SONY MAGELLAN IMAGES 2.0

THE INSIDER BY MICHAEL MANN (1999)

2011-07-20T20:00:00.045+02:00

Hi Passengers !

Michael Kenneth Mann is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. For his work, he has received nominations from international organizations and juries, including those at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Cannes and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has produced the Academy Awards ceremony twice, first in 1999 with the 72nd annual Academy Awards and second in 2004 with the 77th annual ceremony.

Total Film ranked Mann #28 on their 100 The Greatest Directors Ever and Sight and Sound ranked him #5 on their list of the 10 Best Directors of the Last 25 Years, Entertainment Weekly ranked Mann #8 on their 25 Greatest Active Film Directors list.

Courtesy - http://Michael_Mann

Discover now more information about The Insider with the following numeric report made by Movie Maker on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

THE INSIDER

The Insider is a 1999 film that tells the true story of a 60 Minutes television series segment, as seen through the eyes of a real tobacco executive, Jeffrey Wigand. The 60 Minutes story originally aired in November 1995 in an altered form because CBS’ then-owner, Laurence Tisch, objected. The story was later aired on February 4, 1996.

The film stars Al Pacino (Lowell Bergman), Russell Crowe (Jeffrey Wigand), Christopher Plummer (Mike Wallace), Bruce McGill (attorney Ron Motley), Diane Venora, Michael Gambon, Philip Baker Hall (Don Hewitt), Lindsay Crouse, Gina Gershon, Debi Mazar, and Colm Feore.

The movie was adapted by Eric Roth and Michael Mann from the Vanity Fair magazine article "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Marie Brenner. It was directed by Mann.

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Russell Crowe), Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.

CAST

Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman
Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand
Renee Olstead as Deborah Wigand
Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace
Diane Venora as Liane Wigand
Philip Baker Hall as Don Hewitt
Lindsay Crouse as Sharon Tiller
Debi Mazar as Debbie De Luca
Stephen Tobolowsky as Eric Kluster
Colm Feore as Richard Scruggs
Bruce McGill as Ron Motley
Gina Gershon as Helen Caperelli
Michael Gambon as Thomas Sandefur
Roger Bart as Seelbach Hotel Manager
Jack Palladino as Himself

PLOT

In Lebanon, Hezbollah militants escort producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino) to Hezbollah founder Sheikh Fadlallah. Lowell convinces him to be interviewed by Mike Wallace (Plummer) for CBS show 60 Minutes.

In Louisville, Kentucky, Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) packs his belongings and leaves his Brown & Williamson office, returning home to his wife Liane (Venora) and two children, one of whom suffers from acute asthma. When Liane asks about the boxes in Wigand’s car, he reveals that he was fired from his job that morning.

Upon returning home to Berkeley, California, Bergman receives an anonymous package containing documents relating to tobacco company Philip Morris, and approaches a friend at the Food and Drug Administration for the name of someone who can put the information in layman’s terms. Bergman is referred to Wigand, and calls him at his home, only to be steadfastly rebuffed. Curious with Wigand’s refusal to even speak to him, Bergman eventually convinces him to meet at the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville.

In the privacy of the hotel room, Wigand agrees to interpret and explain the scientific tobacco-related documents, but stresses that he cannot talk about anything else because of his confidentiality agreement. After leaving with the documents, Wigand appears at a meeting with Brown & Williamson CEO Thomas Sandefur (Gambon), who orders him to sign an expanded confidentiality agreement, under threat of revoking his severance pay and medical coverage and initiating legal proceedings. Wigand, enraged at the threats and believing that Bergman notified Sandefur about their confidential meeting, calls and accuses Bergman of treachery.

Bergman visits Wigand’s house the next day and maintains that he did not reveal anything to Brown & Williamson. Reassured, Wigand talks to Bergman about the seven CEOs of "Big Tobacco" perjuring themselves to the United States Congress about their awareness of nicotine’s addictiveness, and that the CEOs should fear Wigand. Bergman says Wigand has to decide for himself whether to blow the whistle on big tobacco...

Read more on http://The_Insider

Picture courtesy - wearethemovies.com

DELIVERANCE BY JOHN BOORMAN (1972)

2011-06-20T20:00:00.002+02:00

Hi Passengers !

John Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.

Boorman first began by working as a drycleaner and journalist in the late 1950s and then he moved into TV documentary filmmaking, eventually becoming the head of the BBC's Bristol-based Documentary Unit in 1962.

Boorman achieved much greater resonance with Deliverance (US, 1972, adapted from a novel by James Dickey), the odyssey of city people played by Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ronny Cox and Ned Beatty as they trespass into Appalachian backwoods and discover their inner savagery. This film became Boorman's first true box office success, earning him several award nominations.

Courtesy - http://John_Boorman

Discover now more informations about Deliverance with the following numeric report made by Movie Maker on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

DELIVERANCE

Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

Storyline
Canoeing down a river, four city men run into some unfriendly locals. Unable to escape from the gorge in which the river runs, the locals become more and more of a threat. Written by Rob Hartill

Read more on www.imdb.com

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Dueling Banjos" was the first scene shot. The rest of the movie was almost entirely shot in sequence.

Goofs

Revealing mistakes: When the men bury the first body, the "dead" man's chest briefly rises and falls like he's breathing. Later, when Ed pushes the second body into the river, the "dead" man's fingers can be seen adjusting their grip on the rock, and his arms move slightly too.

Quotes

[first lines]
Lewis: You w- you wanna... you wanna talk about the vanishing wilderness?
Bobby: Lewis, listen - what are you so anxious about this?
Lewis: Because they're buildin' a dam across the Cahulawassee River; they're gonna flood a whole valley, Bobby, that's why. Dammit, they're drownin' a river; they're drownin' a river, man.

Crazy Credits

The end credits only show the cast and a notice of where the location of
the film was shot and the special thanks, which rolls over a shot of Ed and
his wife laying down trying to sleep. It also shows the shot of the lake
where the hand ascended up out of the water and the final credit reads
'Distributed by WARNER BROS'

Soundtracks

"Moonshiner" by Bob Dylan

Picture courtesy - uglyblackjohn.blogspot.com

WHEN MYTHOLOGY & HISTORY BECOME REALITY - THE DEATH OF HERCULES

2011-05-01T20:00:00.092+02:00

Hi Passengers !

May 1, 2011 - Early this morning, Ben Laden has been killed by the U.S. Army in Pakistan.

Since this morning all the medias of the world are telling the story of our modern history.

This morning the dream of B. Obama to become an hero of the nation America is done.

Question : Is our reality still a mix from history and mythology ?

Greek and Roman civilization have also created and used those mythical characters to set their leadership on the masses, let's have a far step into past times to make knowledge with the example of Hercules.

Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek demigod Heracles, son of Jupiter (the Roman equivalent of Zeus), and the mortal Alcmena.

Early Roman sources suggest that the imported Greek hero supplanted a mythic Italic shepherd called "Recaranus" or "Garanus", famous for his strength who dedicated the Ara Maxima that became associated with the earliest Roman cult of Hercules.

Text : John Gregorio

Discover now more informations about the death of Hercules with the following numeric report made by Dream Manifesto on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

Death of Hercules

Hercules was married to Deianeira. Long after their marriage, one day the centaur Nessus offered to ferry them across a wide river that they had to cross. Nessus set off with Deianeira first, but tried to abduct her. When Hercules realized the centaur's real intention, Hercules chased after him and shot him with an arrow which was poisoned with Hydra's blood.

Before he died, Nessus told Deianeira to take some of his blood and treasure it, since it was a very powerful medicine and: if she ever thought Hercules was being unfaithful, the centaur told her, the blood would restore his love. Deianeira kept the vial of blood.

Many years later after that incident she heard rumours that Hercules had fallen in love with another woman. She smeared some of the blood on a robe and sent it to Hercules by a servant named Leechas. When doing so, some of the blood was spilled on the floor and when the sun rays fell on it the blood begun to burn.

Because of this Deianeira begun to suspect Nessus's advice and decided to send another servant to fetch Leechas back before he could hand over the blood soaked robe to Hercules. But she was too late. Hercules has already put on the robe and when he did so the blood still poisoned from the same arrow used by Hercules, burnt into his flesh.

When he jumped into a nearby river in hope of extinguishing the fire, it only made it worse. When he tried to rip off the robe from his body his organs were also ripped off with it. Furiously, Hercules caught Leechas and tossed him into the sea.

Read more on en.wikipedia.org

Picture courtesy - en.wikipedia.org

SPACE WARS - USING ANTIMATTER

2011-04-30T02:00:00.004+02:00

Hi Passengers !

In this movie you will see an amimation about powerful weapons able to destroy an asteroïd or a planet from a far distance using antimatter.

