I just did! Bonsoir, mes ches lecteurs! I was given tickets for a play named The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales (which was originally a movie).
I highly recommend it. It has a good deal of morbid humor, religious fanaticism is mocked, some very nice acting... all in all a very nice play.
Season's over but if you live in Mx City and wish to go, next season is in January.
Info on the original movie here.
Rêves doux!
Bonsoir, mes chers lecteurs! Comment ça va? See this? Imagine seeing how this dear galaxy of ours looked like in its early eons. Thanks to more advanced telescopes, astronomers were able to see small patches of faint light that will merge (have already? maybe they're so far away that what we're seeing happened an eternity ago and the galaxy is now as formed as ours) to form a baby galaxy.
Beautiful, is it not?
Rêves doux!
And I was hoping for a permanent shutdown. Bonsoir, mes ches lecteurs! So, they decided to reopen the cathedral at downtown MxCity, with mandatory searches on all those going in by the PBI (Industrial and Bank Police). And on top of all, some of those faithfully going to be told how to lead their irrelevant lives by their chosen imaginary friend representative complain about the extra security, go figure.
Oh well, someone willing to believe that the social standards from two millennia ago are the truth of truths, and that all other beliefs are false and therefore erroneous is not a very intelligent person to begin with, is it? Oh well, you all know how I feel about religion.
Rêves Doux
Bonsoir, mes chers lecteurs, comment allez vous?The limits to which idiocy can go, never really cease to amaze, do they? Especially religious idiocy. Today I came across this bit of news.
So the family believes these two women have been cursed and proceed to exorcise them, first damaging their eyes and then drowning one of them.
Just how much claptrap are these people willing to believe, and worse, act upon?
Rêves doux
And I'm not talking about the cartoon. Bonsoir mes ches lecteurs, comment ça va? look at this little curiosity I found.
By tweaking this rodent's genome (specifically the gene responsible for the PEPCK-C), they managed to enhance it, to the point that it can run at a speed of 1.2 Km per hour for about six hours. Talk about endurance.
This little achievement is explained by the extra mitochondria in their muscles, which also explains why they eat twice as much but weigh half as much as a normal lab mouse since they burn whatever comes in.
There is a little side effect, though. These overpowered mice happen to be rather aggressive.
The atmosphere, of course. Bonsoir, mes ches lecteurs! Remember that new module for the ISS I was telling you about? Well, the crew of the ISS just took a 7 hour spacewalk to properly install and connect the module. Watch:
Imagine the view! These two are the ones who did all the spacework, (right to left) Station Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Dan Tani:
Oh, I do envy them greatly, mes chers lecteurs!
More information here and here.
For now, I'll go dream of the stars
Rêves doux de'l espace, mes lecteurs!
Mes chers lecteurs, comment ça va? Any of you heard of or suffered migraine? For those of you who don't know, migraine is a neurological disease, commonly associated with horrible headaches, photo and audiophobia and many other ailments. It can go from annoying to life threatening. More info here for those of you interested.
Now, scientists have discovered that people who suffer migraine have some structural differences in the brain. To be specific, the somatosensory cortex (Click here if you don't know what that is) was about 21% thicker, specially the part that processes sensory input from the face and head.
I imagine it comes as a consequence of the migraine, given the fact that it is constantly stimulated by the recurring headaches and other symptoms.
Who knows, maybe this new information will lead to a cure for that ghastly illness! Meanwhile, Ibuprofen will usually do the trick.
More info on this new discovery here.
Rêves doux, mes ches lecteurs.
You are at least as old as me. Bonsoir, mes chers lecteurs! Time for a little nostalgia!
Remember these?
Yes, mes chers lecteurs, the 5.25" floppy! Considered a minifloppy by its time (its predecessor was 8 inches wide), it could store 360 Kilobytes ( .03% of a 1GB Flash memory). It was used from 1976 to the early nineties. By then the 3.5" floppy had all but eradicated the poor old 5.25"s.
And to top the evening, this is an anti software piracy video from 1992. Enjoy!
I'm getting old...
See the whole video, including the credits, I didn't know some of those companies were THAT old.
Info an all floppies here.
RIP, floppies.
Rêves doux!
Bonjour, mes chers lecteurs, though this day was a bit of a horror as you may imagine from the title. Today I had to fix a network that is barely functional, and poorly laid out. To top things, it was for these clients that are quick to demand service but slooooooow to pay. Bet you've heard of them before.
