Is this the face of Jesus Christ?

A team of computer artists digitally fleshed out Jesus's face based on the Shroud of Turin. This is the result. It's nice to have an accurate reconstruction of the Man. I think he looks like my friend Fernando.

Link to story on Good Morning America

SolarBeat

Pythagoras imagined the planets making music as they traveled across the heavens. I wonder if this is what he had in mind.

Yo no quiero ir a donde esos hombres vayan

Hatuey fue condenado a la hoguera, castigo reservado a los más viles criminales. Pero cuando estaba a punto de ser quemado, al ser preguntado si quería convertirse en cristiano para subir al cielo preguntó: "¿y esos hombres blancos también van al cielo?" y al recibir una afirmación dijo "entonces yo no quiero ir a donde esos hombres vayan".

-de la Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias. Fray Bartolomé de las Casas

Me cae bien Hatuey, el cacique que fue expulsado de su isla (ahora la República Dominicana y Haití) y que les avisó lo siguiente a los habitantes indígenas de Cuba:

Este es el Dios de los españoles adoran. Por estos pelean y matan; por estos es que nos persiguen y es por ello que tenemos que tirarlos al mar... Nos dicen, estos tiranos, que adoran a un Dios de paz e igualdad, pero usurpan nuestras tierras y nos hacen sus esclavos. Ellos nos hablan de un alma inmortal y de sus recompensas y castigos eternos, pero roban nuestras pertenencias, seducen a nuestras mujeres, violan a nuestras hijas. Incapaces de igualarnos en valor, estos cobardes se cubren con hierro que nuestras armas no pueden romper.

Where is my mind - Pixies (interpretado por Maxence Cyrin)

via The Cookie Jar

Second Bill of Rights

... We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
• The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt
State of the Union, January 11, 1944

Plutonomy

Acabo de ver la película de Michael Moore Capitalism: A Love Story. Me pareció simpática pero me sorprendio ver el descaro de los elites al robar tanto y tanto. Desconozco el por qué de mi reacción, he vivido en México lo suficiente para observar la corrupción e impunidad de los gobernantes. Quizás se debe a que aquí en el gabacho la mayoría de la gente tiene la costumbre de creer en el estado y su economía, y por ende, yo. Pues bueno...

De acuerdo a este reporte interno de Citigroup, los grandes mueven la economía mundial y de sus paises y consideran que la población, específicamente los trabajadores, actuando en sus propios intereses, es su mayor amenaza. Qué bueno. Que nos tengan miedo. ¡A ejercer el voto y la huelga!

Russian-Mayan playing cards

These Russian playing cards depict art inspired by the Maya culture. The connection goes back to the Cold War, when linguist Yuri Knorozov cracked the code of the Maya glyphs.

Nature by Numbers

This post comes as I'm reading Zero, which is about the history of the number/concept Zero. Pythagoras and his crew were so into rationality and proportionality, but ironically, the golden mean he championed is irrational. The Greeks never really adopted zero because they couldn't really get their heads around it ("How can nothing be something?" they asked themselves.). Anyway, I think we find such an aesthetic appeal in the Golden Mean and other natural proportions because we ourselves are part of nature. It's so wonderful to find such order in chaos.

Insight from the Bible

Ever notice the inconsistencies in the Bible?

Here's a few examples:

GE 1:3-5 On the first day, God created light, then separated light and darkness.
GE 1:14-19 The sun (which separates night and day) wasn't created until the fourth day.

PR 8:13, 16:6 It is the fear of God that keeps men from evil.
1JN 4:18 There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear.
1JN 5:2, 2JN 1:6 Those who love God keep his commandments.

And so on. Here's more if you're interested. 

Anyway, maybe the whole point of the bible is that all the conflicting teachings come together in one book to teach us a message. The details aren't THAT important. You'll drive yourself crazy if you interpret it literally. It's the general idea that matters most.
It's like a metaphor for the world. People believe all sorts of different things, but if they are good people and they do good in the world, then the differences are negligible.

How games can make the world a better place - Jane McGonigal

Berkeley grad (Go Bears!) Jane McGonical mentions four characteristics of gamers that she believes make a case for designing games that will save the world. These are: 

• urgent optimism - You act on an obstacle you believe has a reasonable chance of success of completion.
• tight social fabric - We like people better after we play with them because we can trust them to follow the rules and know that we have the same goals. 
• blissful productivity - people prefer to work over relaxing and hanging out when they're doing something that they like.
• epic meaning - Gamers love saving the galaxy from the dragon or what have you.

