Pride and Prejudice and Empiricism and Locke

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride and Prejudice is related to empiricism. But how? Let's apply the rules of a rational process and analise the topic, only accepting as true what we can perceive in a clear and distinct way.

Time to do some philosophy. All you have to know is that you don't know anything.

You asked for bad and overused philosophy jokes? You get them :)

Since we haven't had the honour to introduce ourselves into Hume's or Hobbes' conception yet, I'm going to refer only to Locke's empiricism.

First of all, what exactly does empiricism imply? If you're an empiricist, in terms of epistemology, you accept that any knowledge that you obtain has previously passed through your senses. The logical consequence of this is the opposite of what Descartes' rationalism tries to sell us: any knowledge that we achieve exclusively by implementing rational arguments is not to be trusted if we can't prove it "experimentally".
In the book Elizabeth initially dislikes Mr. Darcy, but in the end, after realising that her vision was blurred, she falls in love with him. And this is how we relate Locke's empiricism with Pride and Prejudice. According to Locke, there are 3 main causes of bad reasoning in humans:

• Received hypotheses: Often we just accept what other people tell us without questioning it, sometimes this even happens unconsciously. In other words, we take the validity of others' statements for granted if they don't cause obvious suspicion. This is what happens to Elizabeth when she believes Mr. Wickham's tales about Darcy. Since his stories seem to reaffirm Elizabeth's first impression of Darcy, her prejudice is enforced and she doesn't even consider to doubt Wickham's words before reading Darcy's letter.

• Dominating passions: Pride and Prejudice is all about love and marrying. And I think we all know one thing for sure about love: it makes us blind. When you're madly in love with someone, all those heavy feelings you experience replace what, in normal conditions, would be rational thinking. There was this one sentence that I personally liked a lot, I'm not sure if it appeared in the film, the book or both... Anyway, it was: "We are all fools in love." You may think this is quite obvious, but in my opinion we tend to judge either ourselves or the other too strictly when it comes to love matters. After all, no one ever really knows what is the right thing to do when you feel great affection for someone else. Sometimes we just have to remind ourselves that others are as blind as us when it comes to love (while other people need to bear in mind that they aren't smarter than others).

• Authority: Similar to the first cause, we tend to believe in certain statements easier when claimed by people we respect. We are easily influenced by authorities, which can be teachers, parents, siblings, famous people or even friends and partners. I consider this one the most dangerous of all, because many people don't manage to make the giant step away from all those old opinions they have received by other people and reflect seriously about them, with their own rational arguments. Of course it is important to learn from others, but we must remember that not all authorities are trustworthy and even if they are, they're still humans like you and I and therefore, they make mistakes. The best way to avoid a narrow mind is to compare different opinions from different authorities. This helps us to reconsider things from other points of view. In Pride and Prejudice, their social status grants some people great authority, like for example Lady Catherine. But Elizabeth is clever enough to distrust people despite their authority.

Finally, we can conclude that it's the accumulated experience that lets Elizabeth perceive the truth about Darcy. His letter triggers a certain switch in her mind that makes her think: She starts to remember everything that happened, all the experiences she has lived in relation to Darcy and then she realises that these experiences tell her the truth and not her own prejudices.































































This is it. 2nd term blog posts OVER AND OUT

All good things must come to an end #ChristianoBallondOr

Oh God, what have I done. Thanks to that post title I'm going to sound really arrogant when I say:

This is the last oral presentation self-evaluation! (seriously, say that out loud once)

 

Presentation (10%):

I think I did a good job preparing the Prezi and the bonus video in the end means bonus points... Well, at least I hope you liked the little gimmick, guys.

10 out of 10

Body language & eye contact (10%):

Yep, I do use my body. A lot. Too much. I'm getting a little nervous while watching myself in this presentation... Maybe it's just because I can't stand seeing/hearing myself in recordings... But in my opinion my movements are too hectical.

7 out of 10

Structure (10%):

Well, the structure was quite clear... A small introduction into particle physics so I can explain WHAT neutrinos are, then WHAT makes them so interesting and WHAT are they good for. And curiosities. People love curiosities. Fun facts. Trivia.  
10 out of 10  

Content (40%):

I think the content in itself was solid and I tried my best to explain new and interesting information related to neutrinos without getting too much into complicated and unnecessary details. BUT - and someone remarked that on the evaluation on the 2batspace website, thank you, you were totally right - I didn't mention MY OWN RESEARCH PAPER at all. I did this willingly though. I knew that was the weakness of this presentation, but I prioritised teaching something about the topic in general. Nevertheless, it's still a weakness.

30 out of 40

Language (20%):

So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so.
SO MANY SO'S! SOS! HELP! I CAN'T BEAR IT ANYMORE!
Well, apart from that I guess the language was okay.   
17,5 out of 20

Pronunciation & intonation (10%):

Again, I'm too hectical, speaking too quickly... I thought I got over this. Well, at least I'm warned now. I'd love to do oral presentations without a specific time limit because then I could decide freely by myself about the content. I wouldn't need to cut things out that I consider important for the sake of time and I suspect I would talk more slowly as well.  

7,5 out of 10

Final mark (100%):  10%+7%+30%+17,5%+7,5%=82%   =>  8,2

I must admit, English presentations helped me to get rid of my anxiety of speaking in front of many people. I hated it before Batxillerat. Now I'm quite fine with it.

