Mapa literario de Londres

Nacimiento de la novela policíaca

Nacimiento de la novela policíaca

Muy, muy interesante. Léelo aquí.

La Tierra dentro de 100 millones de años

La Tierra dentro de 100 millones de años

El hombre que no saludó a Hitler

El hombre que no saludó a Hitler

The man who didnt salute Hitler. 1936. The story of August Landmasser is amazing as it is tragic. Landmasser fell in love with a Jewish woman who, before they could marry, was sent to a concentration camp. Before he would be sent to a labor camp, this picture captured Landmasser refusing to partake in the Nazi salute during a public rally in 1936. He died in a Nazi death camp.

Amazing art

Amazing Art

Art is so amazing... The man's fingers slightly indent the flesh of a woman. This looks like a picture of real people, but it is a 400 year old marble sculpture by Bernini: Pluto and Proserpina (1621-22) Image credit: www.flickr.com/...

¡Qué curioso!

¡Qué curioso!

1. Si divides el número de abejas hembras por el de machos de cualquier panal del mundo siempre obtendrás el mismo número, PI. 3,14159265...

2. Si metes una Coca Light en un recipiente con agua, flota.Si lo haces con una de Coca-Cola normal, se hunde. (Este experimento tengo que hacerlo).

3. La letra J, es la única letra que no aparece en la tabla periódica.

Curiosidades caligráficas II

Curiosidades caligráficas II

Los componentes esenciales de la escritura en Occidente son las veintiséis letras del alfabeto latino, que fue desarrollado por los fenicios sobre el año 1000 a.C a partir de un alfabeto semítico anterior, y más tarde pulido por los romanos.

[...]

Los científicos han aislado nueve fases de procesamiento distintas en el acto de escribir, desde la idea inicial de hacerlo, la llamada activación de intenciones, pasando por la selección de las letras individuales, su tamaño, inclinación y posición, hasta la explosión de actividad neurofisiológica que requiere la coordinación de los músculos de los brazos, antebrazos y manos.

[...]

La intención de escribir se origina en el  córtex superior, donde se localizan otras actividades mentales como el pensamiento, la resolución de problemas o la toma de decisiones. La siguiente fase se llama recuperación semántica, y se parece a la forma en que un código binario extrae información de un disco duro. "Es como un localizador de memoria, un lugar en una parte del cerebro que dice que la q está formada por ciertos trazos particulares. El cerebro, entonces, los ordena en un proceso secuencial, como si estuviese haciendo un lista".

En cuanto comienza el complejo proceso de coordinación de los más de cincuenta músculos, el control pasa de la corteza cerebral al tronco del encéfalo, allí donde ocurren las reacciones que dan lugar a nuestros impulsos y reflejos básicos. Al comenzar a formar los trazos individuales de la letra, nuestra mano se mueve de arriba abajo mientras nuestros músculos se contraen y relajan sinérgicamente. Los científicos describen estas acciones como agonismo y antogonismo muscular.

Todos estos procesos se suceden por debajo del nivel de consciencia, a una velocidad que hace parecer lento al más rápido de los superordenadores. Como una bala que sale de una pistola, las letras y las palabras fluyen desde nuestras manos hasta la página en una perfecta línea continua. Sólo tardamos 150 milisegundos en realizar un trazo, y como media producimos entre cuatro y siete trazos -o, dicho de otro modo, dos letras- por segundo. Al hacerlo, el bolígrafo se mueve sobre el papel a una velocidad de doscientos milímetros por segundo. Cuando nos damos cuenta de que hemos cometido un error, por lo general nos encontramos tres o cuatro letras más allá en la página.

No es que el bolígrafo o el lápiz se muevan siempre a la misma velocidad, claro. Aceleran o desaceleran según la complejidad de los trazos que requiere cada letra. [...]

"La velocidad del bolígrafo al moverse varía mucho durante el curso de una palabra -explica Ar Tomasen, un catedrático holandés considerado un experto mundial en caligrafía-. La velocidad punta es la velocidad máxima a la que se mueve el bolígrafo. Suele alcanzarse a mitad del trazo, y es muy propia de cada uno de nosotros. De ahí que los sistemas de seguridad suelan concentrarse en ella".

Los ritmos internos de la escritura pueden considerarse algo así como el esqueleto de nuestra letra. "Cada uno de nosotros crea trazos a una velocidad particular, con intervalos de tiempo regulares entre ellos -dice Ted Wright-. Es lo que se conoce como isocronismo. Y son precisamente las desviaciones de estas pautas regulares las que hacen que pueda identificarse fácilmente la letra de cada persona: pese a variar de un individuo a otro, se repiten con gran estabilidad en un mismo sujeto".