(Like the Black Star in Stars Wars movie produced by Georges Lucas in the 80's)

In 2011 we are already observing this antimatter on Earth and try to track it components predicted by different theories (String Theory and Anti gravitation Theory) in labs all around the world.

Text : John Gregorio

Discover now more informations about antimatter with the following numeric report made by Dream Manifesto on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

Antimatter on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
Freeview Video 'Antimatter' by the Vega Science Trust and the BBC/OU
CERN Webcasts (RealPlayer required)
What is Antimatter? (from the Frequently Asked Questions at the Center for Antimatter-Matter Studies)
FAQ from CERN with lots of information about antimatter aimed at the general reader, posted in response to antimatter's fictional portrayal in Angels & Demons
What is direct CP-violation?
Animated illustration of antihydrogen production at CERN from the Exploratorium.

ANTIMATTER

In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles. For example, a positron (the antiparticle of the electron or e+) and an antiproton (p) can form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter can lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

There is considerable speculation as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirely matter, whether there exist other places that are almost entirely antimatter instead, and what might be possible if antimatter could be harnessed. At this time, the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. The process by which this asymmetry between particles and antiparticles developed is called baryogenesis.

History of the concept

The idea of negative matter has appeared in past theories of matter, theories which have now been abandoned. Using the once popular vortex theory of gravity the possibility of matter with negative gravity was discussed by William Hicks in the 1880s. Between the 1880s and the 1890s, Karl Pearson proposed the existence of "squirts" (sources) and sinks of the flow of aether. The squirts represented normal matter and the sinks represented negative matter, a term which Pearson is credited with coining. Pearson's theory required a fourth dimension for the aether to flow from and into.

The term antimatter was first used by Arthur Schuster in two rather whimsical letters to Nature in 1898, in which he coined the term. He hypothesized antiatoms, whole antimatter solar systems and discussed the possibility of matter and antimatter annihilating each other. Schuster's ideas were not a serious theoretical proposal, merely speculation, and like the previous ideas, differed from the modern concept of antimatter in that it possessed negative gravity.

The modern theory of antimatter begins in 1928, with a paper by Paul Dirac. Dirac realised that his relativistic version of the Schrödinger wave equation for electrons predicted the possibility of antielectrons. These were discovered by Carl D. Anderson in 1932 and named positrons (a contraction of "positive electrons"). Although Dirac did not himself use the term antimatter, its use follows on naturally enough from antielectrons, antiprotons etc. A complete periodic table of antimatter was envisaged by Charles Janet in 1929.

Natural production

Recent (as of January 2011) research by the American Astronomical Society has discovered antimatter originating above thunderstorm clouds. This is the first time antimatter has been observed occurring naturally on Earth.

Read more on en.wikipedia.org
Picture courtesy - nicob.fr

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2011 - MADRID / BARCELONA (0 - 2)

2011-04-27T23:30:00.000+02:00

Hi Passengers !

FC Barcelona took a giant stride towards a second UEFA Champions League final in three seasons after Lionel Messi struck twice in the final 15 minutes, the second a memorable solo strike, to earn victory at ten-man Real Madrid CF.

The third game between these eternal rivals in less than a fortnight proved just as intense as the first two, the balance tipping decisively in Barça's favour a minute past the hour when Pepe's dismissal left Madrid a man short. Messi made them pay with two late goals, touching in a low cross from substitute Ibrahim Afellay to break the deadlock and then slaloming his way past four players to score a second that leaves Madrid with it all to do at the Camp Nou on Tuesday.

Despite Saturday's 6-3 win at Valencia CF, coach José Mourinho opted to revert to the more defensive tactics that brought Madrid a 1-1 Liga draw and a Copa del Rey triumph against Barça in the first two instalments of this four-part contest. Xavi Hernández and Cristiano Ronaldo warmed the gloves of Iker Casillas and Víctor Valdés respectively early on but it was the visitors who took control as they sought to break through a stubborn Madrid rearguard.

With ten minutes on the clock, David Villa – who ended an eleven-game scoreless streak against CA Osasuna at the weekend – came close to finding the net again after stealing in from the right to send a shot flying just past Casillas's far post from the edge of the area. Josep Guardiola's side fashioned another opening through the middle with half-time approaching, Messi squeezing past the combined challenge of Xabi Alonso and Raúl Albiol before slipping a low pass through for Xavi whose shot was parried by Casillas.

As the teams went off for the break, Barcelona's reserve goalkeeper José Pinto was sent off following an incident involving a number of players from both sides. Mourinho introduced Emmanuel Adebayor at the restart and immediately Madrid's attack looked more muscular, Ronaldo going close from an Alonso free-kick before firing over from a set piece of his own.

Madrid's momentum was checked in the 61st minute when Pepe was shown a red card for a high challenge on Daniel Alves, Mourinho being sent to the stands for his own protests. Barcelona quickly regained the upper hand, Villa bringing the best out of Casillas after cutting in from the left.

Messi then took over, although his first goal owed much to Afellay, the substitute exploiting a Marcelo slip to advance into the penalty area and provide a cross that was steered in at the near post for Messi's tenth goal in this season's competition. The Argentinian needed little help for his 11th three minutes from time, collecting a pass from Sergio Busquets just inside the Madrid half and racing past four defenders before slotting past the exposed Casillas.

In addition to Pepe, Madrid will also be without Sergio Ramos – booked early in the second half – in Barcelona next week. The Catalan club, meanwhile, are within touching distance of another final, possibly a repeat of the 2009 showpiece against Manchester United FC.

Related Items
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London takes hold of trophy
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©UEFA.com 1998-2011. All rights reserved.

Image courtoisie - Sony Magellan Images 2.0

HERCULES BY WALT DISNEY (1997)

2011-04-21T20:00:00.084+02:00

Hi Passengers !

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century.

Along with his brother Roy O. Disney, he was co-founder of Walt Disney Productions, which later became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation is now known as The Walt Disney Company and has annual revenues of approximately USD $35 billion.

Disney is particularly noted as a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, for whom Disney himself provided the original voice.

Courtesy - http://Walt_Disney

Discover now more information about Hercules with the following numeric report made by Movie Maker on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

Hercules (1997 film)

Hercules is a 1997 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirty-fifth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film was directed by Ron Clements and John Musker. The film is based on the legendary Greek mythology hero Heracles (known in the film by his Roman name, Hercules), the son of Zeus, in Greek mythology.

Though Hercules did not match the financial success of Disney's early-1990s releases, the film received positive reviews, and made $99 million in revenue in the United States during its theatrical release and $252,712,101 worldwide.

Hercules was later followed by the direct-to-video prequel Hercules: Zero to Hero, which served as a midquel to Hercules: The Animated Series, a syndicated Disney TV series focusing on Hercules during his time at the Prometheus academy.

Cast
Tate Donovan as Hercules. Supervising animator Andreas Deja described Hercules as "...not a smart aleck, not streetwise, he's just a naive kid trapped in a big body", and that Donovan "had a charming yet innocent quality in his readings". Donovan had not done any voice-over work prior to Hercules.
Josh Keaton as Young Hercules, singing voice provided by Roger Bart
Danny DeVito as Philoctetes/Phil
James Woods as Hades. Producer Alice Dewey mentioned that Hades "was supposed to talk in a slow and be menacing in a quiet, spooky way", but thought that James Woods' manner of speaking "a mile a minute" would be a "great take" for a villain. Woods did a lot of ad-libbing in his recordings, especially in Hades' dialogues with Megara.
Susan Egan as Megara
Rip Torn as Zeus
Frank Welker as Pegasus
Samantha Eggar as Hera
Bobcat Goldthwait as Pain
Matt Frewer as Panic
Jim Cummings as Nessus
Wayne Knight as Demetrius
Hal Holbrook as Amphitryon
Barbara Barrie as Alcmene
Paul Shaffer as Hermes
Amanda Plummer as Clotho
Carole Shelley as Lachesis
Paddi Edwards as Atropos
Keith David as Apollo
Lillias White as Calliope
Vanéese Y. Thomas as Clio
Cheryl Freeman as Melpomene
LaChanze as Terpsichore
Roz Ryan as Thalia
Charlton Heston as The Narrator

Plot

Long after Zeus, ruler of the Greek gods of Mount Olympus, defeats the Titans and locks them deep in the bowels of the earth, he and his wife Hera give birth to a son, Hercules. All the gods of Olympus celebrate Hercules's birth except for Zeus's jealous brother Hades, who was forced by Zeus to work as lord of the dead in the Underworld, and seeks to overthrow his brother.

Hades learns from the Fates that in eighteen years, a planetary alignment will reveal the location of where the Titans are trapped, allowing him to free them and take over Olympus, but only if Hercules doesn't interfere. Hades sends his minions Pain and Panic to kidnap Hercules, bring him to Earth, and kill him after giving him a potion that will turn him mortal.