Exclusive VIP material, don't show it to anyone! Either that one person noticed me as hectical as I do or he/she hates me

And finally, the final script of the final oral presentation of the final round of oral presentations in the final year of English classes in the final year of school which actually coincides with the final year of Batxillerat and now I finally put a final point on this dumb sentence.

Neutrinos

matter = matèria

vacuum = buit (absència de matèria)

Good morning everybody! So today I’m telling you some things hor about neutrinos. Yeah, I also preferred to talk to you about sitcoms and Barney and Sheldon and all these things… So I thought, how to make this presentation at least a little interesting and entertaining for you? I was thinking really hard about it for a long time and in the end I found out that… it’s impossible. So, ladies and gentlemen, make yourself comfortable, please don’t fall asleep (I’m not looking at any specific person), I’m going to start.

Canvi 2

Ok, the first big question. What is a neutrino? Can you eat that? Sounds kind of radioactive.

Canvi 3

Well. You know that we are all made of atoms, right? You know that an atom consists a nucleus where you can find protons and neutrons and spinning constantly around the nucleus there are the electrons.

At least I hope that you know this because that’s what they explained to us in ESO, maybe even before of that, I’m not quite sure.

Ok, so this is the smallest form of matter that exists, you know that, right? RIGHT? Yes. Well, actually you don’t know that, because it isn’t.

Canvi 4

A proton, for example, is made up of 3 quarks. And quarks are elemental particles. So, you can say that a proton is formed by smaller particles, but quarks aren’t. I guess, the reason why we never talk about quarks as single particles is because they always appear in groups of 2 or 3 building bigger particles, like protons.

A neutron is also made of 3 quarks, but it’s another combination of quarks, that’s why a proton and a neutron are different.

Alright, so let me see if you can think logically. A proton is made of… quarks. A neutron is made of… quarks. And the electron is made of… (quarks), Exactly! You’re completely wrong! :PPPP

As strange as it might to you, an electron is, in fact an elemental particle, you can’t divide an electron into even smaller things.

Canvi 5

Please have a look at this. You know this one, this is the periodic table, we use this in chemistry and here you can find all the elements that we’ve discovered so far.

Well, this table here is called the „Standard Model of Particles“ and it’s kind of a periodic table for physicists. This is a collection of every elemental particle that has been detected in experiments up to this day. These 6 here are the group of quarks. Here you can see the electron, as I mentioned earlier, another elemental particle. And these 3 right here, are neutrinos. Yeah, I’m sure that now you feel like 5 million times more intelligent than before, right?

Canvi 6

So, the next big question is. Ok, so that’s a neutrino. What’s so special about them?

It’s very simple in fact. There are maaaaaany of them. For every proton, neutron and electron there are approximately 1.000.000 neutrinos. BUT. They practically don’t interact with matter. Every second about 650 billions of neutrinos coming from the sun are penetrating every square centimetre of your bodies. And you don’t even notice it. You’re ignoring them. Poor neutrinos.

Canvi 7

So, if they don’t do anything. What are they good for? Precisely because they don’t interact with matter they conserve a lot of information from their origins. For example, when a star explodes because it has arrived at the end of its life cycle, we also call this a Supernova, it sends off a huge amount of neutrinos. Detecting these neutrinos can help us to determine the energy of the explosion or almost the exact direction of the star. Another thing that is very interesting about them is, that the neutrinos the come from a Supernova arrive at the Earth before the light of the explosion. In other words, if we detect the neutrinos we’ll be able to tell there’s a Supernova before a telescope could see the light of the explosion. Neutrinos aren’t really faster than light, at least not in a perfect vacuum. The reason why the neutrinos get to the Earth earlier is that the Supernovae occur in very far galaxies, so it’s a ridicously long distance that they travel. The particles of light are theoretically faster, but since there is a lot of matter between the Supernova and the Earth, the particles of light interact with that matter on that way, unlike the neutrinos, the interactions with the matter slow the light particles down and therefore the light arrives here after the neutrinos. But the actual speed of the neutrinos is lower than the speed of light.

Canvi 8

In fact, two years ago there was a big debate about this issue. Some scientists measured neutrinos travelling with a higher speed than the speed of light. In the end it turned out to be an error in the measurements. And that’s rather good in my opinion, because if it had been true they would have crashed absolutely everything about Einstein’s theory of relativity. And that means basically, punch modern physics in the face. It’s like telling you after all these years that 2 and 2 make 5 and not four. Yeah, you would all commit suicide immediately.

Finally, I’m about to finish, ok, I wanted to point out some curiosities. Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory works with the stuff I just exposed to you. So if you hear him talking about neutrinos in some episode, think about me, I told you. For the people who think that particle physics isn’t actually important for our daily life, all of your mobile phones, computer and YOUR iPad were, partially, developed thanks to particle physics. So neutrinos and Candy Crush aren’t that much separated in fact.

And the last thing, do we have time? I wanted to show you a video that has nothing to do with neutrinos but with quantum physics in general. It’s just something I found impressive to see.