McGonigal mentions how, during a famine, the ancient Lydians decided to play a game one day and eat another day. She said they did this for 18 years until the king decided to play one final game, split the kingdom in half and send the loser of this game somewhere else so the rest could eat. The losers eventually became the Romans.

I share McGonigal's goal of wanting to save the world, but I don't like that the four characteristics she mentions are limited to the game world, probably because I'm not a gamer like she is. So what about we non-gamers? We want to save the world too! I think we should harness those four characteristics (urgent optimism, tight social fabric, blissful productivity, and epic meaning) in other social environments like education and local politics. Serious problems don't have to be serious. Breaking down the problems we have and putting the pieces together in a larger context by asking "Does this work for everybody, not just for us?" can be fun. We just have to find out how.

'The Soldiers Call It War Porn' - Interview with Defense Expert P.W. Singer

Singer: To say that is far too simplistic. We're seeing a change in the very experience of war. The act of going to war used to entail you taking upon great risks. You might not come home one day. You might not see your family again. Now it's different. I heard a drone pilot explain it this way: You're going to war for one hour, and then you get in the car and drive home, and within two minutes you're sitting at the dinner table talking about your kids' homework. This is a very different experience of war.

i have mixed reactions. On one hand, I'm saddened by the alienation of the drone pilots. I still think that war should be fought hand-to-hand like it used to be. The weapons that exist today as a result of technology's relentless march are truly frightening. On the other hand, I'm glad the alienated drone pilots still suffer PSTD. This means they are still human, unlike the Nazis who were "just following orders".

Link to full article

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. - Luke 17:21

La realidad - Reality

Es interesante que la luz es una intersección de partículas y ondas. En algunas situaciones la luz se comporta como el agua y en otras situaciones, como frijolitos. Esto significa que el mundo que observamos no es estático como un dibujo o siquiera como una película, sino más bien como el juego de dos niños.

It's interesting that light like an intersection between particles and waves. Sometimes light behaves like water and other times like little beans. This means that the world we see isn't flat like a drawing or even a movie, but more like a game that two children play together.

Link: Buddhism and Quantum Physics

Portishead - Roads

Ohh, can't anybody see
We've got a war to fight
Never found our way
Regardless of what they say

How can it feel, this wrong
From this moment
How can it feel, this wrong

Storm.. in the morning light
I feel
No more can I say
Frozen to myself

I got nobody on my side
And surely that ain't right
And surely that ain't right

Ohh, can't anybody see
We've got a war to fight
Never found our way
Regardless of what they say

How can it feel, this wrong
From this moment
How can it feel, this wrong

[INSTRUMENTAL]

How can it feel, this wrong
This moment
How can it feel, this wrong

Ohh, can't anybody see
We've got a war to fight
Never found our way
Regardless of what they say

How can it feel, this wrong
From this moment
How can it feel, this wrong

Black Sabbath - War Pigs

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
Poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'til their judgement day comes
Yeah!

Now in darkness world stops turning
Ashes where the bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgement, God is calling
On their knees the war pig's crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan laughing spreads his wings
Oh lord yeah!

Past = Present

Right now, somewhere in the cosmos, aliens are watching human history unfold through a telescope. They see the indigenous people of America carrying on their daily business, and, after a little fine-tuning of the telescope, the man known as Jesus gets hungry and looks for something to eat. More tuning and a stressed Hitler stubs his toe and trips and hopes that nobody noticed.

The human drama is also seen by the spirits of the dead. Peace is with the indigenous who lived in harmony with themselves and with nature. Jesus is grateful that John invited him over for lunch that day, and Hitler eternally bears the humiliation of watching himself stub his toe over and over again, as the light that originated on Earth travels outward in space for ever and ever.

Link: Chromoscope


The aliens adjust the telescope and fine tune the receiver.

Cristales de nieve

Se me hace increíble que haya tanta variedad en los cristales de nieve. Según un físico de Caltech, Kenneth G. Libbrecht, las diferentes variedades se deben a diferentes temperaturas y grados de humedad. A continuación se muestran algunas.

SnowCrystals.com - A Guide to Snowflakes