Rite of passage

I chose Krypteia.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B862S-EHFSO6dlJTemhxbUNvRVU

Related to David Bowie

One day in class he listened to this song: Lazarus, by David Bowie.

Lyrics: Lazarus

Look up here, I’m in heaven

I’ve got scars that can’t be seen

I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen

Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I’m in danger

I’ve got nothing left to lose

I’m so high it makes my brain whirl

Dropped my cell phone down below

Ain’t that just like me

By the time I got to New York

I was living like a king

Then I used up all my money

I was looking for your ass

This way or no way

You know, I’ll be free

Just like that bluebird

Now ain’t that just like me

Oh I’ll be free

Just like that bluebird

Oh I’ll be free

Ain’t that just like me

This is clearly a farewell to the world, or not? Well, after hearing this song, we had to think about why is death taboo in the occidental culture.

Maybe death is a taboo in the western culture because our religions have never defined clearly what is death. It's wellknown that the humankind is afraid of the unknown. It's true that Christianity, the most influential religion here, tells a lot about it, but I think not as clear as other cultures, and what christianism tells about death is basically about the hell, so, what did people feel about death but fear? Almost no people could die without fear after reading and believing Dante Alighieri's Inferno. And what is the easiest reaction in front of a big fear? Ignore it, of course. If it doesn't exists it won't hurt you. And this is what I think about why death is taboo in the western culture.

The two final nominees

The election of the US new president has been a long process, and on the final elections there were 2 nominees: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Now I'm going to summarize both's strong and weak points:

STRENGTHS

Donald Trump (winner):

• He tells what he thinks directly, and that's what the people want.
• He gives advantages to the main part of the population.
• He focus on make the USA grat again (the American people like that).

Hillary Clinton:

• She's good with the words, she knows how to defend her position.
• She could be the first woman president.
• She is able to build political coalitions.

WEAKNESSES

Donald Trump:

• He's racist as well as xenophobic.
• He doesn't know about political issues, he has no political experience.
• He's unpredictable. What can he do when he's angry?

Hillary Clinton:

• She desn't look trustworthy, it's like she just says what people want to hear.
• She hid things on her campaig, she covers some facts, for example the email's handling.
• She has lied more than once, for example about the attacks of Benghazi.

I think that Hillary Clinton is better than Donald Trumps, and here's why.

I don't care he tells what he thinks directly if what he tells is related with extremist, selfish or racial opinions without showing respect to the other people. Then, even if Hillary has weaknesses too, I think that Trump's ones are inexcusable. In my opinion somebody who can judge differently the people just because of the religion, the race or the sex can't be a good president. But we'll see how he figures out, maybe he'll do well.

Passenger Concert

On sunday 6th of November I met my brother and my sister in Barcelona and we went to Passenger's concert. The concert was in Razzmatazz concert hall at 21:00.

After spending the day arround the city we went to the hall, and after waiting for not less than an hour we finally got there. The hall isn't as big as Palau Sant Jordi, it's quite small, but we were 3000 people there, said Mike (Passenger).

The guest singer was Gregory Alan Isakov, andit wasn't a bad performance, but i didn't like him at all.

Then came Passenger (Michael David Rosenberg) and his band. The concert was incredible, not just because of the singer but because of the audience, there was a lot of energy there.

Singing or talking Mike let us know his opinion about a lot of thing without fear, for example about the government, Donald Trump, XFactor, Hollywood, some famous people, the technologies like mobile phones and sociel networks... I liked that, mainly because I think the same about those things. And the hall was small enough to interact with the crowd.

The concert was amazing and great. The band played song from the last album and from the others. covers too, and in some songs  Passenger played and singed alone. In conclusion, the concert was perfect.

Here is one cover that I liked: The Sound of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel)

The worst thing of the experience was the pitiful returning to Figueres by train at 5:30, with the expectative of having 6 amazing hours in class before reaching home.