Research paper abstract: "Neutrinos"

Particle physics is one of the most advanced fields in modern science. Many products that we use in our daily lives were developed thanks to the discoveries of particle physics, from the microwave in your kitchen to the computers in your school.

But even at the forefront of technological progress and new scientific methodologies there are still many unsolved questions about the Universe. Why is the Universe the way it is? How did its beginning, the Big Bang, occur? 

The neutrinos, a special kind of subatomic particles, are promising candidates to find the answer to these puzzles. Due to their special properties, even within the mysterious world of quantum physics, experiments with neutrinos are getting more and more relevant, in particular nowadays since more sophisticated technologies are available.

My research project consists of an introduction (beginning from the basics) into particle physics, a concrete study of neutrinos underlining their unique traits and the history of neutrino science and a report of three practical tasks: a visit to the Laboratori Subterrani de Canfranc, an oral interview with a scientist working at the South Pole at the project IceCube and a collaboration with the Spanish physicist Federico Sanchez in relation to the T2K experiment located in Japan including calculations using real data from the experiment.

News: "How Sports Illustrated shot Kate Upton in a bikini and zero gravity"

For the last news post, I thought I should do something special. And when I say special... You know me, expect something REALLY special to come ;D

This term I've focused a lot on games in my yoursays and my news posts were all about scientific topics, except the Whatsapp-Facebook dilem fusion. These science news featured different topics, a lot about astronomy and the origin of our Earth and the last one covered a little neuroscience.

Sadly though, some people don't appreciate the advantatges science grants us. The last news item is dedicated to those people, mostly the male fraction. I'm sure you will find two convincing arguments that science is amazing in this post.

I don't know if you usually read the original news articles or only my post ... Or only the news article (I hope not), but this time I liked the writing of the journalist a lot, so it's worth clicking right HERE! (or any other point of this unnecessarily long hyperlink)

I'm really sorry, girls. I think I'm making you suffer a lot this time.


So, a fashion magazine called Sports' Illustrated publishes a special issue on an annual basis: the swimsuit issue. (Hmmm.. I'm sounding as if I were an expert on that stuff... I don't like that. I'm only using information from the news article, really!)
This time they decided to do something special as well (probably there's a crazy German working for them). I don't know about you, but I can't quite imagine that brainstorming session:

Boss: "Alright guys, we need a special feature for this years' swimsuit issue. Any ideas?"
Assumedly crazy German: "Zero G?"
Boss: "BRILLIANT!"

Zero G refers to the sensation of zero gravity, as if you didn't weigh at all. The Zero Gravity Corporation from the United States organises special flights where people can experience the feeling of zero G thanks to the parabolic trajectory of the aircraft:

Usually, one of those flights includes 15 parabolas. 12 simulate weightlessness (0G), 2 make you feel as if you were on the moon (G/6, a sixth of the Earth's gravity) and 1 that lets you prepare for your one-way trip to the Mars (G/3, a third part of Earth's gravity).
Each state of reduced gravity lasts for approximately 30 seconds.

What about wind tunnels now, huh? Not that great anymore, right? (yeah, I haven't tried them out by myself yet...)

If you're considering to go on one of these flights... Bear in mind that around two out of every three participants.. Well. They can greet their breakfast from that morning once again. And that's the reason why these flights are also known as "vomit comets".

Please imagine that situation ocurring in zero gravity. Majestic.

And there's another thing to remember, please have a look at the parabola diagram once again. Note the indication before and after reaching zero gravity: 1.8g.
That means that, after flailing around like an idiot (although a happy idiot, I admit), you are accelerated against the interior walls of the plane with almost two times Earth's gravity. In other words, if you weigh 70 kilograms, you are pushed against the wall in a free fall as if you almost weighed 140 kilograms. So it would be better that either you or the walls were padded. In this case, both the walls and the model were well padded. If you know wha Bah, retoric questions aside, you know perfectly what I mean. There's a comment on the article related to this that I liked a lot:

Kate Upton smashing into the floor of the plane with 2gs...  terrible, had I been there I would have volunteered to stay under her and break her fall

Sorry for appearingly destroying your dreams of zero gravity flights in such a draconian manner. In fact, that's not correct. If a supermodel can smile into a camera while experiencing zero G, you would withstand it as well, I'm sure.





And now with all seriousness, my opinion about the beauty industry, models, etc. actually coincides with the article writer's. BUT. At least more people got to hear about the possibility of zero G flights, a cool product of science. And that's a positive point. Additionally, I do respect the model's capability of posing in front of the camera with these circumstances. I don't even look good in photos with normal gravity.


This time I've got the feeling I can make a good use of the new vocabulary I've learnt:
padded
flail
draconian

News: "Emoticon language is 'shaping the brain'"

:) :( :D :O :P >:D :$ Ö ^^ <(^_^)< <(^-^)> >(^_^)> °-° *.* -.- -____- <3 :| :3 ;X XD xd 

I was just shaping your brain. I'm that badass. 

Want to know how to shape the brain of your friends at the next party? Click here!

A doctor from a school of psychology was receiving emails from his students where they used to include emoticons like the combination of a colon, a hyphen and a right parenthesis ":-)"and that led him to further thoughts: do we recognise emoticons the same way we identify real faces?

According to prior studies in neurosciences, when we perceive a person's face, we distinguish the relative position of the mouth to the nose and the eyes, which activates certain parts of our brain. Once the face is inverted our brain is also stimulated, although in a different manner.