Besides, whoever built that net didn't know what he was doing, charged a laughable amount, and did a really poor job.
Secondhand cable, some of it on the brink of breaking, network nodes scattered all over the place, most of them non functional, net cable side by side with electric cable, switches everywhere and no server...
And they want us to make it work perfectly, those maniacs.
</rant>
Rêves doux, mes chers lecteurs.
Bonsoir, mes chers lecteurs! Comment allez vous? Heard the news, lately?
Here it goes:
A group of people in a political meeting got upset because the bells of the cathedral had been ringing for too long, and was disrupting said meeting.
They then went into the cathedral and demanded that they stop, and allegedly, attacked some of the cattle...er oops... churchgoers and caused some damage inside the church.
And now the archdioceses is getting all whiny, saying that, they have lost their freedom of religion at least in that cathedral (lost it, yeah right, the catholic church, losing their power over Mexico, that'll be the day...) and that they will close the cathedral indefinitely (yay!, no complaints here).
So, what about the church attempting to trample the rights of the congress people to choose when they threatened to excommunicate them if they dared legalize abortions in this city of ours? A bit hypocritical of them, is it not? They have no problem with trampling the rights of others, but when it comes to their so-called sacred temples, they start complaining. Mind you, I am not justifying the aggression against the churchgoers and the cathedral, I'm just exposing the hypocrisy of religious institutions, with this incident as an example.
Further reading here and here.
And come on, mes lecteurs, I hardly ever get any feedback on what I write for you! Does anyone of you agree? Disagree? Anything? Comment, please!
In the meantime, I sleep.
Rêves doux.
A spark of passion
A shedding of tears
A dripping of blood
A glimpse into eternity
A step into oblivion
Inspiration, mes chers lecteurs! Isn't it a beautiful thing?.
Rêves doux!
Bonsoir, mes chers lecteurs! It's been a long while since my last rant.
Here it goes.
So, I got on the subway, and this lowlife gets on and starts going "blah blah, I'm no thief, I'm no swindler, I'm a beggar, give me money" in one of those pre-written speeches that all of these people seem to use. Mind you, he was talking on an expensive mobile phone as he stepped on. Either we hasn't as needy as he led on or it was stolen, in any case, what was this imbecile halfwit thinking?
Not only that, but also he was putting a demanding hand in front of anyone he could (the tube was packed).
This reminded me, in a way, of those beggars who pretend to be blind to gain the sympathies (and money) of those around.
Argh.
And to top things off, when I tried to get off, I had to fight a tidal wave of humans who wouldn't let me off because they wanted to get on without letting anyone off.
Morons.
I really do hate having to push my way through a crowd.
</rant>
Rêves doux, chers lecteurs.
Bonsoir, mes chers lecteurs! How are you tonight? I imagine you saw the title. Here it goes. There is a proposal for a global moratorium on death penalty in the UN. Supporting it, some 88 countries,incluiding Mexico, the whole of the European Union, Venezuela, Austalia, Phillippines, about eight African countries, another ten Latin American countries, and some others. I wish I could be more specific but I have so far been unable to find a list of the countries that favor this moratorium. Opposing it are China (execution central of the world) The US, Singapore, Botswana, Jamaica, Iran, Egypt and others.
Anyone of you, mes lecteurs ever heard the opinion of the Marquis de Sade on capital punishment?
"A State that kills has no right to condemn murder"
I wonder if that is true. Anyhow, in my humble opinion, this particular moratorium should be ratified. Executions not only seem barbaric, it's also an incentive. If a criminal knows that what he or she did will get him (or her) executed, then said criminal will have nothing to lose, and increase the criminal rampage.
Also, there is the point of miscarried justice. If you find out that the person in jail is innocent, you let it out, but if you execute said person, there is no way to bring him or her back from the dead is there?
Too bad no one comments, I would love to get some feedback on this issue.
In case you want to read more, go here, here and here.
Rêves doux, chers lecteurs, see you tomorrow!
Labels: Nightly Politics , Nightly un-life
But it was cancelled. Bonsoir mes chers lecteurs! Tonight I bring you a page from recent history.
It was a prototype for the larger VentureStar, which was meant to be a successor for the aging space shuttles. It was a Single-Stage-To-Orbit (SSTO, meaning no additional rockets or tanks to take it to space) reusable launch vehicle. The prototype was intended to test an array of new technologies meant for new space vehicles, and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the design. The VentureStar would not only be utilitarian but also commercial.