SpaceX project: Mars

SpaceX is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transporter company founded by Elon Musk with the objective of sending people to Mars, but to reach Mars they work to reduce the price of sending spacecrafts to the space, basically producing reusable rockets. Nowadays the company has reached some objectives and it's working on improvements.

Elon Musk says the objective of create a colony on Mars is because if we don't expand to other planets we'll extinguish (this is an interesting argument and a great matter to study, different mathematics and statisticians got the same conclusions, one says we have just +/- 1000 years).

“The future of humanity is fundamentally going to bifurcate along one of two directions: 

Either we’re going to become a multiplanet species and a spacefaring civilization, 

or we’re going be stuck on one planet until some eventual extinction event,”

Elon Musk

Until the date SpaceX has been succesful enough to create new and daring projects, as well as continue with his main target: take humans to Mars.

Mars:

On 28th September Elon Musk said that the first manned mission to Mars will probably be on 2024. They'll need more money to devolp the necessary rocket, which will cost 10 billion dollars and would take 100 passengers too Mars. Well, 100 passengers each spacecraft, they plan to send some at the same time.
If all goes right, in 40-100 years there would be a milion people living on Mars. That sounds crazy, completely science fiction, but well, we'll see.

Snowden - film review

The film Snowden is a kind of biographic film of Edward Snowden. It starts on 2013, when Snowden made contact with reporters while he was hid to explain to the world his experience. He starts to explain his career, how he reached his different posts and how he decided to publish NSA's secret and illegal information, mainly the control that the NSA had over the US (for example access to the mobile phone's or computer's cameras and microphones). Then, the movie shows how he escaped and took exile in Russia.

The film is based on the book  "The Snowden files. The inside story of the world's most wanted man", writed by Snowden's lawyer in Russia.

I have to say that for me Snowden is a great film. First of all because the main character: I admire what he did and what he fights for. Then, I like the films that make me think, and in this one you have to, because all the film goes by in security centrals and when two characters talk it's hard to know what they're telling with a clear meaning and what they are telling in figurative meaning. I liked it too because on it there are elements that attract me, for example the world of computers, the laws and how to evoid them, and the real and covered facts.

What I don't like at all is that the film just introduces the story of Snowden, without taking risks or expressing directly what Snowden wants.

There's people who says that the film doesn't show nothing new of the story and that it's just like Laura Poitras' work but shown as a film. I haven't seen Poitras' documents, so I can't say nothing about that.

I raccomand the film to everybody who doesn't knows about Snowden, specially to the people that likes the computing world. It's a good film, it worths the two hours that it lasts.

More information about the film.

Pyramids are scanned

For the first time ever, scanning technology’s been used on pyramids and the results are quite surprising. The preliminary results of the Scan Pyramids project indicate an anomaly in the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Khufu that could uncover the secrets of other ancient Egyptian structures.

The project’s a collaboration between the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, Cairo University and the AHIP Institute, and aims to map millennia-old pyramids in Giza as well as discover hidden chambers and secret passageways.

Experts say the discovery paves the way for more groundbreaking research in ancient Egyptian studies.

“I think, this will be the start for new science, new research for all Egyptologists, especially those Egyptologists who’re interested in the ancient Egyptian architects.”

Through infrared thermography and non-invasive cosmic rays, the two-week research found three hot stains on the eastern side of the Khufu pyramid. The heat radiating from the stone indicates an anomaly, although the reason behind the thermal differences remains unknown.

“If you have the same material in a structure, you’re expecting to have the same orientation, more or less, you’re expecting to have the same thermal signature, so the fact that you have an important difference of temperature between just one block and the other right next to it – it has to mean something because it's not normal.”

These irregularities continue to shroud these iconic monuments in mystery, but with the project continuing, it’s hope that more insights into pyramids, and indeed history, will be made.

http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/pyramids-are-scanned-level-3/

Summary:

On the first days of November there was a collaboration between different organizations, with the objective of scan a pyramid with the new technologies. They detected an anomaly in some stones on the Great Pyramid of Khufu. In the east side of the pyramid they found stones that were warmer that the sorrounding ones. Those stones seemed just like the others, but by unknown reasons they were just warmer. This new discovery adds mystery to the already mysterious monuments.

