Tytuł, o którym chciałbym dzisiaj co nieco napisać uchodzi za jeden z pierwszych, który zapoczątkował modę na multipierdolca związanego  z postaciami z gier komputerowych. Zjawisko to zazwyczaj objawia się w taki sposób, że obok premiery gry komputerowej na rynku pojawiają się równocześnie: film na jej podstawie, odrębna ścieżka dźwiękowa, t-shirty czy futra z norek sygnowane logiem gry. Oczywiście takiej mnogości gadżetów przy pierwszym Tomb Raiderze nie uświadczyliśmy, ale przygody Lary Croft stały się inspiracją do wykorzystywania jej wizerunku w każdy z możliwych sposobów. Czy to dobrze, czy źle pozostawiam do indywidualnych rozważań.

Lara po raz pierwszy

Historia zaczyna się w czasach kiedy bawełna na ciepłe majtki Lary Croft jeszcze nie wykiełkowała, bo gdzieś w nieokreślonej przeszłości.  W tajemniczym Los Alamos dochodzi do potężnego wybuchu, który spowodował trzęsienie ziemi, a w efekcie taniec potężnych artefaktów wydobytych z pustynnych piachów znajdujących się pod jurysdykcją rzeczonej osady. Wtem, po kilku wizjach z tego tajemniczego intro, lądujemy w teraźniejszości u boku Lary Croft.

Nasza bohaterka to wzięta panna archeolog z szlacheckim rodowodem, która nie narzeka na brak zajęć, ale wkrótce jej życiu dostarczony zostanie dodatkowy zestaw emocji, który rozpocznie właściwą przygodę pierwszego Tomb Raidera.

Otóż kontakt z Larą nawiązuje niejaki Larson Conway, służbowy pies dony potężnej korporacji Natla Technologies, niejakiej Jacqueline Natli.

Owa businesswoman doceniając  walory Lary (w tym wypadku rzeczywiście chodzi o dobry poziom wyedukowania bohaterki oraz  inne umiejętności niekoniecznie związane z pysznościami) zleca jej odnalezienie tajemniczego artefaktu o nazwie Scion. Brytyjska panna archeolog nie rozważając długo propozycji, zlecenie przyjmuje i natychmiast wyrusza przetrzeć szlaki Donaldowi Tuskowi, a więc w kierunku słonecznego Peru.

Jak się jednak wkrótce okaże Jacqueline Natla, nie tyle uchodzi za bogatego zleceniodawcę mającego kaprysy, a za zimne i wyrachowane babsko, która rozgrywa swoją grę na kilka frontów… tak aby zrealizować demoniczny plan.

Na kilku krańcach świata, a nawet i w jego wnętrzu

W pierwszym Tomb Raiderze zwiedzimy łącznie piętnaście dużych poziomów rozmieszczonych w kilku państwach. Zaczynając od Peru (Jaskinie, miasto Vilcabamba, Zagubiona Dolina i grobowiec Qualopec), przez Antyczną Grecję  (klasztor św. Franciszka Szalonego, eee… greckie Koloseum, Pałac Midasa, cysterna i grobowiec Tihocan), po Egipt (miasto Khamoon, obelisk Khamoon i Sanktuarium Scionu), ku Zagubionemu Światu vide Atlantydzie (kopalnie Natli, Atlantis i Wielka Piramida).

Główną bohaterką gry jest oczywiście Lara Croft. Poza wspomnianym już angielskim pochodzeniem i błękitnej krwi płynącej w jej żyłach, nie sposób nie napisać o innych zaletach Lary. Chodzi mi tu o wyjątkowo sprawne posługiwanie się berettami i innymi rodzajami uzbrojenia, dużą zwinność, wyjątkowy intelekt i piękne, duże… oczy.

Po drugiej stronie barykady dużo namiesza Jacqueline Natla, która jest święcie przekonana o swoim pochodzeniu sięgającym aż do czasów Atlantydy, którą miała władać.

Stali współpracownicy Natli to flejowaty Larson Conway dysponujący intelektem i siłą wynoszącymi w sumie zero oraz znany Larze już przed laty (a więc przed pojawieniem się pierwszej części Tomb Raider) Pierre Dupont, który będzie jej dosyć skutecznie utrudniał życie, a także kilku mniej istotnych goryli Natli (m.in. Skateboard Kid i Kold).

Panna archeolog zmierzy się bezpośrednio z częścią wyżej wymienionych postaci, ale główne walki przyjdzie jej stoczyć z pupilami Gucwińskich: misiami, gackami, lwami, szczurami, centaurami, wilkami, krokodylami czy innymi większymi gadami i jaszczurami (z dinozaurami włącznie). Osobną kategorią stanowi Natla po transformacji, ale to już pozostawiam każdemu do własnego przeżycia.

Nie byłoby Tomb Raidera bez elementów zręcznościowych polegających na walce, wspinaczce i unikaniu pułapek, ale  i bez zagadek logicznych, których w grze naturalnie nie zabraknie.

Głos zza monitora

Pierwszy Tomb Raider, znany w niektórych kręgach jako “Podziemny Rajdowiec” (sic!), to klasyczna gra akcji z widokiem TPP.

Panna archeolog z Wimbledonu w pierwszej części swoich komputerowych przygód prezentuje się ładnie po dzisiejszy dzień. Grafika i animacje zaprojektowane przez Core Design wytrzymały próbę czasu, o czym świadczą liczne reedycje pierwszego Tomb Raidera. Ok, może młodszemu oku nieco dokuczać kanciastość postaci, ale uwierzcie mi, że owe kanty naprawdę fajnie prezentują się trochę wyżej pępuszka Lary.