So they decided to conduct an experiment to analyse the brain activities when people observe emoticons. 20 participants were shown real faces, emoticons and then meaningless strings of characters.

The interesting result: Other than it happens with real faces, there are no face-related stimuli when emoticons are stripped of their usual order, that is to say, when they inverted the traditional configuration ":-)" to "(-:" many participants' brains didn't recognise it as a face (even though I'm pretty sure they were aware that it was supposed to be a face by logical reasoning, but it is a fact that their brain didn't receive the same stimulations).

So, what does that mean? Well, since our brains only identify the emoticons directly as faces in the traditional order, we can conclude that emoticons have become a linguistic code on their own which we only read when they're used in the proper configuration. You could compare this to normal words. If I write "glob s'namreG yzarc A" you probably don't get the meaning at the very first sight. Soon you understand that you're supposed to read the line from the right to the left, you convert the code into our linguistic agreement, putting the letters in the correct order (mentally) and then you identify the message. But that's just what applies to our culture, note that Arabian languages are read from right to left. In other words, cultural influences go very deep, they even have their effects on our brains. I even remember myself having read a comment on a website which featured a "D:" and I didn't understand at first sight that it was supposed to be a negative version of the classic ":D".

All in all, I think it's a nice fun-fact, though nothing groundbreaking. Also, the news article did not specify the ages of the participants. Emoticons started appearing in the 1980's and have become especially famous thanks to the Internet. So I think it's reasonable to consider separating that experiment into different age groups. The effects that emoticons have on people of my generation who have grown up with the Internet might be different than the ones on those who have experienced the revolution of the Internet from the very beginning or the ones who lived this revolution at an advanced age.

Finally, I'd like to spread a message of optimism: Be happy, guys. There's always a reason to be happy. :)

Oh, the vocabulary... Damn, that was such a nice conclusion -.-

stripped of

hyphen

PS: This was post number 100! Wow, that's a lot... A shame that I won't be able to make the over 9000 joke...

Olds: "200,000 people apply to live on Mars"

This news item is so two thousand and late. Well, actually it's from December last year. When I was reading the previous article on that crystal, this one showed up and I remembered how stunned I had felt last year hearing about these crazy people.

Wanna go golfing on Mars?

A Dutch company will organise a trip for 4 people to planet Mars. A one-way trip. 

The technology for a return flight doesn't exist -- there's no Kennedy Space Center launch pad over there! -- and having a one-way trip greatly reduces costs, the company has said.

It greatly reduces costs, there you have it. 

A previous unmanned Mars mission is slated for 2018. This way, the company in charge wants to demonstrate the possibility of living on Mars. One of the experiments they will conduct to assure that condition will be, for example, the synthesis of liquid water on Mars, obviously an indispensable requirement for humans to survive. If everything goes right with the experiments and they manage to fund the project, 2025 is a ballpark estimation for the date of the actual trip. The way they plan to resolve the financial aspect is quite interesting, though. They will hold some kind of Big Brother show, a live stream from Mars, so we can know if Britney did weird things with an alien during night and that kind of stuff. The objective is to send more new people to the lander every two years. That is a good idea, I think, because hanging around the rest of your life with the same 3 people you didn't choose initially as your friends, no, you're rather forced to live by their side. AND THAT ON MARS. On the other side... If you're volunteering for going to Mars for the rest of your life... I guess there must be a very few things that you actually fear o can't adapt to.

And that's the point that I wanted to reach... Who are those 200,000 people that want to go to Mars for the rest of their life? I saw a report on TV when the news was still, well, "new" and I can tell you: all kinds of people. Some of them are quite young and they're just looking for a literally pioneering adventure, others are older ones or people suffering from certain diseases that reduce their life expectancy and they simply want to make something special of the last years they still have. And honestly - whatever your reasons you have to be like REALLY crazy to subscribe on that mission - I do respect those people. A lot. Because I would never be able to leave my life on Earth behind... forever. 

In addition to that, I think this mission provides a huge leeway for learning more about Mars. The rest of your life is probably enough time to do a lot of stuff up there. If they really end up mounting the journey, which I hope, I will be one of the enthusiastic followers of the stream and the data we'll receive from there.

So... As you can see, I seem to be a lot into spacy things lately. Spacy as in space, not as in Kevin Spacey... Ugh, I mean, he's a good actor and everything but... ugh.

Back to the topic... I'm beginning to consider seriously if I would like to travel out to space one day... That would be one major goal to achieve... And definitely not an easy one.

But don't worry, I know you'd miss me, so I wouldn't go one-way ;3

I was looking for pictures related to "Mars"... That's the best I could find

And, eventually, the highlight of every news post, the reason you're reading my blog, what am I saying, THE REASON WHY'RE YOU'RE ALIVE: the vocabulary.

ballpark

to be slated for

leeway

News: "4.4 billion-year-old crystal is oldest piece of Earth"

I always say that I won't complain about my age once I get older. Basically because I'm annoyed by people that, at their late or even mid-twenties, keep saying that they're already old... If it makes you feel better, you haven't even lived a billionth of the time that the Earth already exists. I'm sure that fact is a great help. Sure.