An expert said that this new way to study ancient structures (scans) has a lot of advantages, now they can discover new rooms just scanning.

In my opinion...

It's surprising that after lots of years studying the pyramids of Ghiza we still discovering new things that make us work hard to understand them. I am waiting for the solution of this new question, but it's about the pyramids, so I have to accept that maybe we won't know the answer.

The people who has discovered the different temperature of the stones must be so surprised.

I think that the position of the warmer stones is just a coincidence, it seems that those stones aren't in a special place

Nwe words:

Aim: to point (a firearm, ball, intention, etc.) so that the thing discharged or thrown will hit a target.

Groundbreaking: the act or ceremony of breaking ground for a new construction project.

Stain: a mark caused by foreign matter on a material.

Philippines leaves the USA

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his separation from the USA during his visit in China. He aligned himself with China and Russia, saying that there are three of them against the world and that it is the only way.

The relationship between the Philippines and the USA deteriorated since Duterte’s election this year. The new relationship is a reversal in foreign policy for the country. Unlike the old ally, China has supported Duterte’s hard-line drug war.

http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/philippines-leaves-the-usa-level-3/

Summary:

The president of Philippine has said that he's going to separate his country from the USA and join to China and Russia. He claimed that the only way to go is to be them three united.

Since the election of Duterte as president on Philippine the relationship between the two countries has been in danger. China supports the wawr against drugs, not as USA.

In my opinion...
I don't know a lot of that fact. I've read a bit just to understand the news, and what I've understood is that this change is bad for Philippine, althogh there are some good changes for them, for example the changes on the drug war. The main objective of Rodrigo Duerte is cutting down the delinquency and, in fact, now the crime has reduced by 49% in the contry (well, I am sure that the death penalty has been helpful to him). He has reduced the relationship with USA (his main allied) and now the administration is less controled by foreign countries (but the relationship between China and Philippine is stronger now...).

New words:

Hard-line: uncompromising, unyielding: not allowing compromise, not giving in.
Aligned:to bring into agreement with a particular group, cause, etc.
Reversal: an adverse change of fortune.

Scorpions on Nails. Yes, true scorpions.

Nail art has gone to the extremes before – we have seen rhinestones and furry nails, but Mexico’s adding something which could be considered somewhat dangerous. Customers are paying around $3 to have a scorpion glued to a nail.

Scorpions are highly venomous and if one stings you, it can lead to death, but the team insists that the ones that it is using are not venomous after they die and that the team uses tweezers when handling them.

One manicurist said that this trend is not for everyone. Some people react positively while others think that it is a horrible and tacky trend.

People have accused the team of animal cruelty, but the team explained that they buy the scorpions dead from people who find them in mountain ranges.

 http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/scorpions-on-nails-level-3/

Summary:

Even if so strange things have been seen on the nails of the people for decorate them, in Mexico there's a new trend that has beated all of them. It's about blu small scorpions on the nails. Of course, those scorpions aren't venemous when they're dead.

A stylist says that this trend is just for some people, not for everybody. People has informed against the company who promotes this trend because of the animal cruelty that takes place on the elaboration of his product, but the company has said that they work with scorpions already dead.

In my opinion...

"Ey, what about putting real scorpions on the nails?" Well,  for a necromancer I could find it right, but who wants to have dead animals on his nails? And no one pays to you, you have to pay!

It's normal to see women with strange thing on her nails, but almost the 100% of those strange things are painted. For me this trend is just disgusting and I can't understand how someone thought up on this.

New words: 

Mountain range: a chain of mountains forming a single system.

Rhinestones: an artificial gemstone cut with rock crystal in imitation of a diamond.

Tweezers: a small tool of two pieces of metal joined at one end, used for plucking out hairs, etc.