Dubbingiem głosu Lary zajęła się niejaka Shelley Blond, która ze swojej roli wywiązała się naprawdę dobrze. Jest to jej jedyny udział w Tomb Raiderze dzięki czemu urosła do miana postaci kultowej, wielokrotnie wspominanej jako ta, której zabrakło w następnych częściach. Na pocieszenie można dodać, że głos pani Blond mogliśmy jeszcze uświadczyć m.in. w Black & White Molyneuxa z 2001 roku.

Poza oralnymi wdziękami Shelley Blond o mocnej oprawie audio w Tomb Raiderze świadczy też fakt, że obok podstawowej wersji Tomb Raidera w czasach premiery można było nabyć soundtrack do gry. Ścieżka muzyczna jest rzeczywiście niezła, ale i same odgłosy w grze wypada ocenić dobrze (ze swojej “naturalnej” roli wywiązują się perfekcyjnie).

Reasumując trzeba powiedzieć, że postać Lary Croft i pierwsza część Tomb Raidera przyczyniły się w wielkim stopniu do rozwoju gier TPP, w których mieliśmy do czynienia z bardzo dobrze rozwiniętym indywiduum. Tym większa zasługa twórców Lary, że nie tworzyli swojej historii na podstawie istniejącego już pomysłu (vide Indiana Jones), a wykreowali coś zupełniego świeżego, nieznanego wcześniej, czyt. niebezpieczną seks bombę, której popularność zbliża się do popularności Che Guevary.

Zatem: Lara na koszulki!

Musisz sięgnąć jeśli… lubisz czuć na skórze pejczyk przeznaczenia .

a

Screeny pochodzą po części z własnego źródła, a po części w internetowej encyklopedii o Tomb Raiderze.

Viking, 2006     ISBN: 0670061344

Ten-year-old Dewey Kerrigan, who has been living with her grandmother for some years, is reunited with her father and taken to Los Alamos where he is doing “war work.” When he is called to Washington, she stays temporarily, with the Gordans, a family with two scientist parents, and a girl her own age, Suze. Suze does not appreciate her presence, and when Dewey’s father is hit by a car and killed, Dewey moves in on a semi-permanent basis. Her grandmother is in a nursing home, and her mother abandoned her when Dewey was an infant, so she really has no where else to go.

The girls ultimately become friends, though not without some continued tension between them. One of the things that draws them together is how they are able to combine Dewey’s knack for gadgets and technology, and Suze’s artistic skills to create some one-of-a-kind contraptions.

In the backdrop of the kids concerns is the ever increasing tension as the scientists at Los Alamos rush to create and test the first atomic bomb, which is secretly held out as the hope to put an end to World War II, once and for all.

The characters are well-drawn and full-fleshed, and the historical and scientific information fits seamlessly into the story.

Photo submitted by © Jenna Gersbach

[click on photo to enlarge]

• Personal note by Jenna Gersbach

This is the famous Black Hole in Los Alamos, New Mexico. There is a crazy cool assortment of things in here including still clicking geiger counters. If you like weird scientific military lab stuff this place is for you!

Links :
• Follow Jenna on Twitter – @myhungryeye
• Jenna’s Website – www.myhungryeye.com
• Follow Jenn’as blog – blog.myhungryeye.com

Las instalaciones del Laboratorio Nacional de Los Álamos son vulnerables a un terremoto

Las medidas de seguridad en la principal fábrica de plutonio para fines militares de EEUU no son suficientes. Así lo explica una agencia federal en una carta dirigida al secretario de Energía del país, el Nobel Steven Chu. Su departamento controla el Laboratorio Nacional de Los Álamos, donde, entre otras cosas, se almacena y fabrica plutonio para armamento nuclear.

La misiva, redactada por una agencia independiente que supervisa las operaciones nucleares del Gobierno, alerta de que las instalaciones donde se procesa el material radiactivo en Los Álamos son vulnerables ante un posible terremoto. Un evento sísmico podría desencadenar un incendio en las instalaciones y, a su vez, ocasionar un volumen de radiación 100 veces mayor de lo permitido, informa AFP. La carta pide a Chu “acción inmediata” .

Los Álamos fue creado durante la II Guerra Mundial dentro del Proyecto Manhattan para desarrollar la bomba atómica. Se asienta en la cuenca del río Grande, una zona con fallas activas que aumentan el riesgo de terremotos.

www.publico.es

Los Alamos National Laboratory is using the world’s fastest supercomputer, IBM’s “Roadrunner,” to run extremely accurate simulations to verify the reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile.

Over the last six months, Roadrunner proved its mettle working on 10 unclassified projects that advanced the state-of-the-art in astrophysics, plasma physics, nanotechnology, magnetic reconnection and materials science.

“We had a few crashes, but that’s what this six-month shakeout period was for,” said a Los Alamos National Lab spokesperson. “After proving it out on a variety of scientific projects, we are now ready to put Roadrunner to work on our classified projects, primarily to assure the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.”

Roadrunner was developed by IBM Corp. in partnership with Los Alamos National Lab and the National Nuclear Security Administration. It’s developers claim Roadrunner is the first computer to exceed petaflop performance at 1.105 petaflops per second (1 petaflop is a quadrillion floating-point operations per second).

Based on the same IBM chip that powers the Sony Playstation 3, the PowerXCell, Roadrunner combines 3,240 computing modules linked by two-tier Infiniband networks. Each Roadrunner module houses two AMD dual-core Opteron processors and four PowerXCells. The system consumes about 4 megawatts of power.

The 10 test projects were selected to flush out any problems in Roadrunner’s architecture. The projects were also chosen since all use the large data sets crunched when simulating nuclear weapon tests, especially aging weapons.