However, Pain and Panic are unable to give Hercules the entire potion which, while still making him mortal, allows him to retain his godlike strength. Hercules is then found by a farmer and his wife, who raise him as their own son...

Read more on http://Hercules1997film

Picture courtesy - upload.wikimedia.org

CARL EDWARD SAGAN (1934 / 1996) - ASTRONOMER (USA)

2010-11-09T08:00:00.022+01:00

Hi Passengers !

Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and highly successful science popularizer and science communicator in the space and natural sciences. During his lifetime, he published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he advocated skeptical inquiry and the scientific method. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

Sagan became world-famous for his popular science books and for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he narrated and co-wrote. A book to accompany the program was also published. Sagan also wrote the novel Contact, the basis for the 1997 film of the same name.

Courtesy - www.carlsagan.com

Discover now more information about the Voyager interstellar message with the following numeric report made by Men of Luxembourg on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

Voyager Interstellar Message

In the annals of exploration, the achievements of the two Voyager spacecraft are unprecedented. The piddling journeys of Columbus and Magellan spanned a few tens of thousands of miles on the watery surface of one small world. Voyagers 1 and 2 have traveled billions of miles through the ocean of space, exploring dozens of new worlds along the way and revolutionizing our knowledge of the solar system in which we live. And as a gift of the brilliant mission design, these robot ships are no longer bound by the Sun's gravity. They have passed the outermost planets and are on their way to the cold, dark near-vacuum that constitutes interstellar space. Nothing can stop them. Their radio transmitters are unlikely to work beyond the year 2020. Thereafter, they will wander silently and forever in the realm of the stars...

Read more on www.carlsagan.com

Picture courtesy - images.google.com

CYCLE& BIKE SHOW & BARCLAYS CYCLE SUPERHIGHWAYS

2010-05-29T20:00:00.090+02:00

Hi Passengers !

This is a new podcast made with pictures of the most beautiful cycles seen on Bike Shows all around our globe - Created on May 29, 2010 by John Gregorio.

Watch more on www.cycleshow.co.uk

Watch also more on cycleandstyle.com

Discover now more informations about Cycle & Bike Show with the following numeric report made by Blogger Mail on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

Barclays Cycle Superhighways

Barclays Cycle Superhighways will be safe, fast, direct routes from outer London into central London.The first two routes open on 19th July 2010 with ten more opening by 2015.

Features
Direct and continuous with easy to follow, clearly marked routes.
New signage, journey information and links to other cycle routes.
Improved road surfaces so you can pedal more comfortably.
Easy to find - Will have a clear and unique identity.
Blue surfaces will also increase driver awareness.
Safe - Will be at least 1.5m wide and provide continuous cycle lanes at junctions, advanced stop boxes, and signals.
Aims
We're building the Barclays Cycle Superhighways to improve cycling conditions for people who already commute by bike and to encourage new cyclists. They will help cut congestion, relieve overcrowding on public transport and reduce emissions.

Read more on www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling

Picture courtesy - image.google.com

WORLD BIKE VIEWS & ELECTRICAL AUTOMOTION

2010-03-21T20:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Passengers !

Biketrip.org is a free community website about bicycle travel that anyone can edit. You will find some tips about cycle touring, what to bring with you on tours and for camping, how to use your equipment and gear, books about bicycle travel, information about countries, technology reviews, links to internet resources, a growing picture gallery from cyclists all around the World, travelogues, a forum, articles and so on...

Courtesy - biketrip.org

If you doesn't like biking but enjoy driving in silence with respect for mother nature then read the following report about an electrical automotion...

Discover now more informations about the electric chinese car with the following report made by Blogger mail on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

Pictures courtesy - WebDealsInc

Short preview of the Javlon/XS500 Electric Vehicle by Miles Automotive.

Hafei Saibao EV passes crash test; good news for Miles' XS500
by Domenick Yoney on Aug 29th 2008

Sometimes a tiny nugget of information with sizable implications can slip by in the truckloads of news we sift through everyday. Just yesterday, for instance, there was a small mention in the China Real News of an "high-speed Hafei Saibao electric car" passing an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash test. Big deal, right? Well, yes and no. A little digging helped us uncover that the test wasn't actually conducted by the IIHS but rather by the China National Quality Control & Inspection Center for Automobiles and was meant to replicate the IIHS 40 percent frontal offset impact. Still no biggie until you realize that this car also very likely goes by the name of XS500 and that Miles Electric Vehicles is planning on selling it in the U.S. sometime next year. One of the worries about importing cars from China has been their past crash test performance (or lack thereof) and this test offers some insight into how well the XS500 may do when it comes time for its testing over here.

So, how did it fare? After a little more digging we found out it did quite well. After hitting the barrier at 40 mph, the injuries to the crash dummy were "lower than standard limited values" (We're pretty sure that's good). All the expensive stuff, including the lithium ion batteries, motor and controller survived intact and were still operable as well. There was no mention made of any side impact or other tests which vehicles must pass to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and although Miles declined to comment on the progress of their testing, this small tidbit does offer up some hope that their XS500 may indeed make it to the American market.

[Source: EV World / China Real News]
Read more on www.autobloggreen.com

Picture courtesy - biketrip.org

ROBERT JAMES ''BOBBY'' FISCHER (1943 / 2008) - CHESS PLAYER (USA)

2010-03-09T20:00:00.001+01:00

Hi Passengers !

Bobby Fischer became world chess champion in 1972. Part one of this Chess biography covers his childhood in Brooklyn up to his second place finish to Boris Spassky at Mar del Plata, 1960.

This is the first part of four about the photo-biography from the North American chess champion Bobby Fischer made on WEB 2.0 - Read watch and listen more on this youtube channel here

Courtesy - jessicafischerqueen

Discover now more informations about the biography of Bobby Fischer with the following numeric report made by Men of Luxembourg on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66
Bobby Fischer player profile at ChessGames.com
Bobby Fischer Memorial Page at Find-a-Grave
"The Chessman", Gary Kasparov, TIME magazine, 26 January 2008
"Was It Only a Game?", Dick Cavett, NY Times, February 8, 2008
"Death of a madman driven sane by chess", Stephen Moss The Guardian, 19 January 2008
"Bobby Fischer's Pathetic Endgame", Rene Chun The Atlantic, December 2002
Extensive collection of Fischer photographs, Echecs-photos online
Edward Winter, List of Books About Fischer and Kasparov
The Bobby Fischer Unofficial Home Page
Archive of Fischer's personal homepage
Bobby Fischer Live Radio Interviews (1999-2006)
A compilation of pictures of Fischer in the Philippines 1967 made into a video
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer

(March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was the eleventh World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. He was the first official FIDE world number one rated chessplayer, and his 54 total months at number one is third all-time behind only Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. He remains the only American ever to become world number-one, and was the first player from a western nation to become world number-one, joined in this feat by Magnus Carlsen in 2010. Later in life Fischer renounced his US citizenship and became an Icelandic citizen.

Fischer's achievements are legendary. At 13, he won a brilliancy that became known as the Game of the Century. Starting at age 14, he played in eight United States Championships, winning each by at least a point. At 15½, he became both the youngest Grandmaster and the youngest Candidate for the World Championship up until that time. He won the 1963-64 US championship 11-0, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. In the early 1970s he became the most dominant player in modern history—winning the 1970 Interzonal by a record 3½-point margin and winning 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6-0 sweeps in the Candidates Matches. In 1972, he wrested the World Championship from Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in a match held in Reykjavík, Iceland that was widely publicized as a Cold War battle.

In 1975, Fischer did not defend his title when he could not come to agreement with the international chess federation FIDE over the conditions for the match. He became more reclusive and played no more competitive chess until 1992, when he won a rematch against Spassky. The competition was held in Yugoslavia, which was then under a strict United Nations embargo. This led to a conflict with the US government, and he never returned to his native country.

In his later years, Fischer lived in Hungary, Germany, the Philippines, and Japan. During this time he made increasingly anti-American and anti-Semitic statements, despite his Jewish ancestry. When his U.S. passport was revoked, he was detained by Japanese authorities for nine months in 2004 and 2005 under threat of extradition. After Iceland granted him citizenship, the Japanese authorities released him to that country, where he lived until his death in 2008.
Read more on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

Picture courtesy - upload.wikimedia.org

FRACTAL SMILES FOR VALENTINE'S DAY

2010-02-14T20:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Passengers !

The coming Valentine day is an inspiring love event for which i have created all this fractal imagery mixed with numeric poetry and a nice soundtrack that i want to share with all of you in each corner of our blue dot today. (Audioswap : The Century Princess by Jonn Serrie)

For all my past, present and future life partner - John Gregorio

Valentine Smile

On Valentine's Day we think of those
Who make our lives worthwhile,
Those gracious, friendly people who
We think of with a smile.I am fortunate to know you,
That's why I want to say,
To a rare and special person:
Happy Valentine's Day!