Sad news is, the design had some flaws, and the prototype was left at 85% completion when the project was canceled in 2001.
A damn shame if you ask me.
Sadly enough, once the shuttles are retired, they will be succeeded by the Orion which I imagine will sport the latest technologies, but looks like the Apollo, but they say the Orion will be taking people tothe moon in 2020 and subsequently to Mars. Hopefully!
I really do wish I can get to orbit one day.
Rêves doux, chers lecteurs!
Labels: Nightly History , Nightly Aerospace
The atmosphere, that is. Bonsoir mes ches lecteurs! How are you today?
For a change, today I bring you, not rant or controversy, but some nice news. I assume you know about the International Space Station, a collective multinational effort at having a human foothold in orbit.
This is it.
Today they installed a new module in the ISS, a research module, I believe. here are the pictures of the installation:
Beautiful, is it not?
Oh, mes ches lecteurs! I wish I could be up there! Oh well, all in good time, maybe I will.
Further news here.
Alas, mes ches lecteurs, it is time for me to fall, but fret not, I shall rise again tomorrow. Rêves doux, rêves d'espace, particulièrement!
Au revoir.
Labels: Nightly un-life , Nightly News , Nightly Aerospace
Bonsoir, mes ches lecteurs! How are you tonight?
Tonight I bring news about justice in Mexico, or at the very least law. I heard on the news today that Congress is discussing the usage of "Chemical castration" specifically the medicine called Depo-Provera to punish pedophiles and rapists.
I've been looking a bit into this, and I find the idea interesting, considering the fact that the offenders would actually be "cured" of their raping impulses. Along with a few side-effects. Curious?
Weight gain, fatigue, thromboembolism, malaise, hypertension, mild depression, hypoglycemia and liver enzymes gone berzerk.
I'm a bit divided on this issue. While the prospect of curing a sex offender is a rather positive one, the state should have no right to tamper with the body of any of its citizens.
Now, if the criminal voluntarily agrees to take the treatment, it would be another story, but I suspect it to be a highly unlikely event.
So how do we define the state's rights? Some would argue that a criminal should have no rights, but the road from there to summary imprisonments and no privacy is very short.
Then again, it may be argued that it is honestly done with the best interests of both society and the offender in mind, given the fact that through the treatment, said criminal would be completely reformed. Hopefully.
This is one complex topic, n'est çe pas, mes ches lecteurs? I hope I do get comments on this one, but I know no one reads this anyways.
But hope dies last
Au revoir mes ches lecteurs.
A nice post, mes ches lecteurs! You see? I'm keeping my promise of posting daily (even when no one reads this). Anyway, has any of you been hearing of the environmental disasters that have occurred recently? Two come to mind, one is an accident, and one is the force of nature. The oil spill that will make the Black Sea earn its name, and the state of Tabasco which has become pretty much one big swamp. I've been seeing images from both incidents, and it's not pretty. I'm quite certain that the coast near the spill is going to become a dead wasteland, the same happened in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez spilled. But, no sense in worrying too much. This planet of ours will probably keep spinning long after we become fossils and are studied by our evolved descendants. Anyhow, not much to rant on today, so I'll be sleeping now, rêves doux, mes ches lecteurs.
I won a ticket to the coming VNV Nation concert here in the City, mes ches lecteurs! It is nice when one has a bit of good luck, is it not?
Bonsoir mes ches lecteurs! I hope you read this, before reading the rest of this post. In my opinion it was only a matter of time before an issue like this came up. Do we forbid them or do we protect them? Science is not too far from successfully cloning human beings.
My question is: What the hell is everyone so afraid of?
A cloned human would still be a human, the only different thing would be that it would have the same genes as someone else, and even that is not unheard of. Twins fit that same description. So, what's there to fear? Most of the opposition I've heard has a religious basis, something long the lines of "blah blah artificial humans have no soul" or "blah blah we shouldn't be playing god". But I see no real reason to oppose them. Not only can cloning be a great option for those that cannot have children (i.e. sterile or gay couples), but cloned tissue can be a great lifesaver (i.e. liver or heart damage). So why oppose it? (I'm hoping for some good comments on this issue). In my humble opinion, not only should they not ban it, but indeed take a bold step towards the future and ensure the rights of cloned individuals.
Oh well. Time will tell. For me though, it is time to sleep, as I'm rather tired. Do comment, please.
Rêves doux, mes ches lecteurs, I'll be seeing you tomorrow
