Movie: Skyfall (2012). w/ Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judy Dench, Naomie Harris. Directed by Sam Mendes. James Bond is trying to capture the bad guys while M is under attack. Best Bond movie so far, as there finally is a bit of a story. Some good special effects as expected. Overall rating 7 out of 10.
Movie (iTunes): Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). w/ Rebecca Hall (Vicky), Scarlett Johansson (Cristina), Javier Bardem (Juan Antonio). Written and directed by Woody Allen. Two girlfriends on vacation in Spain both fall in love with a painter. Then his ex-wife (Penélope Cruz) enters the scene. Typical Woody Allen film. Entertaining. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
Movie (iTunes): Vertraute Fremde (Quartier Lointain, 2010). w/ Pascal Greggory (Thomas Verniaz / Zorn (adulte)), Jonathan Zaccaï (Bruno Verniaz, le père), Alexandra Maria Lara (Anna Verniaz née Zorn, la mère) Directed by Sam Garbarski. Man mysteriously returns to the village of his childhood and finds out why his father ran out on the family. Quiet movie. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
Theater: König Richard der Dritte, Schauspielhaus Bochum. Nov. 2012. Play by William Shakespeare. Directed by Roger Vontobel. Paul Herwig as Richard. History lesson. Lots of screaming. Crude. With 3.5 hours too long. German Review at Nachtkritik.de. Overall rating 4 out of 10. Don't put your parking card in the wrong slot.
Theater: 'Orpheus steigt herab', a play by Tennessee Williams, starting Sep. 29, 2012 at Muenchner Kammerspiele. Directed by Sebastian Nübling. w/ Wiebke Puls as Lady Torrance, Risto Kübar as Val Xavier. Based on Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams. There also is a screen adaptation of the play under the title The Fugitive Kind (1959). Val, an appealing young unconventional man arrives in a narrow-minded, racist southern town. Only Lady, a middle-aged woman with a disgusting elderly dying husband is willing to fight on his side. Watched opening. Carousel on stage. Puls is great in her working-class role, but loses when she turns to glamor. German review on Nachtkrtik.de Overall rating 7 out of 10.
Lamia was a figure in ancient Greek mythology, a daughter of the god Poseidon. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, ancient commentaries on Aristophanes’ Peace say that she originally was a beautiful queen of Libya and loved by Zeus. His wife Hera, in her jealousy, robbed her of her children. Lamia went mad and became a child-eating daemon. She was often represented with a woman's face and a serpent's tail. Athenian mothers used her as a threat to frighten naughty children. In later times, Lamiae were conceived as handsome ghostly women attracting young men in order to enjoy their fresh,
youthful, and pure flesh and blood, similar to vampires today.
John Keats published the narrative poem Lamia in 1819, based on a short anecdote in Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe retells the story in his poem Die Braut von Korinth (1797, in German).
The English Classicist painter Herbert James Draper (1863-1920), who focused mainly on mythological themes from ancient Greece, painted The Lamia in 1909. Lamia, girded in a snake skin and gazing maliciously, holds a small snake on the back of her hand.
On the album 'The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway' released by Genesis in 1974, the song 'The Lamia' describes the encounter of the story's hero Rael with three snakelike figures in a water-filled pool.
Movie (YT): Luther (2003). w/ Joseph Fiennes (Martin Luther), Alfred Molina (John Tetzel), Jonathan Firth (Girolamo Aleander), Claire Cox (Katharina von Bora), Sir Peter Ustinov (Frederick the Wise), Bruno Ganz (Johann von Staupitz), Uwe Ochsenknecht (Pope Leo X). Directed by Eric Till (Fraggle Rock). Luther’s story, simplified, that led to church reformation. Overall rating 6 out of 10.
Movie (YT): The Phantom Planet (1961). Science fiction film. w/ Dean Fredericks (Capt. Frank Chapman), Coleen Gray (Liara), Richard Kiel (The Solarite; Kiel known from James Bond movies). Directed by William Marshall. In search of a lost space ship, pilot Chapman lands on the nearby asteroid Rheton, whose advanced civilization is batteling an enemy (the Solarites). B-movie character. Cannot compare special effects to today's computer-generated imagery (CGI). Story simple. Flash-Gordon-comic-like. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
Zola Budd (b. 1966) is a field an track runner from South Africa, intermediately competing for Great Britain, as South Africa was excluded from international athletics competition because of its apartheid policy. During the 3000m-final at the Olympics 1984 in Los Angeles, CA, USA, Budd's rival Mary Decker stumbled and fell after collinding with Budd. A jury of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) found that Budd was not responsible for the collision.
Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than two. The equation is an expansion of the Pythagorean theorem where n = 2 and certain solutions can be found (e.g. a = 3, b = 4, c = 5). In 1637, Pierre de Fermat conjectured that this equation was not true for any positive integer greater than two. In 1995, British mathematician Andrew Wiles presented a final proof for the theorem. His story has been described by the BBC (video below) and is also discussed among experts in BBC radio show In Our Time.
"[...] learning and inventing are kin; both are processes of seeking out the surprise of something new. Certainty is learning's enemy, for it already knows and it cannot be surprised." Look at water as a metaphor: "If we want water, we head for the valley, not the high ground. Water flows to the humblest point, so that's where we'll find it. Once we really identify our ignorance, knowledge will flow in to make it go away." (Engines of Our Ingenuity No. 2011).
Focus stacking is a technique for processing digital images with small depth of field, as obtained e.g. in microscopy or macro photography. Multiple images with different focus points are combined into one image. Instructions at Fotofacts.
"[...] around the world, the t-shirt has become the body’s billboard". Richard Armstrong, Engines of our Ingenuity No. 2836: Bumping into Signs.
Educational animated short clips by Jeremiah Warren, Dallas, TX, on Youtube: Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, History of the Calendar, Naming of Hurricanes, and Steve Jobs. Creative and informative.
DVD: Moonrise Kingdom (2012). w/ Bruce Willis (Captain Sharp), Edward Norton (Scout Master Ward), Bill Murray (Walt Bishop), Frances McDormand (Laura Bishop), Tilda Swinton (Social Services), Jared Gilman (Sam), Kara Hayward (Suzy). Directed by Wes Anderson. Writers: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola. Teenage boy and girl on a New England island fall in love and run away, stirring up the towns as they conduct a major search. Ensemble cast movie (i.e. no main actors). Odd style. Nerdy. Funny moments, but lacks real highlights. Overall rating 5 out of 10.
Movie (YT): Mission to Mars (2000). Directed by Brian De Palma (Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables); w/ Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O'Connell. When a first manned mission to Mars fails, a rescue team is sent to find out what happened. Does not deliver. Some good special effects for its time (e.g. solar system animation scene; descent to the Marsian surface), but story simple and too sappy. Lacks humor. Plenty of factual errors. Overall rating 6 out of 10.
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| Ulam spiral. Image source: Wikipedia. |
Fun physics lecture given by Walter Lewin, MIT, on May 16, 2011. Watch the dashed lines extending on chalkboard. For more of Lewin's lines, check out the Best Lines video.
Summarized from Patentlens.com:
At this point, the United States identifies granted (issued) patents with a seven-digit number followed by a B1 (patent not previously published) or a B2 (patent previously published), e.g., US 6,174,724 B1, The 'B1' and 'B2' are referred to as 'kind codes'.
Published U.S. Patent Applications are indicated with the year as a four-digit number and a publication number followed by an A1 (for the first publication), A2 (for republication) or A9 (corrected publication), e.g. US 2001/0002490 A1. This number is also referred to as the publication number on the USPTO PAIR (Patent Application Information Retrieval) web site.
In addition, there is also an application number In the U.S. that is different than the publication number. This number is used to identify the case while it is pending with the USPTO. Application numbers consist of a two-digit 'series' number (usually 09, 10, or 11) that is separated from a six-digit number by a slash, e.g. 10/676,431.
Issued Patents in Europe are indicated with a seven-digit number followed by a B1, e.g. EP 0 458 846 B1. A 'B2' number indicates that the claims have been modified after grant.
Published European Patent Applications use the same numbering system but the number is followed by A1, A2, etc., e.g. EP 0 955 371 A1.
"Stacking" image sequences provided by NASA from the crew at International Space Station (ISS) yields startrails that Christoph Malin compiled and posted on Vimeo. A copy can be found on YouTube.
Comet 96P/Machholz has a highly eccentric 5.2-year orbit and the smallest perihelion distance (closer than the orbit of Mercury) known among numbered/regular short-period comets. Heat resistant. Depleted of carbon and cyanogen, therefore assumed to be of extrasolar origin. Report in Sternzeit.
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