Courtesy Joanna Fuchs - www.poemsource.com
Discover now more informations about the fractal imagery with the following numeric report made by Blogger Mail on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

Fractal Imagery

It all started quite by accident. I just stumbled into this whole fractal Fractal Imagery thing. I didn’t even want a fractal generator; I just wanted to make some slick 3-d buttons for a web site. I had purchased versions of the graphics tools software years before, back when it was called Kai’s Power Tools. It had a simple fractal generator module back then, but the fractals were mere equation graphs, nothing more than colored lines and circles, no more interesting than the basic “crop circle” Mandelbrot shape, and after a couple of hours of seeing the same basic patterns I got bored with it and never used the fractal generator much after that. Over 10 years later I purchased what had evolved into Corel KPT Collection, (Kai was long gone) and used the KPT ShapeShifter module to create web buttons with a cool 3-D cut glass look & subtle rollover highlight for my new web site Lake-Sunapee-Living.com.

Fractal ImageryI worked my way thru the other modules in the set, looking for something else I could use to justify the $89 expense. Some were very cool: Lightning bolts, Ink Drops, Photo Goo; and some were for graphics heads only: Blur, FiberOptix & Lens Flare. Several modules like Reaction and Pyramid Paint I still can’t figure out what they do.

There are two fractal modules: FraxPlorer and FraxFlame II. FraxPlorer creates Mandelbrot and Julia fractals and their variations, and the FraxFlame II module creates fractal flames, which look more like intricate line tracings than flames.

The FraxPlorer module has improved several orders of magnitude over the older version. I found myself working with the fractal generator for hours on end. The depth and detail and color variations of the fractal imagery seemed to be endless. The more I worked with it and the more patient and persistent I became the more I saw in the fractals. It was like a window on a whole new universe.

The turning point came when I began to see the works of some of the great artists suggested in the fractals. A splatter of bubbles reminded me of the glasswork of Dale Chihuly. Dense swirls of blue and yellow made me think of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I set my computer at work to use the fractals as a screensaver, and I would often return to my desk and find people had stopped to stare at the image sequences on my screen.

I hope you enjoy them as well. - Lou

Click here for more information on Corel KPT Collection.
Read more on www.fantastic-fractals.com
Picture courtesy - images.google.com

OPTICAL ILLUSIONS & METAMATERIALS

2010-01-18T20:00:00.099+01:00

Hi Passengers !

A podcast over optical illusions that you can experiment in front of your screen.

The material world that we can really see will become soon invisible with the use of metamaterials ?

By this imaginary tricks learn more about ''Metamaterials & optical illusions''.

Text : John Gregorio

Optical illusions : Check it out to unlock the hidden potentials of your own mind! Some amazing optical illusion that i think are really cool. Is seeing really believing?
Courtesy bit.ly

Discover now more information about metamaterials with the following numeric report made by Dream Manifesto on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - JPFG 2010

Research groups having educational pages on metamaterials

Min Qiu's Nanophotonics group, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden
Christophe Caloz' research group — Canada
George Eleftheriades's research group — Canada
Nader Engheta – US
FGAN-FHR — Germany
M. Saif Islam's Research Group, University of California at Davis – US
Yang Hao's Group, Queen Mary, University of London – UK
Sir John Pendry's group — free-download papers — Imperial College — UK
Viktor Podolskiy's group — Oregon State University — US
Shvets Research Group, University of Texas at Austin – US
David Smith's research group — Duke University — US
Costas Soukoulis at IESL, Greece — Photonic, Phononic & MetaMaterials Group
Srinivas Sridhar's Group, Northeastern University — US
Irina Veretennicoff's research group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel — Belgium
Martin Wegener's Metamaterials group, Universität Karlsruhe (TH) — Germany
Georgios Zouganelis's Metamaterials Group, NIT — Japan
Xiang Zhang's group, Berkeley US
Sergei Tretyakov's group, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Gengkai Hu's group, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing
Internet portals
MetaMaterials.net Web Group
Journal "Metamaterials" published by Elsevier (homepage)
Online articles: "Metamaterials" in ScienceDirect
RSS feed for Metamaterials articles published in Physical Review Journals
Virtual Institute for Artificial Electromagnetic Materials and Metamaterials ("METAMORPHOSE VI AISBL")
European Network of Excellence "METAMORPHOSE" on Metamaterials
SensorMetrix Formed with a specific directive to exploit the recent advances in electromagnetic metamaterials
More articles and presentations
Dr. Sebastien Guenneau (Seismic MMs) Research on Metamaterials and Photonic Crystal Fibres
UWB Tunable Delay System, Prof Christophe Caloz, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal)
Metaphotonics.de, Information about Photonic Metamaterials in Karlsruhe (HHNG Dr. Stefan Linden and Prof. Dr. Martin Wegener)
Realistic raytraced images, videos and interactive web-based demonstrations of materials with negative index of refraction.
Cloaking devices, nihility bandgap, LF magnetic enhancement, perfect radome NIT Japan
Left-Handed Flat Lens HFSS Tutorial Electromagnetism Tutorial
Journal of Optics A, February 2005 Special issue on Metamaterials
Experimental Verification of a Negative Index of Refraction
How To Make an Object Invisible
Metamaterials hold key to cloak of invisibility
METAMATERIALS

Metamaterials are artificial materials engineered to provide properties which "may not be readily available in nature". These materials usually gain their properties from structure rather than composition, using the inclusion of small inhomogeneities to enact effective macroscopic behavior.

The primary research in metamaterials investigates materials with negative refractive index. Negative refractive index materials appear to permit the creation of 'superlenses' which can have a spatial resolution below that of the wavelength, and a form of 'invisibility' has been demonstrated at least over a narrow wave band. Although the first metamaterials were electromagnetic, acoustic and seismic metamaterials are also areas of active research.

Potential applications of metamaterials are diverse and include remote aerospace applications, sensor detection and infrastructure monitoring, smart solar power management, public safety, radomes, high-frequency battlefield communication and lenses for high-gain antennas, improving ultrasonic sensors, and even shielding structures from earthquakes.

The research in metamaterials is interdisciplinary and involves such fields as electrical engineering, electromagnetics, solid state physics, microwave and antennae engineering, optoelectronics, classic optics, material sciences, semiconductor engineering, nanoscience and others.
Read more on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial
Picture courtesy - www.possiblyimpossible.com

PAUL KERES (1916 / 1975) - CHESS PLAYER (ESTONIA)

2010-01-07T20:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Passengers !

Arguably, Paul Keres was the greatest chess player in history never to win the World Championship. For this reason, he is sometimes dubbed "The Crown Prince" of chess.

In fact, however, Keres did win the 1938 AVRO "super tournament" in Holland, ostensibly to earn the right to challenge Alexander Alekhine, the acknowledged World Chess Champion. Unfortunately- to say the least- World War Two interrupted the plans, and the match never materialized- although, perhaps controversially, both Alekhine and Keres continued to play chess in Germany during the war.

Keres married in 1941 and won the "Posen tournament" of 1943 which was organized and hosted by the Wehrmacht, the German army. Part one of the story ends here...
Courtesy jessicafischerqueen
Discover now more informations about Paul Keres with the following numeric report made by Men of Luxembourg on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

Paul Keres

Number of games in database: 2,085
Years covered: 1929 to 1975

Overall record: +1048 -211 =822 (70.1%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
      4 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

PAUL KERES (born Jan-07-1916, died Jun-05-1975) Estonia

Paul Keres (pronounced CARE-ess) was born in 1916 in Estonia, where he would reside his entire life. He was very active in correspondence chess throughout his youth, and soon began to make a name for himself at over-the-board play as well with a series of tournament victories culminating with a win at AVRO 1938.

In 1948, Keres participated in the World Championship tournament to determine a successor to Alexander Alekhine. He finished joint third. This turned out to be the only opportunity he would ever have to play for the world title--he finished second five times in the Candidates' tournaments over the next fifteen years, but was never able to win one. He suffered a fatal heart attack on the way home from a tournament in Vancouver in 1975, at the age of fifty-nine.
Read more on www.chessgames.com

Picture courtesy - www.chessgames.com

LIGHT ON DARK MATTER - FRACTAL ART BY JEMARO

2010-01-03T20:00:00.001+01:00

Hi Passengers !

Self-taught plastics technician, computer graphic designer fractalist soaked with an innate creative fiber, Jemaro discovered, by means of work and of perseverance, a material living in the hostility of the raw fractals.

His technique consists, for each of its numeric creations, in conceiving by computer of the mathematical formulae generating geometrical entities. By manipulating these, he begins then a long progress in the discovery of more and more complex universes, in the borders of the infinitely big and the infinitesimal.

According to his(her) inspiration, the artist will linger over a composition that he will sublimate by the effects of color and light.