Click here to buy your own 4.4 billion-year-old crystal!

The Earth is believed to be about 4.5 billion years old, or more accurately, at least 4.5 billion years old. So that crystal is quite close, huh? How do scientists know about the minimum age of our planet, though? It's as simple as that: they discovered rocks that could be proven to be at least that old. And once again: how do they tease out that kind of information?

The standard process geologists apply is analising the amount of specific uranium isotopes. You probably know uranium because of their use in nuclear reactors in power plants. An isotope is nothing but one possible "type" of a specific element, in that case uranium. An element is defined by the number of protons its atoms contain, but the number of neutrons is variable. Depending on the number of neutrons we talk about different isotopes, for example U-235 or U-238, "U" being the symbol of uranium. Some isotopes are unstable and decay. That is what we know by radioactivity. And now there comes the clue: every isotope has a characteristic life span, scientists refer to this with the concept of "half life". The function that describes the amount of decayed isotopes over time isn't linear but has a curvy form. The half life of a certain isotope is defined as the time it takes for exactly 50% of the quantity of that isotope in question to decay. In other words, let's say the half life of U-235 was a year. If you have 10 grams of U-235, in one year, there would be only 5 grams left, which means a loss of 5 grams. Once another year will have passed, the leftovers would weigh 2.5 grams, a loss of 2.5 grams. Three years from now you'd have 1.25 grams and so on. As you can see, the amount of U-235 you lose isn't a constant number. It's always the half of your previous weight of isotopes, thus not linear. By doing several calculations, we can determine the age of a rock by analysing the amount of an isotope it still contains, implying its half life.

The technique that allowed them to find out the age of this particular crystal, an atom-probe tomograhpy, was a little more complex since it also considers the possible migration of the studied element, in that case lead instead of uranium. Nonetheless, the basic idea is the same. Curious enough is the fact that the biggest dimension between the crystal pieces they discovered was only 400 micrometers in length, which equals 0.4 millimeters. That is just a tad larger than a house dust mite or more a less 4 human hairs.

Finally, I think it's quite interesting to point out that most rocks that were studied in processes like the one I explained earlier aren't even from Earth, which is why the title reads "oldest piece of Earth" (the crystal the article talks about was actually a part of the Earth). According to this website, the "best" prove we have of the minimum age of the Earth was deduced by measuring the lead ratio in iron meteorites. Also, moon rocks have been a great help, too. By the way, did you know that the moon was in fact a part of the Earth? One day, more or less at the very "earliest time" we know for sure the Earth already existed (the 4.5 billion years I mentioned at the beginning of this post), a meteorite with a similar size like Mars crashed into the Earth. The impact projected huge pieces of the Earth a long distance away from the planet's center. Gravitional force was responsible for those pieces to concentrate, until finally shaping the moon as we know it today. I wonder if all moons of every planet in our solar system have been "born" like this. I should do some research.

Talking about "the elder ones"

Don't expect me to write a funny sentence to introduce you the new words. I said I'm busy doing research!

tad
tease out
mite

News: "Facebook to buy messaging app WhatsApp for $19bn"

I must admit that there were actually no new words for me in this piece of news and yeah, I agree that it would be ridiculous to pretend there were some by putting basic vocabulary on here...

Having said that, please, proceed quickly. Facebook might buy my blog before you finish reading this post. And if Facebook buys it, it can only get worse. #antihipstermainstreampositioning #instairony

Click here to "Like" this post

Well, I guess everyone has already heard about that. Facebook bought Whatsapp for... peanuts, just some 19 billion US dollars... That was probably Mark Zuckerberg's toilet paper.

One of the WhatsApp co-founders will work together with Facebook and apperently they are quite excited about their upcoming cooperation.

I don't know. Personally, I've never been a big fan of Facebook. Actually, I'm not really into social media at all. Don't get me wrong, I think the technological advances in the field of communication are amazing and the possibilities they grant us are extremely valuable and deserve respect. But. People overdo things. People get too excited about things. People put more life into social media than into their lives. And what's worst: social pressure urges you to do the same. 

For example, I've noticed that, sometimes, I'm not in the mood to talk to people on WhatsApp but even though I answer. The thing is, once I connect into the app, I have to answer all the messages because if not, people begin to have existential crisis: they think I ignore them, that I don't recognise them as people anymore or whatever. And you know what? When somebody has gone online without responding me, I REACT EXACTLY THE SAME. And it scares me because I perfectly know it's absurd. But I just can't help feeling that way. It's creepy. I don't like it.

Then Facebook... I mean, it's basic function is to inform and get informed about anything people you're supposed to know do, right? Well, I don't care for 99,999999999% of the rubbish these people post on Facebook. Of course I do have an interest to hear about my close friends' experiencies and how they feel about it and blablabla. But do I need/want to hear that stuff from EVERYONE IN MY SCHOOL? Definitely not. Then some smartasses come along and say that they don't care for those people either. And then you have a look at their profiles and see that they've got 1046 friends. By the mercy of God, what is the point of it? You invest time in something you're not even really interested in.

WhatsApp at least is quite functional since it allows you to talk easily to people and that's all. No additional decoration or futile extras. Although I believe that many users rely too much on WhatsApp without realising. To them, WhatsApp is the first way of communication BEFORE face-to-face talking...