Prior to nuclear test simulations, Roadrunner was used to simulate aspects of the “Big Bang” that formed the universe, fusion reactor design, nanowire properties, plasma physics and materials science.

Engineers at the National Nuclear Security Administration, Los Alamos and the Sandia and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories will all have access to Roadrunner during weapon test simulations.

Os ataques de 11 de setembro foram obra do governo americano? A Nova Ordem Mundial está por vir? O Príncipe Willian é o Anticristo?  Paul McCartney está morto?

Para muitas pessoas, as teorias de conspiração são a verdade que ninguém quer ver. Algumas delas fazem sentido, já outras parecem roteiros cinematográficos tirados de filmes de ficção científica.

Por que essas teorias existem?

Na minha opinião, algumas teorias mostram o nosso sonho de fazer parte de algo grandioso,  já outras realmente podem apresentar a verdade, quando a teoria oficial de algum acontecimento contém falhas e/ou informações dúbias.

A teoria da conspiração é ridicularizada ultimamente,  já que muitas teorias se mostraram absurdas, entretanto há teorias bem lógicas, que nos fazem pensar. Um exemplo de teoria lógica é sobre os atentados de 11 de setembro (atenção, só porque é uma teoria lógica não significa que seja a versão verdadeira – links aqui, aqui e aqui) .

Na minha opinião, as teorias de conspiração tem uma importância significativa, mostrando que a população não aceita tudo o que os meios de comunicação “enfia goela abaixo” (tá, muitas pessoas ainda são bem alienadinhas, mas a parcela de contestadores está aumentando).

Pretendo falar bastante sobre teorias conspiracionistas, é um assunto que gosto muito, visto que mostra um modo diferente de ver os fatos. É importante filtrarmos as informações que recebemos diariamente, só devemos tomar cuidado para que a desconfiança não nos domine.

]]> http://eideard.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/carefully-cleaning-up-the-garbage-that-glows-in-the-dark/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:00:39 +0000 eideard http://eideard.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/carefully-cleaning-up-the-garbage-that-glows-in-the-dark/ http://eideard.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/wen-ho-lee-2-0-the-fbi-barges-into-los-alamos-again/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:00:23 +0000 eideard http://eideard.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/wen-ho-lee-2-0-the-fbi-barges-into-los-alamos-again/ http://txlonestargal.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/photos-from-new-mexico-trip/ Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:35:00 +0000 txlonestargal http://txlonestargal.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/photos-from-new-mexico-trip/

Vendor on the Plaza in Santa Fe.  We ate at the Plaza Cafe.  I think we would have been better off if we ate over there.  Too high and food not as good as people rave about.  I don’t recommend the pulled pork sandwich….to greasy!

Who says a solar company has to choose between conventional silicon and thin-film solar cells? RoseStreet Labs Energy, a Phoenix-based private company, is combining the two in a double-layered cell that it claims can achieve “practical efficiencies” – meaning efficiencies of cells actually available on the market, not just in the lab – of 25 to 30 percent. On Monday, the company announced the world’s first (or as RoseStreet put it, the “first known”) nitride/silicon tandem solar cell, which it plans to produce in the fourth quarter of next year.

The potential efficiency might not sound breathtaking considering that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency both announced last year that they had produced cells that achieved more than 40 percent efficiency in the lab. But lab efficiencies and production efficiencies are not the same thing, and the highest efficiencies for mass-produced solar cells hover around 22 percent. SunPower Corp., which introduced 22-percent efficiency monocrystalline cells in 2007, last year announced it had produced a prototype with 23.4 percent efficiency, which it expects to launch commercially next year.

RoseStreet thinks its new hybrid cell – which “marries low-cost nitride thin film with the massive infrastructure of silicon solar cells,” as CEO Bob Forcier said in the press release – could be cheaper than crystalline silicon cells. The nitride film, the same material used in solid-state lighting and blue lasers, enables the cells to make use of more of the light spectrum, Forcier told us.

The company plans to use a fabless model, manufacturing the cells through a partner, and also plans to license some of its technology, Forcier added. RoseStreet hopes to reach costs of less than $1.50 per watt, or 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, by 2014. The company plans to target applications with space constraints, such as industrial rooftops and mobile devices.

RoseStreet will certainly have competition. Other technologies are also racing toward higher efficiencies, with six companies – Suntech Power, Sunovia Energy Technologies, IMEC, Q-Cells, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and Oerlikon – last week announcing world-record-breaking efficiencies for different types of crystalline silicon, thin film and multijunction solar cells.

And RoseStreet will have its work cut out. Many companies developing new technologies end up running into complications that result in delays. So far, at least, Forcier said he doesn’t foresee any problems with getting or processing the nitride material that it plans to use. “Nitrides are pretty pervasive in other parts of the world . . . so we see it as a scaleable technology on a worldwide basis,” he said. “We have no concerns about sourcing.”

In any case, it’s a good sign that the company expects to reach production next year. If RoseStreet really can reach such high efficiencies at a lower cost than conventional crystalline silicon, and can manufacture the cells in mass quantities, it should have no trouble finding a market.

The company has been developing higher-efficiency solar technology since at least 2004, when it licensed multiband technology from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The company has formed partnerships with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sumitomo Chemical Co., which also invested in RoseStreet.

The company already operates a 500-kW pilot line in Phoenix and last year launched a solar-cell development center in the same city. The company plans to seek more funding – technically its Series A round – in the first quarter of 2010, Forcier said.