In these infinite universes, he will seize, according to his sensibility of moment, the emotional amplitude of the only one fractal that he will fix, in unique work, without any retouch, by an printing in four-colour process with a preference for the big formats.

Since 1990, his(her,its) long progress in the shadow allowed him to acquire the master's degree of a very sharp computer graphic technique and he can henceforth legitimize of a personal style. its works, outside the standards and the tendencies, leave nobody indifferent. If his creations, authentic and timeless, belong to him by definition, everyone imagine what he wants.
Courtesy - www.jemaro.com
Discover now more informations about light on dark matter with the following numeric report made by Dream Manifesto on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

Scientists shed new light on dark matter
The hunt for dark matter - the mysterious and invisible substance thought to account for a quarter of the mass of the Universe - may be over, claim scientists.
An international team of physicists believe they may have detected two particles of the elusive substance for the first time at the bottom of a mine shaft.

Should the findings be confirmed it will have an Earth-shattering effect on our understanding of the make up of the cosmos. It will also prove once and for all the existence of the substance first hypothesised 80 years ago.

Scientists working on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), in a disused iron ore mine in Minnesota, have announced that they had detected two weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs), that are thought to make up dark matter.

If they are confirmed by further observations that will begin next year, they would rank as one of the most important recent advances in physics and understanding of the cosmos.

Dark matter, along with the equally elusive dark energy, is believed to make up 90 per cent of the mass of the Universe. We cannot see it but scientists think it is there due to the gravitational force it exerts.

It could help account for the 'missing mass' in the Universe that would explain why galaxies stay together and rotate at their current speeds.

The particles showed as two tiny pulses of heat deposited over the course of two years in chunks of germanium and silicon that had been cooled to a temperature near absolute zero.
The detectors are place half a mile down to avoid them being effected by background radiation.
But the scientists still said there was more than a 20 percent chance that the pulses were caused by fluctuations in the background radioactivity of their cavern, so the results were tantalizing, but not definitive.

Dan Bauer, head of CDMS, said they have spotted two particles with all the expected characteristics of dark matter.

Theorist Craig Hogan from the University of Chicago said the finds are 'potentially very exciting.
He said three or four more WIMP-like interactions recorded over the next few years by the experiment, would constitute proof of dark matter.

"That would be a huge transformation in how we do science," Dr Hogan said.
"We would have a new form of matter to study."

The detectors are being upgraded with three times as much germanium making detections more likely.

Gordon Kane, a physicist from the University of Michigan, called the results “inconclusive, sadly,” adding, “It seems likely it is dark matter detection, but no proof.”
Dr Kane said results from bigger and more sensitive experiments would be available in a couple of months.

Confirmation of the particles would also constitute the first evidence for a new feature of nature, called supersymmetry, that physicists have been seeking as avidly as the astronomers have been seeking dark matter. Supersymmetry argues that every particle in the universe is paired with a twin somewhere else.

It is central to theoretical efforts like string theory, which unify all of the forces of nature into one mathematical expression.

Scientists have debated the existence of dark matter ever since a Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky argued that a distant cluster of galaxies would fall apart were it not for the gravitational pull of some vast but invisible cosmic substance.

Source : Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: December 18, 2009

Courtesy - www.telegraph.co.uk

Picture courtesy - images.google.com

HAPPY FRACTAL VIBRATION IN 2010

2009-12-31T20:00:00.001+01:00

Hi Passengers !

A fractal is "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity.

Roots of mathematical interest in fractals can be traced back to the late 19th Century; however, the term "fractal" was coined by Benoît Mandelbrot in 1975 and was derived from the Latin fractus meaning "broken" or "fractured." A mathematical fractal is based on an equation that undergoes iteration, a form of feedback based on recursion.

Courtesy - en.wikipedia.org

Discover now more information about Fractal with the following numeric report made by Dream Manifesto on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

A fractal often has the following features :
It has a fine structure at arbitrarily small scales.
It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional Euclidean geometric language.
It is self-similar (at least approximately or stochastically).
It has a Hausdorff dimension which is greater than its topological dimension (although this requirement is not met by space-filling curves such as the Hilbert curve).
It has a simple and recursive definition.
Because they appear similar at all levels of magnification, fractals are often considered to be infinitely complex (in informal terms). Natural objects that are approximated by fractals to a degree include clouds, mountain ranges, lightning bolts, coastlines, snow flakes, various vegetables (cauliflower and broccoli), and animal coloration patterns. However, not all self-similar objects are fractals—for example, the real line (a straight Euclidean line) is formally self-similar but fails to have other fractal characteristics; for instance, it is regular enough to be described in Euclidean terms.

Images of fractals can be created using fractal-generating software. Images produced by such software are normally referred to as being fractals even if they do not have the above characteristics, as it is possible to zoom into a region of the image that does not exhibit any fractal properties. It should also be borne in mind that, in common with other software, fractal generating programs have bugs, so some of the images produced by these programs may exhibit properties that could be termed software artifacts rather than characteristics of true fractals.

HISTORY

The mathematics behind fractals began to take shape in the 17th century when mathematician and philosopher Leibniz considered recursive self-similarity (although he made the mistake of thinking that only the straight line was self-similar in this sense).

It took until 1872 before a function appeared whose graph would today be considered fractal, when Karl Weierstrass gave an example of a function with the non-intuitive property of being everywhere continuous but nowhere differentiable.

In 1904, Helge von Koch, dissatisfied with Weierstrass's very abstract and analytic definition, gave a more geometric definition of a similar function, which is now called the Koch curve. (The image at right is three Koch curves put together to form what is commonly called the Koch snowflake.)

Waclaw Sierpinski constructed his triangle in 1915 and, one year later, his carpet. Originally these geometric fractals were described as curves rather than the 2D shapes that they are known as in their modern constructions.

The idea of self-similar curves was taken further by Paul Pierre Lévy, who, in his 1938 paper Plane or Space Curves and Surfaces Consisting of Parts Similar to the Whole described a new fractal curve, the Lévy C curve. Georg Cantor also gave examples of subsets of the real line with unusual properties—these Cantor sets are also now recognized as fractals.

Iterated functions in the complex plane were investigated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Henri Poincaré, Felix Klein, Pierre Fatou and Gaston Julia. Without the aid of modern computer graphics, however, they lacked the means to visualize the beauty of many of the objects that they had discovered.

In the 1960s, Benoît Mandelbrot started investigating self-similarity in papers such as How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension, which built on earlier work by Lewis Fry Richardson.

Finally, in 1975 Mandelbrot coined the word "fractal" to denote an object whose Hausdorff–Besicovitch dimension is greater than its topological dimension. He illustrated this mathematical definition with striking computer-constructed visualizations.

These images captured the popular imagination; many of them were based on recursion, leading to the popular meaning of the term "fractal".
Read more on http://Fractal

Picture courtesy - images.google.com

VIRGIN GALACTIC - READY FOR AN ORBITAL WALKABOUT WITH SPACESHIPTWO

2009-12-09T20:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Passengers !
The Dream - After two or three fabulous days of preparing with your crew – you're suited up and you're raring to go. The climb to 50,000 feet is marked with quiet contemplation but there's an air of confidence and eager anticipation.
Then the countdown to release, a brief moment of quiet before a wave of unimaginable but controlled power surges through the craft. You are instantly pinned back into your seat, overwhelmed but enthralled by the howl of the rocket motor and the eye- watering acceleration which, as you watch the read-out, has you traveling in a matter of seconds, at almost 2500mph, over 3 times the speed of sound.

As you hurtle through the edges of the atmosphere, the large windows show the cobalt blue sky turning to mauve and indigo and finally to black. You're on a high; this is really happening, you're loving it and you're coping well. You start to relax; but in an instant your senses are back on full alert, the world contained in your spaceship has completely transformed.
Courtesy - www.virgingalactic.com
Discover now more information about Spaceship 2 & Virgin Galactic with the following numeric report made by Blogger Mail on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66
The Spaceship Company
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Mothership Makes Maiden Flight
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic:Let the Journey Begin (Video)
Branson And Rutan Launch New Spaceship Manufacturing Company
U.S. Okays Virgin Galactic Spaceship Plans
New Mexico Spaceport Bills Signed
Lloyds Eyes Covering Virgin Spaceflights
The Future of Travel
Virgin Galactic Rolls Out Mothership "Eve“
VIRGIN GALACTIC / SPACESHIP 2

Virgin Galactic is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, along with suborbital space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites. Further in the future Virgin Galactic hopes to offer orbital human spaceflights as well.

Virgin Galactic is owned 68% by the Virgin group and 32% by Aabar Investments. Sir Richard Branson unveiled the rocket plane on Monday 7th December 2009.

SpaceShipTwo was presented to the world in the Mojave desert, in California. The vehicle will undergo testing over the next 18 months before being allowed to take ticketed individuals on short-hop trips just above the atmosphere. Sir Richard, who heads the Virgin Group, intends to run the first flights out of New Mexico before extending operations around the globe.