And now Facebook comes around the corner and, after doing the same with Instagram, they go and buy WhatsApp. Because why not. I don't really see how a collaboration between Facebook and WhatsApp can give birth to any good new features. The worst case scenario would be a link between your FB and your WA account. Because if that happened, WhatsApp would be dead as we know it currently and as I relatively appreciate it right now.

Did you know Facebook also wanted to buy Snapchat?

At least HE should be happy, I guess...

News: "NASA discovers 715 new planets"

They didn't just kill two birds with one stone, no no no... They freaking discovered 715 new planets with one single space observatory! These NASA guys, never disappointing ;)

Click here and you might discover planet number 716. Or the original article. Yeah, that sounds likely.

In 2009, NASA launched the Kepler space observatory with the specific objective to find planets similar to the Earth, that is to say, planets that are located in a habitable zone. In this context, a habitable zone refers to a planet that is at the right distance from its sun, the central star of its galaxy, so that the temperature conditions on the planet enable the existence of liquid water, the basic substance for life, as we know it on Earth, to subsist.

Until recently, we had accumulated data about approximately 1000 planets altogether. This Wednesday NASA announced the discovery of seven hundred fifteen new planets. At once. Quite a lucky day I guess, hitting the jackpot, finding the intergalactical mother lode.

4 of the planets among that long list are possible candidates for hosting life. All of them have a similar size, more or less twice the Earth's size. This is no coincidence, though. NASA tried a new way of planet researching using the technique of verification by multiplicity which, as we know now, opened the bottleneck. Basically that means two things. First, they took advantage of the laws of probability by focusing on stars that are likely to have a higher number of planets travelling around them in their respective orbits. So, more planets equals a better chance of finding a planet of interest. Second, once they found a planet that verified the desired conditions, they used the data to reveal other planets that are alike. Initially the technique is biased on planets close to the star in the center of the galaxy in question, afterwards it "opens its mind" to other planets orbiting with bigger radii (well, to be accurate, the orbits are elliptic and not perfect circles and thus, technically, I shouldn't use the word "radius"... But anyway, you know what I mean).

I must say that I do believe that life exists at another place in the universe besides from the Earth. The universe is just too big and I think it's absurd that intelligent life, able to comprehend the nature that originated it, has only formed at one exclusive place. Just imagine a III World War takes place and the human race extinguishes itself. Then what? It's like that example of the tree that falls in a solitary forest. If there's no one in the wood, does the tree make noise falling? No, because there's no one hearing it. The only thing the tree does is causing vibrations in the air that originate what we call soundwaves, merely a physical process. So if the universe keeps expanding, physical processes keep ocurring but there's no intelligent life to reflect about it anymore... Then what's the point? Wouldn't it be completely senseless?

Oh and I think I'm starting to fancy a trip to the moon. Or another celestial body if science will have progressed enough until I'm ready to do it, which I highly doubt. I don't know, just imagine being out there, in the space... Looking at your home planet from such a long distance. I'm sure it completely changes your conception of life. One day guys, either I become an astronaut or insolently rich, it's really that easy.

g/6

Aliens taught me 3 new words. Quick, have a look at the definition (now the English definition and not just the egoistic German traduction!!!) before the Men in Black come and erase my memory!

bottleneck

lode

biased

Is this the real life...?

Song time! I worked too much for the last post. I need to regain that time...

So this term's song is a classic one and, in my opinion, a masterpiece. It's like a whole musical summed up in one bombastic song. It's Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen:

Is this the real life? / Ist dies das reale Leben?

Is this just fantasy? / Ist dies nur Fantasie?

Caught in a landslide / Gefangen in einem Erdrutsch

No escape from reality / Kein Entkommen vor der Realität

Open your eyes / Öffne deine Augen

Look up to the skies and see / Schau in die Himmel und sieh

I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy / Ich bin nur ein armer Junge, ich brauche kein Mitgefühl

Because I'm easy come, easy go / Denn wie gewonnen, so zerronnen

Little high, little low / Ein wenig hoch, ein wenig tief

Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me, to me / Wie auch immer, der Wind weht; es kümmert mich nicht, mich nicht

Mama... just killed a man / Mama... hat gerade einen Mann getötet

Put a gun against his head / Hielt eine Pistole an seinen Kopf

Pulled my trigger, now he's dead / Betätigte meinen Abzug, nun ist er tot

Mama... life had just begun / Mama... das Leben hatte erst begonnen

But now I've gone and thrown it all away / Aber nun bin ich gegangen und habe alles weggeworfen

Mama... oooooooh / Mama... oooooooh

Didn't mean to make you cry / Wollte dich nicht zum Weinen bringen

If I'm not back again this time tomorrow /Falls ich morgen nicht zu dieser Zeit zurück bin

Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters / Mach weiter, mach weiter als ob nichts wirklich wichtig wär

Too late, my time has come / Zu spät, meine Zeit ist gekommen

Sends shivers down my spine / Es läuft mir kalt den Rücken runter

Body's aching all the time / Der Körper schmerzt die ganze Zeit

Goodbye everybody, I've got to go / Auf Wiedersehen ihr alle, ich muss gehen

Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth / Muss euch alle hinter mich lassen und mich der Wahrheit stellen

Mama... oooooooh (anyway the wind blows) / Mama... oooooooh (wie auch immer, der Wind weht)

I don't wanna die / Ich will nicht sterben

I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all / Ich wünsche mir manchmal ich wär gar nicht erst geboren worden

I see a little silhouetto of a man / Ich sehe eine kleine "Silhouetto" eines Mannes

Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango? / Scaramouche, Scaramouche, wirst du den Fandango machen?