The biblical version of ”beginning,” creation ex nihilo (Latin, “out of nothing”), has a strange counterpoint with the so-called Big Bang theory that has been clutched to the breasts of cosmologists and cosmogonists as virtually sacrosanct since around the 1920s.  That similarity of concept—a material universe out of nothing—has its link in Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian Roman Catholic priest, mathematician and astronomer who proposed a theory that came to be known, sarcastically at first, as the Big Bang.  Lemaitre’s idea of the origin of the universe was that it was from a “primeval atom” or “Cosmic Egg.”  The myths of numerous prehistory cultures had similar ideas of everything being brought forth from an “egg,” but Lemaitre explained the Cosmic Egg as “…exploding at the moment of the creation.”

Basically, the big bang and black holes and all the interlocking theories are closer to metaphysics or science fiction than documented science, but the media eats it up.   Totally ignored is the fact that the theory defies known physics principles and requires a belief in invisible and unproven “dark matter” and “dark energy” to shore up the theory.  Granted, there is much in the universe that mortal eyes cannot perceive, but space is not exactly a material object that can be warped as in Einstein’s geometric theory.  The universe, most likely, did not find it necessary to unfold through such a needlessly complicated indulgence as the bangers like to imagine.

Around the “science” of the bangers there hovers a shocking lack of explanation for the simplest phenomena associated with matter.  They remain totally mystified by such phenomena as mass, gravity, magnetism and light.  They can and do summon up complex mathematical descriptions to make a fit for any observable things, but mathematical exercises do not constitute an explanation of what we see as physical reality or how they were made manifest.  As with radical religionists, the mystery is their selling point, and it is their showmanship at telescopes and blackboards that brings the money into their coffers while those with more tangible answers have been effectively muzzled.

 There has long been a strange avoidance by the cosmology crowd against considering any other studies that could prove pertinent to their own field of interest.  They patently ignore, for example, high-energy experiments at Los Alamos National Laboratories and Sandia Laboratories in which have been observed results that show striking parallels with astronomical phenomena.  To the Big Bang advocates, those observable experiments show the heresy that suggests that the universe was initiated and shaped by electrical transference!  Worse for the bangers, there have been high-energy experiments that have reproduced the features of aurorae, sunspots, comets and similar mysteries that have constantly left cosmologists stymied.  But bangers loath the fact that the theory of a kind of cosmic circuitry better explains creative activity in the universe than does the esoteric theories of a big bang and galaxy-gobbling black holes.

Studying the behavior of electricity in gases may seem a long way from the sciences of astronomy-cosmology-cosmogony, but to watch the writhing life-like filaments in a container of plasma bears an uncanny likeness to the universal energies and their inclination for responsible life that we so yearn to understand.

• Recommended reading: The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe by Eric J. Lerner.

Today's scene in the District Courtroom set up in County Council Chambers in the Community Building. Third from left, defendant Linda Hull and plaintiff Ted Vives, far right, rise with their legal teams and Judge James Hall as the jury leaves the room for a break. Photo by Carol A. Clark/Monitor

A jury was selected and opening arguments and initial questioning began today in a case that due to repeated postponements and cancellations has dragged on for more than a year.

Thomas Edward (Ted) Vives, a registered sex offender, filed a complaint in early 2008 charging Los Alamos resident Linda Hull with intentional interference with contractual relations, infliction of emotional distress, false light invasion of privacy and malicious abuse of process for speaking publicly of his sex-offender status.

Hull filed a counterclaim in April 2008 charging Vives with malicious abuse of process, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and injunctive relief for allegedly harassing and intimidating her and costing her some $100,000 in legal fees before today’s case to defend herself against his charges.

Read the full story in the Los Alamos Monitor.

Louis Rosen in his office at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he spent his entire career.

On May 9, 1951, on a coral atoll in the Pacific, scientists ignited what they hoped would be the first man-made thermonuclear reaction, the basis of the hydrogen bomb. A fireball rose 1,800 feet.

But the explosion alone, awe-inspiring though it was, was not enough to convince one eyewitness, Edward Teller, considered the father of the H-bomb, that thermonuclear fusion had indeed occurred. For that he had to wait for the results of a test devised by two young fellow physicists who worked with him at Los Alamos, N.M., where the first atomic bombs had been built.

At 5:30 the next morning, one of those colleagues, Louis Rosen, told Dr. Teller the exhilarating news: yes, fusion had been achieved. Dr. Teller promptly raced out to pay off a $5 bet.

He had bet against himself, wagering with a colleague that fusion would not occur.

Dr. Rosen died on Aug. 15 in Albuquerque at the age of 91; his granddaughter, Ambyr Hardy, said a subdural hematoma was the cause.

He was one of the last surviving links to the scientific giants who had created the atomic age — men like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi as well as Dr. Teller. But more than that, he had also advanced the era. (Read More Here)

Physicist Richard Feynman, one of a handful of the most intelligent people who ever lived, was more than just another prolifically fertile brainiac. To be a well-rounded human was a priority for him, and in the area of his love life he achieved notable success. One of the world’s best-kept secrets, and one that would surprise a lot of macho men, if they were capable of absorbing a new idea in the first place, is the amount of nookie harvested by poets, physicists, and other supposedly non-virile specimens.

Feynman studied the science of picking up women in coffeeshops and bars. His numerous affairs with the wives of colleagues and grad students scandalized the academic world. In later life his interest in the visual arts grew, and he learned to draw quite passably, but emphasized to friends what a handy gimmick the sketchbook was for getting women to take their clothes off.

There was true love in Feynman’s life, and her name was Arline. Much of his heartless hounddogging seems to have been in reaction to Arline’s early and tragic death. Here’s how it went. The very young couple put off marriage so he could finish college and grad school, but when Arline came down with tuberculosis, Feynman was determined to marry her as soon as possible. They weren’t even supposed to kiss, because of the danger of contagion, and pregnancy would have been a disaster for her. When Feynman was called to New Mexico to help invent the atomic bomb, the kids were even more determined to marry, even though both families objected.