Built from lightweight carbon composite materials and powered by a hybrid rocket motor, SS2 is based on the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept - a rocket plane that is lifted initially by a carrier vehicle before blasting skywards. SS1 became the world's first private spaceship with a series of high-altitude flights in 2004.

Its successor, however, is twice as large, measuring 18m (60ft) in length. And whereas SpaceShipOne only had a single pilot (and the ballast equivalent of two passengers), SS2 will have a crew of two and room for six passengers. About 300 individuals are reported to have signed up for a flight. They are all willing to pay about $200,000 (£121,000) for the privilege of experiencing six minutes of weightlessness during what will be a two-hour end-to-end flight.

Many of those future "astronauts" are expected to attend the VIP unveiling at the Mojave Air and Spaceport. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson will christen the spaceliner Virgin SpaceShip (VSS) Enterprise. The New Mexico authorities are investing almost $200m (£121m) in a purpose-built facility in Upham.

It will have a 3,000m (10,000ft) runway and a suitably space-age terminal and hangar building designed by Foster and Partners. Sir Richard's Virgin Galactic enterprise will have competitors but he is almost certain to be the first to market, barring any problems arising in the test campaign. SpaceShipTwo's carrier plane is called WhiteKnightTwo. It was finished last year and has already begun its own trials.

SpaceShipTwo's performance

SpaceShipTwo will fly a little higher than SpaceShipOne, to a height of 110 km in order to go beyond the defined boundary of space (100 km) and lengthen the experience of weightlessness.

The spacecraft will reach around Mach 3 (1000 m/s), which is slightly faster than current fighter jets are capable of attaining; however, the spacecraft will not be able to sustain that speed for long periods of time.

To re-enter the atmosphere SpaceShipTwo folds its wings up, and then return them to their original position for a smooth and gentle glide back onto the runway. The craft has a very limited cross-range capability and therefore has to land in the area where it started.
Read more on http://Virgin_Galactic

Picture courtesy - Images: Virgin Galactic

REDEMPTION - STORIES FROM A LEGENDARY SONG OF BOB MARLEY

2009-12-06T20:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Passengers !

"Redemption Song" is the last track on Bob Marley and the Wailers' ninth Island music album, Uprising. The song is considered Marley's seminal work, with lyrics derived from a speech given by the Pan-Africanist orator Marcus Garvey.

At the time he wrote the song, circa 1979, Bob Marley had been diagnosed with the cancer that later was to take his life. According to Rita Marley, "he was already secretly in a lot of pain and dealt with his own mortality, a feature that is clearly apparent in the album, particularly in this song".

Unlike most of Bob Marley's tracks, it is strictly a solo acoustic recording, consisting of Marley singing and playing an acoustic guitar, without accompaniment. In subsequent live performances, however, a full band is used. A full band rendition of "Redemption Song" was made available as a bonus track on the 2001 reissue of Uprising, as well as being featured on the 2001 compilation One Love: The Very Best of Bob Marley & the Wailers. However, the solo performance remains the take most familiar to listeners.

Courtesy wikipedia.org
Discover now more information about redemption meanings with the following numeric report made by Blogger Mail on WEB 2.0 - Carpe Diem Passengers - GEO 66

REDEMPTION MAY REFER :
In economics
Redemption value, price of a security before its maturity date
In religion
Redemption (theology), an element of salvation to express deliverance from sin.
Redemption, absolution for the past sins and/or protection from damnation.
Pidyon HaBen, redemption of the firstborn son in Judaism
Redemptive suffering, a Roman Catholic belief that suffering can absolve one of sins if offered to Jesus.
In film
Redemption (2009 film), a Western film to be released on February 10, 2009 in the United States.
Redemption (2004 film) by Jose Garofalo
Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story, a 2004 television movie
The Shawshank Redemption, a 1994 movie by Frank Darabont
In gaming
Redemption (card game), a collectible card game published by Cactus Game Design
Redemption game, a type of arcade game that rewards the player according to their game score
Redemption Volume 3 of the video game .hack//G.U.
In computing
Microsoft Outlook Redemption, a tool to work around limitations imposed by the Outlook Security Patch
In literature
Redemption (1990 novel), a novel by Tariq Ali
Redemption (Angel novel), a novel by Mel Odom
Redemption (novel), a novel by Leon Uris
Redemption (1999 novel), a novel by Howard Fast
Redemption (play), a play by Leo Tolstoy
In music
Redemption (band), a progressive/heavy metal band
Redemption 87, a hardcore punk band
Redemption (Benzino album)
Redemption (Chris Volz album)
Redemption (GRITS album), an album by hip hop duo GRITS
Redemption (Pro album)
Redemption (Redemption album)
Redemption (Useless ID album)
Redemption (Vomitory album), an album by metal band Vomitory
Redemption (White Heart album), an album by White Heart
Redemption (song) by Gackt, featured in the game Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
"Redemption", the eleventh track off of album American Recordings (album) by Johnny Cash
"Redemption", the sixth track off of album The Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot
"Redemption", the opening theme song for the film Rocky II
"Redemption Song", song by Bob Marley from the album "Legend" (1984)
"Redemption", the eleventh track off of album Messengers by August Burns Red
"Suicide & Redemption" Track Number Nine Off Of The Album "Death Magnetic" From The Artist Metallica
The Redemption, an oratorio by Charles Gounod
The Redemption, an album by Brooke Hogan
Muse: Exogenesis: Symphony Part 3 (Redemption)
In television
"Redemption" (Stargate SG-1), a two-part episode of Stargate SG-1
"Redemption" (TNG episode), a two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
24: Redemption, a 2-hour TV movie bridging the 6th and 7th seasons of the television series 24
Heroes: Redemption, fifth volume of the television show, Heroes.
Redemption, the fourteenth episode of the BBC television series Blake's 7.
In politics
Redemption (United States history), the establishment of white Democratic, one-party rule in the U.S. South following Reconstruction
The Redemption movement, a tax protester conspiracy theory promoted by Roger Elvick...

Read more on wikipedia.org

Picture courtesy - www.google.com

1963 - ASSASSINATION OF JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY

2009-11-22T13:00:00.011+01:00

Hi Passengers !

Jim Sibert has answered the questions for 46 years, ever since the night he observed the autopsy of President John F. Kennedy.

Over the years, the former FBI special agent has been interviewed for books and calls and questions keep coming from teachers, authors and historians. Now, as another anniversary of the assassination arrives, Sibert, 91, was asked again about that historic day, Nov. 22, 1963.
"It started out like a normal day," Sibert said.

At the time, Sibert was a 45-year-old FBI special agent stationed in Maryland and only a year younger than Kennedy. Late in the day, the president of the United States lay dead in front of him with a hole in his head.

"It was a piece blown out of the skull," Sibert said.

Sibert and another agent, Frances X. O'Neill, met the casket at Andrews Air Force Base and accompanied it to Bethesda Naval Hospital. They were assigned to watch the autopsy, stay with the body and, as Sibert and O'Neill noted in a report dictated four days after the examination, "to obtain bullets reportedly in the president's body."

When Kennedy's body was removed from its casket and white sheets were unwrapped from him, Sibert recalls how the one around his head was blood soaked.
"His eyes were fixed open," Sibert recalled.

No clothing came with the slain president. The suit Kennedy wore in the open-topped limousine had been cut off in Dallas, where he was gunned down.

More than a single bullet?
What happened in Dallas that day remains contested with factions still debating whether Lee Harvey Oswald was the only shooter or if he was part of a wide-ranging conspiracy.
"I don't buy the single-bullet theory," Sibert said. "I won't go as far as to say there was no conspiracy."

Sibert and O'Neill's report, titled "Autopsy of Body of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy," stated that Commander James J. Humes, who conducted the autopsy, noted another wound.
"During the latter stages of this autopsy, Dr. Humes located an opening which appeared to be a bullet hole which was below the shoulders and two inches to the right of the middle line of the spinal column," Sibert and O'Neill reported.

Sibert won't guess on possible conspirators, on who else may have shot Kennedy other than Oswald.

"I wouldn't have any way of knowing," Sibert said. "See, that's another thing. All my work was in Bethesda, Md."

The FBI, Sibert said, had no jurisdiction in the investigation. The FBI website notes that "When President Kennedy was assassinated, the crime was a local homicide; no federal law addressed the murder of a president."

Focused on duty
During the autopsy, Sibert couldn't let the magnitude of the event overwhelm his duty.
"You just kind of think this happened to the president of the United States," Sibert said.
Sibert recalls the somber atmosphere during the president's autopsy.

"There wasn't any joking," Sibert said. "No comic remarks made."

The experience, Sibert said, didn't change him profoundly.

But every now and then the former World War II bomber pilot who continued with the FBI until 1972 gets calls from people who are still curious. There are also the memories of the history he witnessed.