Thunderbolt and lightning / Donnerkeil und Blitz

Very, very frightening me / Erschrecken mich sehr doll

(Galileo) Galileo / (Galileo) Galileo

(Galileo) Galileo / (Galileo) Galileo

Galileo Figaro / Galileo Figaro

Magnificooo / Magnificooo

I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me / Ich bin nur ein armer Junger, niemand liebt mich

He's just a poor boy from a poor family / Er ist nur einer armer Junger aus einer armen Familie

Spare him his life from this monstrosity / Verschont ihm sein Leben von dieser Monstrosität

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go? / Wie gewonnen, so zerronnen, werdet ihr mich gehen lassen?

Bismillah! No, we will not let you go. (Let him go!) / Bismillah! Nein, wir werden dich nicht gehen lassen. (Lasst ihn gehen!)

Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let him go!) / Bismillah! Wir werden dich nicht gehen lassen. (Lasst ihn gehen!)

Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let me go!) / Bismillah! Wir werden dich nicht gehen lassen. (Lasst mich gehen!)

Will not let you go. (Let me go!) / Werden dich nicht gehen lassen. (Lasst mich gehen!)

Never, never let you go / Dich nie nie gehen lassen

Never let me go, oh  / Mich nie gehen lassen, oh

No, no, no, no, no, no, no / Nein, nein, nein, nein, nein, nein, nein

Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia (Mamma mia, let me go) / Oh mamma mia, mamma mia (Mamma mia, lasst mich gehen)

Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me / Beelzebub hat einen Teufel für mich aufgehoben, für mich, für mich

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? / Ihr denkt also ihr könnt mich steinigen und in mein Auge spucken?

So you think you can love me and leave me to die? / Ihr denkt also ihr könnt mich lieben und mich sterben lassen?

Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby / Oh, baby, könnt mir dies nicht antun, baby

Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here. / Muss nur raus, muss nur von hier raus

(Oh, yeah, oh, yeah) / (Oh, yeah, oh, yeah)

Nothing really matters / Nichts ist wirklich wichtig

Anyone can see / Jeder kann es sehen

Nothing really matters / Nichts ist wirklich wichtig

Nothing really matters to me / Nichts ist wirklich wichtig für mich

Anyway the wind blows / Wie auch immer, der Wind weht

  

Of course you might interpret the lyrics in a different way... Everybody has to find the meaning that fits most for them. This is another... quite distinct example:

Deep stuff, man...

And this was the last yoursay post also known as "posts-where-I-don't-need-to-find-a-fitting-piece-of-news-as-an-excuse-to-write-about-what-I-wanted-to-write-about-anyway". I hope you enjoyed the... let's call it "special content" this time and look forward to very, very exciting news and tasks... Uuuuooooh!

Catherine

If anyone decides to read my blog, as a consequence of a divine chain of causality or something, for first time this term... I'm afraid it will also be the last time. Maybe they won't even talk to me again. Or dare to look me in the eyes. My topics are a little psycho this time. 

Tonight's post is going to be quite an exception. It's something very unusual for my blog. You would never expect me to write about that. Naaah, it's not a book. It's a game...

A GAME I HAVEN'T PLAYED BY MYSELF!!!!!!!11111oneoneeleven :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Must... resist... posting... more... Koala... pics...

ARRRRGHICANTITSTOOADORABLE!!!!!!!!!! Lol, wait... ARRRRGHICANTITSTOOADORABLE!!!!!!!!!! hihihihihihihihihihihihihihihi, my mind is at the level of an 8-years-old........ :S

I simply love koalas. You remember that "An animal in me" post we did a loooooong time ago? To be accurate, it was the very first post I did on this blog, almost 3 years ago. The crazy German has evolved a lot in that time. He's not that German anymore. Probably even crazier though. But one thing hasn't changed: He loves koalas. And now he speaks of himself in third person, whatever be the reason.

Well, before I get too nostalgic, let me talk about the game, which was the initial idea...

Alright, so as I told you, I haven't played this game by myself. I've been following the walktrough videos by a famous Spanish youtuber called "ElRubius", I'll get onto that Youtube thing in another post... What's important now is the game itself. It's called "Catherine" and it's a puzzle-platformer adventure game putting emphasis on its story. Actually, the story makes the game. Maybe you've already noticed, after reading millions, no BILLIONS of my posts, that I'm especially interested in games with gripping stories. To be honest, this is the one and only reason that I still haven't given up the hope that, one day, I might become an enthusiastic reader.

The game focuses on Vincent, a young man, probably in his mid-twenties, who has been in a relationship with Katherine (yes, spelled with a "K"; you'll get the importance of this in a minute) for 5 years. She starts pressuring him that they should seriously consider to marry. Vincent isn't overly excited about the idea and that night he gets drunk, like really drunk, like REALLY drunk, like me on carnival, and after hanging around with his buddies in a bar, he stays there for a while his friends are already gone. And then, Catherine (spelled with "C", in other words: another woman) enters the bar. Catherine is a really attractive woman, like really attractive, like REALLY attractive, like me on carniv... wait, that's wrong. Anyway, she's hot, okay? 