Probably the strongest resistance came from Feynman’s mother. His biography (Genius, by James Gleick) quotes from the letter she wrote, the gist of which was: Richard didn’t have enough money, and his parents would definitely not finance them. Worry and concern about Arline would compromise Richard’s ability to do his job. He would be laden with all the burdens of marriage to an invalid, while “not getting any of the pleasures of marriage.” Being the husband of a TB victim would make Richard a social outcast. “I was surprised to learn that such a marriage is not unlawful,” Feynman’s mother added. “It ought to be.” The subtext was clear: Arline was taking advantage of the innocent, idealistic, romantic young son.

The sweethearts celebrated their wedding, witnessed by two strangers, in a city office. With Arline his legal wife, Feynman was able to move her to a hospital near Los Alamos. They exchanged letters all week, indulging in puzzles and silliness that drove the Army censors crazy, and on weekends Feynman would borrow a car or hitchhike into town. Arline’s knowledge that there were women at Los Alamos made her very nervous, and after months of celibate companionship she insisted that the marriage be consummated. “I really think we’d both feel happier and better dear if we released our desires.” The biography doesn’t note how many times the pair were intimate; that may have been the only time, since Arline was after all a hospital inpatient. As her condition worsened, Feynman wrote desperately to any doctors he heard of who were rumored to have a hint of a cure. Then there was a brief giddy time when it appeared that Arline might be expecting a child – with the medical men insisting that if it were so, the only possible choice would be to “interrupt” the pregnancy. Then she died. Then the Los Alamos project came to fruition, and with the bitter irony: the only thing Feynman had fathered was the worst instrument of death that mankind had ever known.

Feynman’s mother had a change of heart and looked for reconciliation. “I’m proud and glad you married her and did what you could to make her short life happy.”

Two years after Arline died, Feynman wrote Arline a last, long letter, found among his papers after his own death. “I will always love you,” it said. “I want you to love me and care for me… I want to do little projects with you … you were the ‘idea-woman’ and general instigator of all our wild adventures.” He recalled her anxiety over her inability to be a real wife to him. Feynman assured her in this imaginary conversation, “You can give me nothing now yet I love you so that you stand in the way of my loving anyone else…” He noted the stark truth that spelled itself out like an elegant equation: “I love my wife. My wife is dead.”

“Please excuse my not mailing this,” the sad postscript said, “but I don’t know your new address.” This letter, and maybe others like it, were of course part of a therapeutic process, a necessary step for any bereaved person. But along with the decision to get on with his life, there seems to have been a decision, conscious or unconscious, to armor himself against the possibility of another intense and potentially painful attachment.

Eventually he got back into the mating game, but it was a new, cynical and callous Richard Feynman who chased skirts almost obsessively. “He had worked out a kind of “all’s fair” approach to sexual morality and argued that he was using women as they sought to use him,” says biographer Gleick. “Love seemed mostly a myth – a species of self-delusion, or rationalization, or a gambit employed by women in search of husbands.” There was an ill-considered second marriage to a totally incompatible woman, who sued Feynman for divorce on the grounds of cruelty, including excessive bongo drum playing and doing math in bed.

As he juggled a harem of women, the great physicist’s life soon became a nightmare of angry phone calls, abortions, demands for cash, and various sordid scenes. One of his dates received an anonymous note: “Dirty Dick, Filthy Fucking Feynman dates you. He will never marry you. Tell him he made you pregnant. You’ll make a quick $300-$500.” He was often accused of being an inconsiderate lover, and one woman told him that must be why his roster had such a turnover rate – it didn’t take long for any woman to have enough of him. Some men are like that – they know that “making love” can, in some cases, literally make love. And for whatever reason, love is the last thing they want to create, either in themselves or in their partners. So they fuck.

Feynman went on vacation with the wife of a colleague who demanded $1,250 as compensation for the pleasure of her company, or possibly blackmail. Or maybe she paid the fare and he promised to pay her back. You never know, with these things. But it’s all so daytime TV, like one of those shows where the people yell and curse at each other and the stupid sound track bleep-bleep-bleeps like a backhoe on a construction site.

Of course there were other things going on in Feynman’s life too. He was an enthusiastic percussionist and collector of exotic rhythm instruments. One of his hobbies was safecracking, and another was conceptualizing the field of nanotechnology, way back in 1959. He was a terrific professor, and his lectures are available in several media formats. He is renowned for (among many other accomplishments) his Feynman diagrams, which illustrate in visual form some pretty obscure stuff that few people even know exists. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for work in quantum electrodynamics.

Eventually he went to Switzerland and met an English girl in a blue bikini. He wanted to bring her to the U.S. to be his “housekeeper,” but a concerned friend warned him how much trouble one could land in, importing a woman for immoral purposes, so he got someone else to sponsor her instead. After some hesitation, he did end up hitch up with this lady. They had two children and remained married for many years until he died.

Richard Feynman knew he was terminally ill with cancer. His last ambition was to go to Tannu Tuva to hear the Throat Singers and other indigenous musicians, but since this was an Iron Curtain country, bureaucratic red tape held up the project until it was too late.