Curiosidades caligráficas I

Curiosidades caligráficas I

Mirado a través del microscopio, un segmento de escritura en cursiva -la que la mayoría de nosotros aprendemos en el colegio- se parece a las espirales de pintura de los cuadros de Jackson Pollock o a las pinceladas de la caligrafía china. Cada letra está conectada a las siguiente en una línea continua y rítmica que se enrosca y serpentea a lo largo del papel como si fuese un río. La escritura y el habla son lo que nos hace humanos. Cada vez que dejamos fluir un río de símbolos a lo largo de la página estamos realizando un milagro de la imaginación, la razón y la coordinación.

Escribir requiere la coordinación de unos cincuenta músculos de la mano, la parte superior del brazo y el antebrazo. Estas sinergias musculares son extremadamente complicadas pero con el tiempo acaban volviéndose automáticas. Escribir es lo que se conoce como una actividad sobreaprendida. La imagen de nuestra letra queda almacenada en el cerebro, como un programa de software en el disco duro. Cuando escribimos, esa imagen es emitida hasta nuestra mano. En el camino, miles de instrucciones complejas pasan del cerebro a los nervios y los músculos del brazo y la mano.

Nuestra letra es un marcador de nuestra individualidad. Dos personas pueden haber aprendido a escribir utilizando los mismos métodos y, sin embargo, nunca escribirán igual, aunque sean gemelos. En un estudio promovido por el Laboratorio Postal de Estados Unidos -la misma organización que llevó a cabo la búsqueda de los responsables de las cartas de ántrax que aterrorizaron a América en 2001-, seis peritos calígrafos compararon la escritura de quinientos pares de gemelos y mellizos a lo largo de varios años. Los resultados que obtuvieron los sorprendieron. Pese a la cantidad de similitudes físicas y psicológicas que había entre ellos, las letras de los gemelos mostraban la misma variación que se produce entre dos personas sin relación alguna.

Los grafólogos dicen que pueden conocer el carácter y la psicología de la gente a partir de su letra. La escritura frenética y violencia de Hitler sugiere la ferocidad e inhumanidad que mostraría como líder político. La verticalidad de la caligrafía de Lincoln nos acerca al hombre honesto e incorruptible que era. Podemos perder miembros del cuerpo o sufrir discapacidades, pero la imagen de nuestra letra que tenemos grabada en el cerebro no se nos borrará nunca.

Son muchos los factores que le dan forma: nuestro lugar de nacimiento, nuestro coeficiente de inteligencia y nuestra edad; el sistema de escritura que nos fue enseñado; el instrumento con el que aprendimos a escribir; incluso el tamaño de nuestras muñecas y nuestros dedos. Basta con observar una clase de primaria de un colegio cualquiera: no hay dos niños que se sienten igual o que cojan el lápiz de la misma manera. [...]. La forma en la que suben y bajan los trazos del lápiz, la presión que ponemos en el papel; el espacio que dejamos entre las letras y las palabras; el tamaño y la regularidad; el punto que ponemos en la i y el travesaño de la t... todos y cada uno de nosotros hacemos casi todas estas cosas de forma distinta. A nuestra letra puede afectarle el hecho de que estemos de pie o sentados, que hayamos consumido alcohol o cafeína, que tengamos estrés o que estemos enfermos; incluso que acabemos de hacer el amor. Una de las pocas cosas que no le afecta es el sexo. Del que escribe. Los hombres y las mujeres raramente muestran diferencias discernibles en la letra.

Seguirá...

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Notas tomadas del libro La poeta y el asesino,  de Simon Worrall.

Knocker-uppers

Knocker-uppers

A forgotten profession: In the days before alarm clocks were widely affordable, people like Mary Smith of Brenton Street were employed to rouse sleeping people in the early hours of the morning. They were commonly known as ‘knocker-ups’ or ‘knocker-uppers’. Mrs. Smith was paid sixpence a week to shoot dried peas at market workers’ windows in Limehouse Fields, London. Photograph from Philip Davies’ Lost London: 1870-1945.

Someone's watching you...

Someone's watching you...

¿Me gustas? ¿No me gustas?

¿Me gustas? ¿No me gustas?

Trece milisegundos son los que tardamos en contestar a esas preguntas.

Lo que viene después es un poco más trabajoso.

The source of the River Orinoco

The source of the River Orinoco

[...]