"The other thing was the ferocity of the wounds," Sibert said. "That's tough. I never had nightmares, but it's something that flashes through my mind a lot of times."

Still, he's not obsessed with what he saw or what may have been behind the assassination.
"I don't think about it every day," Sibert said. "Generally when something comes up, an article in the paper, something about the assassination, somebody wants to know about it. It's just another incident in your bureau career that you handled the best you could."

Ex-FBI Agent Reflects on JFK Death 46 Years Later

Courtesy - www.wltx.com
Discover now more information about John Fitzgerald Kennedy assassination with the following numeric report made by Historium Observatorium on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

Works by or about John F. Kennedy in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
John F. Kennedy at the Internet Movie Database
John F. Kennedy at Find a Grave
New video footage released of JFK's last moments
Video of Vincent Bugliosi discussing JFK assassination
Kennedy's Secret White House Recordings via the Miller Center of Public Affairs (UVa)
Video, Audio, Text of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address
Kennedy discusses Cuban Missile Crisis with former President Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy Library
The White House Biography
JFK at the Avalon Project
The Kennedys museum in Berlin, Germany with special exhibit on Kennedy's visit
Historical TV Footage from Dallas TV Station KDFW Exclusive television coverage—most from the KRLD -TV/KDFW Collection at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
Birthplace of John F. Kennedy: Home of the Boy Who Would Be President, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
Extensive essay on John F. Kennedy (with shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs)
Kennedy Administration Official Documentary Historical Record of Major Foreign Policy Decisions from The Foreign Relations of the United States Series, United States Department of State, Office of the Historian, United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C

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THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN OF THE SIXTIES

2009-11-18T20:00:00.000+01:00

Hi Passengers !

From sweet girls next door to vampy vixens to butt-kicking heroines, here are the 40 hottest women working in movies today.

Check out our 40 Most Handsome Men in Hollywood here.
By: Premiere.com Staff
Short Takes: New Spidey Villain? Plus: Fourth Kind Pays Up and Boogie Trailer

Low and behold, our friendly neighborhood arachnid, Spider-Man, is starting to spin his web for the fourth installment of the Spider-Man franchise. News recently broke that rabid fanboys have finally gotten a name-drop on a new Spidey character to appear in in the next film.
For some more recent movie developments:
Universal settled with Alaska for bogus news reports in an effort to promote The Fourth Kind.
Latino Review has uncovered some inside info on Paranormal Activity Director Oren Peli's new film, Area 51. [NOTE: Their write-up includes spoilers]
Will Smith just signed on for A.I. Am Sam
Last, and most definitely not least: Check out the trailer for Boogie,a movie from Argentina that makes Kill Bill look like the Jonas Brothers Experience.
Weekend Box Office Roundup: Bang For Your Buck
Forget what your calendar says (unless its Mayan). This was the first weekend of 2012. You can also forget what the critics say as well because moviegoers flocked to see annihilation on a global scale, as 2012 roared and rumbled its way to $65 million at the box office. A Christmas Carol held strong in the wake of disaster, bringing in $22.3 million after a somewhat disappointing opening weekend. Rounding out the top 5 are The Men Who Stare at Goats, with $6.2 million, Precious makes a strong debut at $6.1 million, and This is It, which nabbed $5.1 million in its third week of release.
Read more on www.premiere.com
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JORDAN PASSENGER - THE HASHEMITE KINGDOM

2009-10-31T20:00:00.033+01:00

Hi Passengers !

Because of its modest natural resources, Jordan has focused on developing its human potential. Turning necessity into virtue, the Kingdom has bolstered its economic and social viability by advancing the well-being of its citizens.

Jordan has long concentrated on improving its educational and health standards, thereby strengthening a rising tide which lifts not only the Jordanian economy—due to a skilled and healthy labor force—but also the general quality of life for all citizens of the Kingdom.

In spite of the daunting political and socio-economic challenges it has faced as a result of turmoil in the region, Jordan has made rapid strides in developing its greatest asset—its people. This focus on human development stems not only from geographical and economic necessity, but also from the late King Hussein’s firm conviction that people need to be given the chance to pursue a better tomorrow for themselves and future generations.

This emphasis on qualitative change in peoples' lives has been the main driving force behind the Kingdom's social and economic development.

Courtesy - www.kinghussein.gov.jo

Discover now some information about Jordan Demographics with the following numeric report made by World Passenger on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem - GEO 66

Read the last news on - www.jordantimes.com

JORDAN DEMOGRAPHICS

The Jordan National Census for the year 2004 was released on October 1 of the same year, According to the census, Jordan had a population of 5,100,981. The census estimated that there are another 190,000 who were not counted. National growth rate was 2.5% (at maximum) compared to 3.3% of the 1994 census. Males made up 51.5% of Jordan's population (2,628,717), while females constituted 2,472,264 (48.5%).

Jordanian citizens made up 93% of the population (4,750,463), non-Jordanian citizens made up 7% (349,933). However, it is estimated that most of those who did not turn in their forms were immigrants from neighboring countries, There were 946,000 households in Jordan in 2004, with an average of 5.3 persons/household (compared to 6 persons/household for the census of 1994). The next census is scheduled to take place in 2014.

Jordan's Arab population mainly consists of Jordanians, Palestinians and Iraqis. In addition, there are sizable immigrant communities from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon residing in Jordan. Of the non-Arab population which comprises 2% to 5% of Jordan's population, most are Circassians, Chechens, Armenians, Turkmans, and Romanis, all of which have maintained separate ethnic identities, but have integrated into mainstream Jordanian culture.

Also, Jordan is home to a relatively large American and European expatriate population concentrated mainly in the capital as the city is home to many international organizations and diplomatic missions that base their regional operations in Amman. Since the Iraq War many Christians (Assyrians/Chaldeans) from Iraq have settled permanently or temporarily in Jordan. They could number as many as 500,000.

During the years 2004–2007, Jordan saw a rapid increase in its population due to the heavy migration of Iraqi refugees, an independent census carried in 2007, estimated that there are 700,000 Iraqis residing in Jordan, other estimates put them as high as one million Iraqis. Estimates put the population of Jordan slightly over 6,300,000 as of the year 2009 (increasing from 5,100,000 in 2004).

UNRWA indicates that as many as 1,951,603 persons are registered as Palestinian refugees in 2008 mostly as Jordanian citizens. 338,000 of which reside in UNRWA administered refugee camps scattered across Jordan.

There are is no exact number detailing the extent of migrant workers in Jordan, however they are believed to form between 20-30% of the labor force in Jordan.. The population of migrant workers including domestic workers in Jordan are believed to be as high as one million. Many are Egyptians who number at around 500,000 laborers and the remaining workers are mostly from Syria, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Nepal.

Jordan is home to one of the world's largest population of migrant domestic workers according to the Human Rights Watch. Domestic workers in Jordan number around 300,000, according to estimates, and they mainly come from the countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Furthermore, there are thousands of foreign women working in nightclubs and bars across Jordan, mostly from Eastern Europe and North Africa.

Read more on http://Jordan

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ALIVE THE MIRACLE OF THE ANDES BY FRANK MARSHALL (1993)

2009-10-13T20:00:00.018+02:00

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Alive is a 1993 film by the husband and wife team, director Frank Marshall and producer Kathleen Kennedy. It is based upon Piers Paul Read's acclaimed 1974 book, Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors (which itself was based upon interviews with survivors of the crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 on Friday October 13, 1972).

One of the survivors, Nando Parrado, (portrayed by Ethan Hawke in the film) served as the technical advisor to the film. Alive is narrated by John Malkovich.
The Survivors
Sixteen out of the 45 passengers survived. The film includes some additional fictional incidents to add action to the story. Actual survivor Nando Parrado was on hand during much of the filming as technical advisor. Nando's mother died instantly in the crash and his sister died in his arms after being on the mountain for nine days.

Courtesy - www.indowebster.com

Discover now more information about Alive - The miracle of the Andes with the following numeric report made by Movie Maker on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

Story of Alive - The miracle of the Andes
The film tells the story of a Uruguayan rugby team (who were alumni of Stella Maris College)and their friends and family who were involved in the aircraft crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 which crashed into the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972.

Cast
Ethan Hawke as Nando Parrado
Vincent Spano as Antonio Balbi
Josh Hamilton as Roberto Canessa
Bruce Ramsey as Carlitos Paez
John Haymes Newton as Antonio Vizintin
Diana Barrington as Eugenia
John Malkovich as Narrator

Plot
The film opens with a number of photos taken by the father of one of the survivors, Carlitos, which introduces some of the members of the team, including Nando Parrado (Ethan Hawke) (the real Nando Parrado appears a bit later in a picture of the team as their coach) and Antonio (Vincent Spano), the team captain. The film then shifts to a small opening monologue by old Carlitos (John Malkovich).