Whatever else Feynman did or didn’t do in his life, and however anyone may feel about it, his greatest achievement was to blow the whistle on the O-rings. Remember the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986? Killed seven people including the first Teacher in Space? Working with fellow scientists to figure out what happened, Feynman discovered that the rubber O-rings were responsible. Large matters of engineering safety and corporate ethics were behind this, and he ruined any chance of a cover-up by announcing his findings on live TV during a Rogers Commission meeting. Because he was already under a death sentence, any revenge that could be taken on him was moot, but still it was a brave and true action.

photo courtesy of kandinski, used under this Creative Commons license

Los Álamos, comandados por Peter Lopez (ex King Size Candy, Vicodine, actual Eastern Comittee), se despide por un tiempo luego de su gira de retorno que los llevó por Chile y el interior del país. Por lo que tenemos entendido, Peter está viviendo en Francia, a eso debe la escasez de shows del grupo este año, luego de haber editado su 2do disco “El Fino Arte De La Venganza” a mediados del año pasado. Nosotros presenciamos  su show “sorpresa” en el Zagúan Sur hace un par de semanas y la banda está sonando ajustadisima, ejecutando su narco-country de manera descontrolada.

Está noche se presentan junto a Los Peyotes, recien llegados de su gira europea, y Nairobi, luego de su presentación en el festival Glastonbury.

Info:

Los Alamos

Los Peyotes

Nairobi
Post Show Fiesta con:

Market vs Caslug (Estamos Felices)
Caro Ban vs Ale Ban (Ban Bang!)
DJ Mañana

Precio?: $15 hasta 23 hs. Luego $20

Dónde?: Sarmiento 1272 – Capital Federal

(For a larger view of each photo, click on the image)

I’m finally getting around to posting images from a very personal project I did over the Fourth of July weekend, something that had been a year in the making. Hailey and I were in Los Alamos, New Mexico for the Reitzug Family Reunion, a once-every-threeish years kinda event that centers on my mom’s incredible family of 8 siblings (she has three sisters and four brothers) plus all their kids, grandkids and now great-grandkids.

The Reitzugs, in many ways, are a classic American story — a family of German immigrants who sought opportunity in Indiana in the 1950s. My grandparents endured WWII in East Prussia, as well as the economic difficulties immediately after in West Germany where they settled. Knowing this backstory — and seeing where the family is today — is part of what makes these reunions so extraordinary.

This family never ceases to amaze and humble me with their togetherness, their charm, their love and their deep friendship with one another. I’ve oriented this post on the siblings, the eight children of Nikolaus and Elisabeth Reitzug, my grandparents. My next post will open it up to the fun and shenanigans we had with my cousins and their kids.

Above is my Uncle Mat (left), my Omi (center) and Uncle Rick (right).

This is Omi, my loving and kind grandmother. As I schemed out this portrait project over the last few months, this image of her was exactly what I was hoping for. A portrait of the Reitzug spirit — confident, charming, fun loving, good natured and compassionate. When it was Omi’s turn to step in front of the white seamless backdrop, she hammed it up a bit and gave me that smile she’s known for. This was about midway into the shoot, and by then nearly the entire family was gathering around to watch, laugh with and tease one another. It truly lightened the mood and made for an unconventional family portrait session.

Above are the two oldest siblings, my Uncle Henry (in the left photo) and Aunt Monika (in the right photo) with their spouses, Anne and Ed, respectively. Henry is my godfather and did a reading at our wedding. He’s an incredible individual who has volunteered with Northwest Medical Team, an organization that does similar work as Doctors Without Borders. Last summer he was in Darfur for a few weeks.

Monika and Ed live in Massachusetts and have four amazing sons spread out around the world. You’ll see a great shot of three of them in the next post.

Above left is my mom, Angelika, with my brother Ben. At right is my Uncle Rick with his wife Mary. Rick is a professor and is a passionate advocate for the rebuilding of New Orleans. He’s made several trips down there to volunteer in the clean up and rebuilding efforts.

Continuing down the line we have my Uncle Mat (left, with his wife Connie) and our reunion hosts, my Aunt Maria and her husband Bill. Both Mat and Maria were frequent visitors in Denver when I was growing up, so its always fun to reconnect with them at these events. Maria’s oldest son Alex is also a passionate photographer and he spent a weekend with Hailey and I in 2008.

Also last year, when Hailey and I went to Seattle, we were able to have dinner with Mat and Connie one night. They’re an extraordinary couple: two people you could chat with for hours. At this reunion, we dined out again with them, this time with their son Randy and his wife Amy, as well as Peter, one of Monika’s sons (are you confused yet? That’s really my goal). It was an epic two-hour dinner at my favorite place in Santa Fe, Cafe Pasqual. Look it up if you’re ever down there.

Moving along, the seventh sibling is Marcy, pictured here with her husband Gustavo and son Jacob. Gustavo is Ecuadorian, and at the last reunion, he gave us some perspective on the country we were about to visit in spring. This go around, we let him know how that trip went. I haven’t blogged much about Ecuador, mostly because I set the blog up more than a year later. It’s where we photographed the tanagers. Anyhow, Gustavo is always the star during the traditional Reitzug Reunion soccer game, although this year (sorry Gustavo) he might have been shown up by my cousin Stela. (Once again, are you keeping track of all these names?).

Finally, there is my Uncle Chris, the youngest in the family. He’s pictured above with his daughter Emily, and at right is his wife Sherri and their son Zach. I love that shot of them. For some perspective, Chris is a year older than my Uncle Henry’s oldest son Joe. There are pictures of the two of them, uncle and nephew, playing in the sandbox together. Again, I know that this must be confusing … all the more reason to do this kind of project and bundle it into an interactive family tree so that it makes sense. Not that I’m promoting a new product from the folks at Tanager Photography and HeyDay Creative or anything—

Chris deserves a huge thank you. On Saturday evening, his last evening at the reunion, he asked if I was going to set up my photo booth and do this project. I’d been on the fence about it all night — people were all spread out, and the kids were all ecstatic at the pile of Legos Maria had provided at her house. Bottom line, I didn’t want to bother people and I was psyching my self out. The whole project seemed overwhelming, and I was having too much fun just conversing with folks.