And as if Vincent's situation wasn't already tricky enough, Catherine decides to sit right next to Vincent. With all the other seats being empty. The "salseo" is bound to occur.

This is Catherine... If someone's still in need of a suggestion for this year's carnival disguise, I'm your man. Oh, with "someone", I mean a girl. No, not you, Mr. Diez (I wish he would read this)

If you put one and one together it's pretty obvious what ends up happening: Vincent and Catherine spend the night together. Playing ludo (parchís), you know?

What's worst: Poor Vincent was so drunk, he didn't really realise what was occuring. Therefore, he wakes up next morning and is... quite surprised that this Ferrari of a woman is lying next to him.

And then things become strange as hell.

After those events, Vincent has nightmares every night. In his nightmares, he... well, see for yourself:

I think every young man on this planet can identify with Vincent... #TODOSCONVINCENT

He finds himself forced to climb up mountains of blocks (which is the actual gameplay part), escaping from several monster that represent his inner anxieties (for example, one of them is his girlfriend Katherine in a bridal dress) always being his objective to reach the top and gain access to an enigmatic tower. There he meets other men who have been completely transformed into sheep. Seemingly Vincent is not the only one suffering from those special nightmares. And then there are those news on TV about men dying from mysterious conditions...

Well, basically the game is about Vincent's inner conflict about what he should do, about he wants to do and all the "salseo" involved. If I caught your attention with this little introduction to the story, give it a chance and look for it on Youtube! It'll be worth it, I swear! As for the ladies reading this post... I'm sure experiencing the story from Vincent's point of view will give you a nice insight into the psychology of a man ;)

I already hear some female voices saying "What? Men have a psychology on their own? I thought they were only interested in sex."

One of my favourite features in games in general are different possible endings. Every time Vincent reaches the top of the block mountain he has to go to some kind of confessional box and there, a strange female voice, appearingly coming from nowhere, speaks to him. Of course Vincent has to answer a question. A moral question. Based on the answer the player gives, Vincent's "karma level" increases or decreases. And depending on his karma level, the story will continue one way or the other. I love these little mind games! This game has it all: an interesting story, beautiful anime-like cutscenes, an extremely realistic and likeable protagonist, a hot girl, the player's interaction taking influence on the events... I love it!

To conclude this post, I thought it would be funny to post some of the possible questions that the players have to answer throughout the game. I invite you to take a minute and think about your own responses. Some of the questions are rather difficult to answer and sometimes you will prefer to say "it depends on...", but try to decide on one single answer. I'll also include my own answers in the spoiler tag, so if you click on the "Show/Hide" button you can read my responses. Try to guess my own answers before reading them! If you have time, I'd like you to post your responses in the comments and tell me about your thoughts regarding this post in general and my answers. THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I ACTUALLY ASK FOR COMMENTS SO PLEEEEAAASE T_T

Naaah, I'm not forcing you, don't worry.

Here are the questions:

• 1. Does life begin or end at marriage?  
• A: It begins 
• B: It ends.
• 2. Do you prefer to stand out from the crowd or fit in?  
• A: Fit in. 
• B: Stand out 
• 3. Are you a pervert?  
• A: I don't think so.
• B: No use denying it.
• 4. Who would be responsible if you cheated? 
• A: It'd be my fault.
• B: The person I cheat with.
• 5. Could you ever be paid enough to go nude in public?  
• A: Never!
• B: How much are we talking about?
• 6. What's your take on praying mantis mating habits? (in case you don't know... a praying mantis is an insect species; the female ones devour their partner after the sexual act)
• A: It makes me nauseous.
• B: Whatever.
• 7. Do you like children? 
• A: Love 'em
• B: Ugh!
• 8. If you get a call from someone you hate, do you...  
• A: Answer it.
• B: Straight to voicemail.
• 9. Your lover is cheating on you. Do you...?
• A: Break up with them.
• B: Make them end it.
• 10. What do you do if you doubt your lover?  
• A: Reaffirm my trust.
• B: Talk to them.
• 11. What would you do if your significant other fell in love with someone else? 
• A: I'd let her go.
• B: Cling to what's mine!
• 12. Is it acceptable to marry for money or power?  
• A: Yes.
• B: No.
• 13. Would you date someone who was already married? 
• A: All's fair in love and war.
• B: I don't cheat.
• 14. If you got reincarnated, would you want to be human?  
• A: I love being human!
• B: It doesn't matter.
• 15. Are you prepared to risk your life to get back together with a former lover?
• A: Of course!
• B: Maybe not everything...
• 16. Do you wish for a peaceful life? 
• A: Yes.
• B: No.
• 17. Do you wish for the excitement of chaos?
• A: Yes.
• B: No.
• 18. Do you have any lingering longing for excitement and chaos?
• A: Yes.
• B: No. 

  My answers:

1. A
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. B
6. A
7. A
8. B
9. A
10. B
11. A
12. A
13. B
14. A
15. B
16. A
17. A
18. A