An important step forward was the French and Venezuelan expedition to discover the source of the River

Orinoco. The  Upper Orinoco is one of the largest pieces of unknown conuntry in the world. The river itself is almost as great as the Amazon. but its source had never been seen. The expedition was planned to collect facts about the plants and wild animals and birds of the country as well as to make a mapa of the river. Nearly eighty men took part in the expedition, planned by Joseph Grelier, a French student of geography.

The expedition was planned in the same way as an Arctic expedition. A base camp was made where equipment was collected. The expedition did not need to protect themselves against cold, but they needed protection against heat and rain and disease. The supplies were carried in a large number of flat boats.

The explorers advanced slowly up river. From time to time, they were stopped by rapids and waterfalls in the river. Often they had to empty the boats and carry their supplies along the river banks past the rapids. A path had to be cut through the jungle, while the empty boats were pulled through the river. It was equally hard work for the men who were cutting down trees in the hot jungle and for the men struggling in deep water.

Loading and unloading, pulling and pushing the boats, they struggled

through rain and mud. The further they went the worse the river became. There were only short distances between the rapids. Many men fell ill with malaria in the wet, hot jungle and they had to be sent back to camp.

The expedition passed the Michdena Falls, where every second, through a space eighteen feet wide, forty-five thousand gallons of water fall into a deep crevasse. Beyond the fall they found a great lake. For a day they sailed comfortably across smooth water. But then their troubles started again. The river became narrower. Some of the men were worn out. It was decided that the expedition should divide. A small party would go forward to the source of the river. The rest would have to go bak to base. Poor Grelier, who had spent so many years planning the expedition, had to help the party of sick men back to the camp. So he missed his chance to be first at the source of the Orinoco.

The party in front moved on. It took them a whole day to travel one mile. Their boats were often turned upside down and their valuable collections were lost in the river. Two boats were sunk at one waterfall and other was lost the next day.

The last forty miles of the journey were made on foot throught the jungle. They had to cut a path through jungle so thick that only a snake could get through. In one hour they were only able to move a few yards forward. Most of the time it rained and rained. They could see nothing in front of them. They could not even see the sky.

It was 27th November, 1951, more than four months after they left their base camp, when the first party

reached the source of the Orinoco. It did not look very important. A little stream of water coming out of the hillside made a tiny lake. This was the beginning of one of the great rivers of the world.

The men climbed to the top of the hill. At last they could see over the tops of the trees. In the same hills lies the source of the great Amazon River. Looking south they could even see the Amazon stretching across Brazil.

By the end of their journey only twelve boats remained out of the thirty which had started the expedition. But they had greatly added to our knowledge of South America.

- - - - - - -
From Exploring our world.

Travelling at the Poles

Travelling at the Poles

[...]

Another way to travel at the Poles was discovered many years ago. Ice, thousands of feet thick, floats on the polar seas. Beneath it is water. Could a submarine pass safely trhough this water under the ice? Was there an open way under the ice from one side of the North Pole to the other?

In 1931 a British scientist, Sir Hubert Wilkins, tried to find this way in a submarine which he called Nautilus.

It was named after the famous submarine imagined by Jules Verne in his book Twenty Thousand Leagues under de sea. [...]. Wilkins had imagination too. He fixed specials "skis" on top of his submarine. With these he hoped to travel under the ice in the same way that a fly walks across the ceiling! But the submarine was badly damaged by ice and the expedition failed.

Twenty seven years later science made it possible to try again. In July 1958, an American atomic-powered submarine left Honolulu. This submarine was also called the Nautilus. Of course its atomic-powered engine was far more powerful than Jules Verne had imagined. It also had dozens of instruments which were its "eyes", "ears" and "fingers" for the dangerous journey.

Scientists believed that there was a deep crevasse under the ice through which a submarine could pass. On 1st August Captain Anderson of the Nautilus found the entrance to this crevasse and entered. From that moment his crew depended upon their instruments to find their way. They had instruments to measure the depth of the water. They had strong lights and television with which they could watch the ice above them and around them. Sometimes they nearly ran into icebergs. Sometimes the walls of the crevasse closed dangerously near them. If their atomic power had failed they would have died. The ice above was thousands of feet thick and no submarine could break through. As they reached the North Pole their compasses failed. They were then in danger of being lost under the ice.

On 5th Ausgust the Nautilus successfully finished its journey. It reached the other side of the polar ice and came up into daylight again in the Greenland Ocean. A new way was now known to  go from Europe to America.

Imágenes que se mueven

Imágenes que se mueven

¡Caray con los efectos ópticos!