But Chris and Amy (my sister-in-law) gave me a nudge and offered to help set up and wrangle people together. It got the project off the ground, and I was able to photograph the few people leaving the next day. On Sunday morning, after that initial ice-breaker, I set up the studio all over again and everything just clicked. Most of the images in this blog and the next post occured in a one hour span before church.

So an enormous thank you to Chris and Amy for the big nudge to get going on this project. And a huge thank you to the entire Reitzug clan for diving head first into it. I really appreciate it, and hopefully, when the family tree and bound photo book is all done in the autumn, the Reitzug family will, too.

Una grande banca dati online dove basta collegarsi per consultare le informazioni relative a tutti gli impianti di produzione di energia del mondo, le emissioni, le reti di trasmissione, le risorse e, infine, il modo in cui tale energia viene utilizzata. Tutto questo è GEO, l’Osservatorio Globale dell’Energia, un progetto ideato da Rajan Gupta, ricercatore dei Laboratori di Los Alamos (Usa).
Ispirandosi a Wikipedia, lo studioso americano, sostenuto da una squadra di studenti, ha creato con GEO una piattaforma per condividere e analizzare le informazioni che verranno inserite dagli utenti stessi. “È fondamentale che un database concepito in questo modo abbia dati assolutamente esatti – ha spiegato Gupta – per questo ci siamo ispirati ai meccanismi utilizzati dalle enciclopedie libere, come Wikipedia e il peer-rewiew delle riviste scientifiche. Si tratta di un progetto molto ambizioso che punta a creare un enorme contenitore di informazioni circa lo stato effettivo, qualitativo e quantitativo della produzione energetica mondiale”.
Il dibattito sull’apporto delle attività umane nei cambiamenti climatici in atto sul nostro pianeta ha mostrato l’esigenza di avere dati corretti e imparziali sulle emissioni inquinanti che produciamo. La necessità della creazione di un database libero nasce anche dalla difficoltà di reperimento di queste informazioni, spesso frammentate, confusionarie, se non inaccessibili.
I ricercatori di Los Alamos stimano di poter avere entro agosto i dati relativi al 50 per cento dei maggiori impianti di produzione energetica. “Gran parte dei dati raccolti in GEO – ha continuato Gupta – arriva dalle organizzazioni responsabili del monitoraggio del sistema energetico nazionali oppure dalle compagnie elettriche. Il prossimo passo sarà quello di verificare se il nostro modello Wiki saprà dimostrare l’inconsistenza dei dati e correggere gli errori”.
L’obiettivo finale del progetto è quello di contribuire a rendere trasparente il sistema energetico mondiale, proponendosi come strumento per guidare la transizione verso un razionale ed efficiente uso dell’energia. La continua richiesta di maggiori risorse energetiche, che si accordi allo stesso tempo al problema della sostenibilità ambientale e dei cambiamenti climatici, rende necessario e urgente lo sviluppo di un nuovo sistema energetico. Con un incremento così elevato della popolazione mondiale gli scenari geopolitici stanno rapidamente cambiando ed entro la metà del secolo – ha osservato Gupta – raggiungeremo la cifra di 10 miliardi: “L’aumento della popolazione corrisponderà anche ad un aumento degli standard di vita cosicché sempre più persone chiederanno un maggiore accesso alle risorse e, quindi, all’energia”.
Per poter rispondere alle sfide poste da questi scenari, è necessario comprendere la situazione attuale nella sua interezza. Secondo il ricercatore americano, solo attraverso l’analisi di dati imparziali e verificati sarà possibile determinare con precisione l’effettiva impronta ecologica delle attività umane e le emissioni inquinanti, e poter rispondere così alle sfide imposte dai cambiamenti climatici.
“Confido nel fatto che GEO diventi un punto di riferimento per scienziati e giornalisti che vogliano fare corretta informazione – ha concluso Gupta – non abbiamo intenzione di porci come antagonisti delle compagnie energetiche,aspiriamo bensì a fornire un ulteriore strumento alla discussione scientifica per approdare a un’energia economica e pulita per tutti”.
Il progetto GEO, Global Energy Observatory, è consultabile all’indirizzo http://openmodel.newmexicoconsortium.org

On July 16, 1945, a pack of scientists sat worried in the high desert of New Mexico.  Some of the greatest minds of their generation, they created what they thought was the ultimate super weapon. 

Yet no one was happy about it.

Some feared that this new “atomic bomb” would lead to the destruction of the Earth itself.  Others thought that the atmosphere would ignite, engulfing the planet in a ball of fire.  Still others thought the darn thing was a dud—there was no way a thing that small can cause the amount of destruction they had projected.

Yet once the countdown finished, the genie (or the demon, depending on your point of view) was out of the bottle.

The successful test of the first nuclear weapon at the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, New Mexico changed history.  It was then conceivable that a weapon can be created that was so destructive and so terrifying as to render warfare obsolete.  Yet even after the Cold War, we continue to feel the lasting effects of these weapons—on our budgets, our environment, our foreign policy, and our everyday lives.

The search for the one super weapon, the “ultimate weapon”, has existed since the dawn of man.  In a few decades, perhaps sooner, a weapon will be developed that supersedes the atomic missile.  Let’s hope the US Air Force is building a Death Star, so we can wipe out countries that are a little too fresh.  Until that time comes, here’s a few of the “ultimate weapons” of history:

The Chariot—Blitzkrieg was not a German invention (sorry, Adolf).  The chariot was the perfect example of making the best of a bad situation.  The Hyksos invaded Egypt in the 16th Century BCE and brought with them a light cart that provided quick mobility.  The Egyptians took the technology and perfected the first terror weapon in human history.  Gangs of chariots zooming down the field, with archers and spearmen in tow; the Egyptians were the first to utilize speed and overwhelming force in battle.

