscent of a torture. This is basically standard in every black metal, though there are exceptions, such as Primordial, who are still classed black metal without the rasp vocal. Some bands, particularly symphonic black metal bands, incorporate clean vocals, usually of a male choir sound, though this is used for atmospheric purposes.
• Lyrics that often take the form of Satanic, Pagan, or occult themes which blaspheme Christianity.
• Lyrics that celebrate the cold, darkness, forests, and other natural surroundings of northern European countries, reflecting modern black metal's origins in Scandinavia.
• Increasingly lyrics are being penned with themes of war, misanthropy, and desolation, sometimes apocalyptic, whose causes are rooted in human nature and actions. However, there are some exceptions (although they usually incorporate these previous themes as well).
• Lyrics are commonly inspired by fantasy, in particular the works of Tolkien set in Middle Earth. For example, the Austrian band Summoning focuses almost exclusively on Middle Earth for their themes and content. Other bands create their own fictional realms, for instance the lyrics of Immortal depict an imaginary kingdom called Blashyrkh (Blash-eerk), which is ruled by a raven king named Ravendark.

Atmospheric and structural elements

• Unconventional song structures that are devoid of verse and chorus segments, and contain extended and repetitive instrumental passages, with less use of vocals than other styles of metal.
• Less focus on dynamic rhythm than death metal. Very few black metal bands exhibit the rhythmic complexity inherent in death metal, and even if they do, they usually exhibit at least a few of the above-listed criteria if they are still generally classified as black metal.
• Occasional electronic keyboard use. The harpsichord, violin, organ, and choir settings are most common, which gives the music an orchestral feel or a cathedral-like setting. Some bands tend to use keyboards very frequently, whether it be as an instrument or even as the basis of their entire sound. They are generally placed under the symphonic black metal label.

• Certain bands have taken to recording with full symphony orchestras, but these bands are regarded by more austere black metal fans as not being 'true', i.e. Dimmu Borgir (however this has nothing to do with the use of the orchestra but how the band now conduct themselves seemingly out of the black metal genre).
• Limited production used intentionally as a statement against mainstream music and/or to reflect the mood of the music by creating a certain atmosphere. This 'underproduced' effect is often achieved by cutting out low and high frequencies, leaving just the mid frequency range. It is often said that this was due to a low budget, but this often wasn't the case. This production style is often considered an essential element of "true" black metal. See Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger album, a highly influential example of this production style.

Aesthetics

• Cold, dark, sad, melancholy, reflective, tragic, meditative, or gloomy atmosphere.
• Many black metal musicians adopt a "neo-medieval" costume style that may include leather, spikes, bondage gear, "archaic" armor and weaponry, and facial corpse paint.
• Many black metal musicians choose to adopt stage names, typically patterned after occult and/or fantasy characters; however, this practice is not universal.

The complete article can be found here . A list of Black Metal bands can be found here, in which Cradle of Filth and Dimmu borgir are listed, this was the beginning of the discussion with my friend, as to whether CoF and DB were Black or Death.

Halo Movie??

A week ago i heard about Universal and 20th dropping out from the Halo project, allegedly becuse of the HUUUGE amount of money being spent in pre-production. They (the studios) wanted Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (the masterminds behind the Lord of the Rings) to lower their demand$$. Anyway the said no and this left no choice for the studios other than running with their money as far as they could.

This, apparently, came as good news for Bungie, Microsoft and Peter Jackson as this would let the make a movie without Hollywood Intervention. Of course, they still need the money, which Peter is trying to get and as of this the movie is postponed for release (nooooo!!!!!) till summer 2008.

"At this time Microsoft, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh
have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video
game. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big
screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the
wait."

Let's see if this is done while we are still young.