Women

Women

 Prison Garb 1924. Belva Annan murderess whose trial records became the musical "Chicago"

 Evelyn “Jackie” Bross (left) and Catherine Barscz (right) at the Racine Avenue Police Station, Chicago, June 5, 1943. In 1943 Evelyn “Jackie” Bross, was arrested on her way home from work for violating Chicago’s cross-dressing and public indecency ordinance. Bross, 19yrs at the time, was a machinist at a WWII defense plant. Chicago outlawed cross-dressing as early as 1851

 One of the most successful female pirates in the history of the world. During her active years as a pirate lord in early 19th century, she commanded over the famous Red Flag Fleet that was consisted from over 1800 ships and 80 thousands male and female pirates. Under her rule, Chinese pirates became invincible, resisting attacks from every major naval power of her time.

La pregunta del millón

La pregunta del millón

Volcanos: Cumbre Vieja

Volcanos: Cumbre Vieja

Wave power

This is a picture of Cumbre Vieja, a huge, active volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands. Every few decades it erupts and scientists are worried because the walls of the volcano are getting weaker. Scientists fear that when it erupts, one side of the volcano could collapse and fall into the sea. If this happened, it would be a catastrophe. Why? Because it would cause a tsunami -an enormous wave- the biggest ever recorded in history.

How would it happen?

The volcano is by the sea, and the water next to the volcano is about six kilometres deep. If the volcano collapsed, 500 billion tonnes of rock would fall into the sea. This would create a huge tsunami about 100 metres high.

What would happen next?

The wave would travel away from the Canary Islands in all directions at about 800 km/h. The other

Canary Island would immediately be covered by water. In less than an hour a 90-metre wave would hit north-west Africa. The side of the volcano faces west, across the Atlantic Ocean, which would protect Europe a little. However, a 12-metre tsunami would still reach Lisbon within three hours. After five hours it would reach Britain. The wave could travel a kilometre inland, and devastate towns and villages. London would be flooded. 

How far would it travel?

The wave would have enough energy to travel right across the Atlantic Ocean. Eight hours after the eruption it would hit the east coast of America. It would still  be
about 30 metres high. Boston would be hit first, followed by New York, then the coast down to Miami. The wave would cause a lot of damage in the Caribbean and Brazil too. It would travel for several kilometres inland because the coast is very flat. It would destroy everything and kill thousands of people.

What can we do about it?

Nothing much, it seems. The scientists believe that it is not a question of it. The volcano will collapse at some time in the future, but it could be hundreds or thousands of years from now. Furthermore, if only part of the volcano collapsed into the sea, the tsunami would be much smaller. Scientists want to put better equipment on Cumbre Vieja, so that they can predict the volcano's eruptions in the future and give us an early warning of possible problems.

Del libro de texto Frontrunner 2.

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No sabía yo que teníamos un volcán tan peligroso en tierras españolas, pero el otro día, trabajando con mis alumnos de 2º ESO, nos encontramos con este texto (y fotografías similares). Les ha encantado y a mí me ha parecido tan curioso (al ignorante todo le llama la atención), que he decidido traerlo a Finis.  Otro día volveremos con algo sobre meteoritos, que también ha dado mucho juego en esta unidad dedicada a los disasters.

El experimento más largo del mundo.

El experimento más largo del mundo.

¡Increíble, pero cierto! Un experimento que comenzó a realizarse en 1927 y todavía continúa...

Aquí.

¡¡¡¡Mis ojos!!!!

¡¡¡¡Mis ojos!!!!

¿Alguien puede ayudarme a encontrarlos? Se han caído por ahí después de ver esto:  

Los subtitulos como bien han dicho, al no haber mucho diálogo estan hillendo muy muy rápido.

y no soy capaz de encontrarlos.

Getting in bed with... gadgets

Getting in bed with... gadgets

There’s no question that in recent years, regular smartphone, tablet, and other gadget users have developed a strong bond with their technology. More and more people find themselves riddled with separation anxiety if they leave their phone at home, or even if it’s in a different room. For many gadget users, a popular time to get really plugged in to technology is in the downtime right before bed—in fact, more and more people will say that they can’t sleep without spending time reading a tablet, browsing the web, or watching Netflix. But this particular time for gadget addiction, right before going to sleep, can be more harmful than helpful to good rest. New studies show that not only are most people sleeping with their smartphones in the bed with them, they’re also struggling to sleep well, even if they don’t realize it. Not only does the light from your gadgets suppress sleep-inducing melatonin, there’s a good chance that you’ve been woken up by a call or text message in the middle of the night recently. In fact, many people say that if they happen to awake in the middle of the night, the natural reaction is to reach for their phone. The psychology behind why we feel so addicted to our gadgets is a field that is just now burgeoning, and for the future health of technology users everywhere, it’s probably worth looking into.

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