The Trireme—I knock the film 300 constantly, but here the offense is legitimate.  Xerxes was not defeated because of Gerard Butler and his scantily-clad Spartans, but rather due to an innovation in the Athenian navy.  The trireme was a fast, powerful galley vessel with three rows of rowers and a stout ramming prow.  These vessels not only defeated Xerxes at the straits of Salamis, but also propelled another half-century of Athenian dominance in the Mediterranean, spreading generic gyros and bland tzatziki sauce across an empire.

“

“Greek Fire”—I don’t mean the feeling you get when you see Stavros, the hot waiter at that Astoria diner.   Greek Fire was a true wonder weapon, used by the Byzantines for centuries.  Its composition and origins remain clouded in mystery, another plus if you want to spread wanton fear in your enemies.  Greek Fire managed to keep the Islamic armies at bay for centuries, until the Turks basically figured out its nothing more than a crude flamethrower.

The Trebuchet—used by the Chinese and Romans but later perfected in Medieval Europe.  If you needed to breach a wall, or lay siege to a castle, the trebuchet was often your only option.  Part slingshot, part catapult, it was designed to hurl projectiles over long distances at a high arc, similar to a low-altitude bombing.  It was also used in a crude form of biological warfare: sling a rotting, disease cow carcass over the wall and let the fun begin.

                                            The Firearm—the Chinese developed gunpowder around the second century CE, but firecrackers and bottle rockets can only do so much.  The firearm—first the cannon, then the musket—began showing up on European battlefields in the late 14^th Century.  Heavily armed knights often had a good laugh at these toys, manned mostly by peasant conscripts or the local militia.  They weren’t laughing for long, not after they noticed the power and range of those weird brass and iron tubes. 

The Rifle—early firearms were no better than blowguns with a gunpowder ignition.  In the 18^th Century, German hunters developed a musket with a spiral groove in the barrel to spin the bullet, providing increased speed, power and accuracy.  These hunters settled in America, particularly in Pennsylvania, where their invention found fans in American colonists, frontiersmen, trappers, and the Continental Army.  The rifle was especially useful in hunting game and hunting British officers.  Now that’s not very sporting, is it?

The “Ship of the Line”—this was the first true “weapon of mass destruction.”  So called because of their single-file formation, “Ships of the Line” were giant sailing fortresses, often carrying over 100 cannon a piece.  The British navy were masters of this type of vessel, using “ships of the line” as protective convoys for Caribbean trade, in naval warfare with the French, Dutch and Spanish, and as intimidation for compliance (think Revolutionary Boston and New York).  Its high water mark came in 1805, as hundreds of British and French behemoths clashed at the straits of Trafalgar.  The British victory made Horatio Nelson a martyred hero and Trafalgar the name of a London square that drives motorists nuts.

The Iron Ship—Leave it to a civil war in the United States to render every navy afloat obsolete in a matter of months.  The Confederates, with few ships in their navy, took old wooden ships and slapped iron sheets on its sides, with gun ports on two sides.  Their first, an old Union ship called the USS Merrimack, rechristened the CSS Virginia, terrorized the southern Atlantic coastline.  The federals countered with the USS Monitor, a ship made entirely of iron with a revolving gun turret.  The world watched in awe—metal could indeed float, with terrifying consequences.

The Machine Gun—developed by different inventors at different times, the machine gun came very close to being the “mother of all weapons”, the weapon that would render war obsolete.  American inventors Richard Gatling (in 1862) and Hiram Maxim (1896) developed weapons that fired multiple rounds in succession.  Gatling’s gun required multiple barrels and hand cranking.  Maxim’s model was self-propelled, with a single water-cooled barrel and belts of ammunition to feed into the gun.  Its grand moment came in World War I, when centuries of tactics and strategy, tactics dating back to Napoleon, were cut to ribbons in the spray of machine gun fire.

                                             The Tank—armored vehicles are not a new concept; horses and other pack animals carried armored plating for centuries.  Yet when merged with automotive technology, heavy artillery and machine guns, you have a mobile killing machine.  The British first introduced the tank in 1917, and subsequent variations have spread destruction across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.  It also provided another setting for Donald Sutherland to play a drugged-out weirdo (Kelly’s Heroes.)

The Heavy Bomber—as the machine gun was the poster boy for World War I, the heavy bomber takes the prize for World War II.  If there was one machine responsible for the majority of death and destruction in a single war, this would be it.  German Heinkel He-177s, British Avro Lancasters, American B-17s, B-24s and B-29s laid down more ordinance over Europe than every other European conflict combined.   It’s also responsible for the infamous bombing of Dresden.  Those monsters, how could you bomb all those porcelain figurines?

                                     The Kalashnikov AK-47 Assault Rifle—another rifle?  Just hear me out.  The Soviets developed this Assault rifle at the tail end of World War II as a standard issue semi-automatic rifle for the Red Army.  It’s rugged, reliable, cheap to make, and easy to maintain.  The perfect weapon for the Communist on a budget, the AK-47 is the most ubiquitous firearm in the world.  In this case, don’t think quality, think quantity: find me a part of the world where you couldn’t get your mitts on an AK for a reasonable price…even a ridiculously low price.  These babies were going for $100 a pop in Sierra Leone not too long ago.

As usual, I probably missed many other candidates for the “ultimate weapon” of its time.  My apologies to the Greek phalanx formation, various Roman siege weapons, the longbow, the Mongol compound bow, the fighter plane, the heavy artillery of World War I (“Big Bertha”, or the “Paris Gun”), submarines, guided missiles, stealth technology and the neutron bomb.  Just to name a few.