After that, it shifts to 1972 as Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 transports members of Stella Maris College's Old Christians rugby team and their family and friends to play a match in Chile. However, during the flight, the plane crashes on a unknown peak (later called the Glacier of Tears) in the Andes. The tail and wings of the plane are ripped off, and some of the passengers fall out of the plane. The fuselage slides down a mountain slope before stopping.

Overall, 12 people die from the crash, including the pilots and Nando's mother, Eugenia. Nando himself is knocked into a coma but comes to a few days later. His sister dies from her injuries nine days after the crash. The remaining passengers are forced to face very cold weather in nothing but street clothes.

A few of the passengers suffer some bad injuries, mainly broken legs when the aircraft's seats piled up. All they have are some cigarettes, chocolate, some assorted snacks and bottles of wine. They are forced to divide the food into very small amounts so their supply wouldn't run out quick.

Unfortunately, this supply dwindles quickly and there are no vegetation or animals on the mountain. A few days later, the search for the survivors is called off. Finally, the remaining survivors decide to eat the flesh of their dead comrades. Some of the passengers initially refuse to do it, as they do not want to be called cannibals but eventually agree to the decision. Only two of the team players are medical students, one of which is 19-year old Roberto Canessa (Josh Hamilton).

To make matters worse for the survivors, an avalanche hits the plane, covering the interior of the fuselage in snow. Some manage to get out, but 8 people die, including Antonio (although in reality, another passenger named Antonio actually survived the avalanche and escaped the mountain).

Finally, the survivors decide to go for help. Earlier rescue attempts failed. The survivors send Canessa and Parrado to find help. After a 12 day trek, the two get out of the mountains and find help for their comrades. As helicopters land at the plane's location, the other 14 survivors celebrate. The film then returns to old Carlitos, who explains that the survivors later returned to the crash site and buried the bodies of their dead comrades under a pile of stones a half-mile from the site.

The grave site is marked with a cross. The film then shows the memorial and displays the film's dedication to the 29 who died on the mountain and the 16 who survived as the credits roll. Box Office intake was 36,733,909 worldwide.

Soundtrack

The score by James Newton Howard has had a second life (particularly the rousing end credit theme) in film trailers, in similar usage as the themes from The Joy Luck Club, Dragonheart and Braveheart.
Read more on http://Alive(1993film)

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FULL MOON IMAGES - HAARLEM / MARSEILLE / LISBOA

2009-06-10T20:00:00.008+02:00

Hi Passengers !

Full moon is a lunar phase that occurs when the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. More precisely, a full moon occurs when the geocentric apparent (ecliptic) longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180 degrees; the Moon is then in opposition with the Sun.

At this time, as seen by viewers on Earth, the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing the earth (the near side) is almost fully illuminated by the Sun and appears round. Only during a full moon is the opposite hemisphere of the Moon, which is not visible from Earth (the far side), completely unilluminated.

The average lunar month is about 27.3 days long, so that the full moon falls on either the 14th or 15th of the lunar month in those calendars that start the month on the new moon. In any event, as lunar months are counted in discrete numbers of days, lunar months are said to be either 27 or 28 days long.
Moon phase calculator
Characteristics
A full moon is often thought of as an event of a full night's duration. This is somewhat misleading, as the Moon seen from Earth is continuously becoming larger or smaller (though much too slowly to notice with the naked eye). Its absolute maximum size occurs at the moment expansion has stopped, and when graphed, its tangent slope is zero. For any given location, about half of these absolute maximum full moons will be potentially visible, as the other half occur during the day, when the full moon is below the horizon. Many almanacs list full moons not just by date, but by their exact time as well (usually in GMT). Typical monthly calendars which include phases of the moon may be off by one day if intended for use in a different time zone.
The date and time of a specific full moon (assuming a circular orbit) can be calculated from the equation:
where D is the number of days since 1 January 2000 00:00:00 UTC, and N is an integer number of full moons, starting with 0 for the first full moon of the year 2000. The true time of a full moon may differ from this approximation by up to about 14.5 hours as a result of the non-circularity of the moon's orbit (see New moon and). The age and apparent size of the full moon vary in a cycle of just under 14 synodic months, which has been referred to as a full moon cycle.
Full moons are generally a poor time to conduct astronomical observations, since the bright reflected sunlight from the moon overwhelms the dimmer light from stars.
On December 12, 2008, the full moon has occurred closer to the Earth than it has done at any time for the past 15 years.
Folklore
Full Moons are traditionally associated with temporal insomnia, insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic) and various "magical phenomena" such as lycanthropy. Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon.They find that studies are generally not consistent, with some showing a positive effect and others showing a negative effect. In one instance, the December 23, 2000 issue of the British Medical Journal published two studies on dog bite admission to hospitals in England and Australia. The study of the Bradford Royal Infirmary found that dog bites were twice as common during a full moon, whereas the study conducted by the public hospitals in Australia found that they were less likely. However Dr Timo Partonen of the Finnish National Public Health Institute carried out a study of 1400 suicides and found that people were more likely to make an attempt on their life when there was a new moon.
Many neopagans hold a monthly ritual called an Esbat at each full moon, while some people practicing traditional Chinese religions prepare their ritual offerings to their ancestors and deities on every full and new moon.

Calendars
The Hindu, Thai, Hebrew, Islamic, Tibetan, Mayan, Neo-pagan, Germanic, Celtic, and the traditional Chinese calendars are all based on the phases of the Moon. None of these calendars, however, begin their months with the full moon. In the Chinese, Jewish, Thai and some Hindu calendars, the full moon always occurs in the middle of a month.
In hinduism, lord vishnu and godess lakshmi is worshipped on full moon night.
In the Gregorian calendar, the date of Easter is the first Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon which occurs after the ecclesiastical vernal equinox. In this context, the date of the full moon (together with the date of the vernal equinox) is calculated not according to actual astronomical phenomena, but according to a calendrical approximation of these phenomena.
In the Chinese calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the full moon of the eighth month, whereas the Lantern Festival falls on the first full moon of the year.
The blue moon
The term "blue moon" traditionally referred to an extra moon in a season: if a season had four full moons (rather than the more common three), then the third of the four moons was known as a blue moon. A season in this sense begins not with the months as in the table above, but with the solstices and equinoxes, as described on blue moon.
A simpler definition, that the second full moon in a calendar month is known as a blue moon, became common in the second half of the twentieth century due to a misinterpretation of the Maine Farmer's Almanac in the March 1946 Sky & Telescope magazine; this was corrected in 1999.
Since there are 12.37 full moons in a year, a "blue moon" must occur on the average every 2.7 years, by either definition.
Read more on en.wikipedia.org

NEXT FULL MOON / JULY 4, 2009

STRING THEORY POETRY - IS MUSIC INTELLIGENCE ?

2009-05-02T20:00:00.001+02:00

Hi Passengers !

IS MUSIC INTELLIGENCE ?

Information is not Knowledge
Knowledge is not Wisdom
Wisdom is not Truth
Truth is not Beauty
Beauty is not Love
Love is not Music

What is Music ?

I imagine an universe
made from memories of light and laughter
creating all this matter surrounding us.

I don't know what creation is
but i know music makes people
sharing

Love
Beauty
Truth
Wisdom
Knowledge
& Information.

Text : John Gregorio

Discover now more information about String Theory with the following numeric report made by Dream Manifesto on WEB 2.0 - Carpe diem passengers - GEO 66

STRING THEORY

String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for the theory of everything (TOE), a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system. The theory has yet to make testable experimental predictions, leading some to claim that it cannot be considered a part of science.

String theory mainly posits that the electrons and quarks within an atom are not 0-dimensional objects, but rather 1-dimensional oscillating lines ("strings"). The earliest string model, the bosonic string, incorporated only bosons, although this view developed to the superstring theory, which posits that a connection (a "supersymmetry") exists between bosons and fermions. String theories also require the existence of several extra, unobservable dimensions to the universe, in addition to the four known spacetime dimensions.

The theory has its origins in the dual resonance model (1969). Since that time, the term string theory has developed to incorporate any of a group of related superstring theories. Five major string theories were formulated. The main differences among them were the number of dimensions in which the strings developed and their characteristics. All of them appeared to be correct, however. In the mid 1990s a unification of all previous superstring theories, called M-theory, was proposed, which asserted that strings are really 1-dimensional slices of a 2-dimensional membrane vibrating in 11-dimensional spacetime.

As a result of the many properties and principles shared by these approaches (such as the holographic principle), their mutual logical consistency, and the fact that some easily include the standard model of particle physics, some mathematical physicists (i.e. Witten, Maldacena and Susskind) believe that string theory is a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature. Nevertheless, other prominent physicists (e.g. Feynman and Glashow) have criticized string theory for not providing any quantitative experimental predictions.

Read more on http://String_theory

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