Something about movies...

Today's post is about movies.

When I was a child I saw a lot of movies, my favourite genre back then was action. I remember have seen a lot Jean Claude Van Damme's movies.

Today my favourites genres are Adventure, Sci-Fi, and Animation. The are several movies I like so much, some of them are: Pirates of the Caribbean, Avatar, Home Alone, all moviews protagonized by the fantastic mexican actor Mario Moreno "Cantinflas", Top Gun, Armageddon, and Citizen Kane, a classic movie written, protagonized and directed by Orson Wells.

I really like Citizen Kane, because I think that it was Orson Wells's best legacy. In that movie, filmed in the earlier 40's, the director introduced a lot of revolutionary new techniques that definitely inspired many directors.

Citizen Kane is the life story of a powerful newspaper magnate, Charles Foster Kane. He built a mega­palace named "Xanadu" and collected the most expensive and beautiful objects from all corners of the world, but he was always alone, even he had large mirrors covering the walls of her living room and bedroom (to try to forget his loneliness).

I heard that Citizen Kane was inspired in a materialist and stingy man contemporary to Orson Wells who built an giant business empire in the United States. I don't remember the name of that man, but I do remember that he inmmidiately felt identificated with the movie when it was released, even he sued Orson Wells in court.

The movie Citizen Kane won an Oscar prize in 1941.
I think Orson Wells is the greatest director in the history of the cinema.

My sister at London Eye

Hello everyone,

Today's post is about a photo I like so much. It was taken when my sister Veronica was in London, in 2006.

My sister is engineer, she studied at Federico Santa María Technical University in Valparaíso. I remember those years, back then she was almost always stressed.

I personally don't like the environment at Federico Santa María Technical University, because there the people are very individualist and always competing with each other.

I'm very happy studying Physics at University of Chile. Here courses are more difficult (the average score in the last test of Classical Mechanics was 2.5), but you really learn a lot and that is what finally counts.

In 2006 my sister went to France as exchange student. She studied one semester at a University located in Brest, a small city in the west of France. Then she also visited several countries including United Kingdom.

She told me that she had to take a train which travels through a tunnel (known as Channel Tunnel) just over the ocean. That tunnel connects France and England.

This picture was taken from inside the London Eye, the giant wheel placed next to Thames riviera in the heart of London.

In the front of the picture you can see my sister (she appears to be very happy). Behind her there is the Big Ben (it's all illuminated in the night), next to it there is the Parliament House and just behind them Westminster Abbey, a church and the location for Royal coronations and burials.

That's all for now.

See you!

Panic on the streets of London...

Hello everyone,

On next month I will spend one week in London. There are several places I'd like to visit.

MONDAY

I've just bought a £16.74 standard ticket to visit London Eye in the morning of my first day in the UK.
I will get there by tube, Waterloo is the closest station. It's only five minutes by walk from there.

In the afternoon I will visit The Natural History Museum. I will get there by tube, the museum is a just a few steps from the tube from South Kensington station. The entrance to the museum is free.

TUESDAY

I will spend all day in the Royal Botanic Gardens (also known as Kew Gardens). The ticket costs £11.50.
I can't get there by tube, so I will take the train. The nearest railway station is Haywards Heath, approximately 6 miles away, from there I will take a bus.


WEDNESDAY

In the morning I will visit The Tate Modern Art Gallery. I've heard that there are several british works from 1500 to the present day. The nearest underground station to the gallery is Pimlico. The entrance is free.
In the afternoon I'd like to go to The Tower of London and see the world famous Crown Jewels, I will arrive there by tube, the nearest station is Tower Hill, it's only a five minute walk from the entrance. The adult ticket costs £19.80.

THURSDAY

I will spend all thursday visiting the Camden Market. I will get there by tube, I should remember to get off on Camden Town station. There is no entrance fee.

FRIDAY

In the morning I'd like visit The British Museum. I should buy a £52.00 individual membemship. I will get there by tube, the nearest station is Holborn station, the Museum is about 500m from there.
After I get lunch I will take the tube again and will visit Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, I should get off on Baker Street station, the museum is a two minute walk from there. An adult ticket costs £28.80.

SATURDAY

I'd like to visit the Royal Artillery Museum, one of the world's oldest military museums. The ticket costs only £5.30. I will get there by train.


SUNDAY

I will spend my last day in the London Zoo. I really love birds, so I can't leave London without visit the Zoo. The ticket costs £48.00.


The total cost for visiting all these places is £182.14, but I will spend more money than that because I'd like to bring some gifts for my family and friends.

My favourite piece of technology

Hi there,

Today's post is about a piece of technology I like so much, in one word: computers.

I received my first computer as christmas gift when I was 13 years old, it was a revolution in my life. I use it almost daily to check my email, read the news, and look for resources related with my field of study.

I have a large collection of physics books in pdf format, each one carefully organized in folders corresponding to specific topics in physics.

I like computers because a computer is like a human brain. They are made of a lot of parts, each part with different functions, controlling different aspects, but each one equally important, because every part is needed to create a fully functional unit.

The life is much easy with computers, I hardly can imagine how different life was before they where invented.

Currently, I'm studying the Newton's laws of motion in a course of classical mechanics at university, they where published by Isaac Newton in 1687 (more than three centuries ago!), I think they are quite complicated now and I can't even imagine how Newton and other people made great discoveries and advances with just a pen and a piece of paper.

Something Peculiar!!

Hello again,

Surfing the web I've just found this peculiar publication: http://listverse.com/2010/12/03/10-controversial-apocalyptic-theories/

It's a about the top 10 controversial apocalyptic theories. Some particularly peculiar theories listed are the following:

The biblical book of apocalypse (also known as the book of Revelation), ranked 10th in the list, it states the world will suffer from earthquakes, fire, plague, hailstorms, and many other calamities. After these cataclysmic events, the Antichrist will gain domination over the world.

Occuping the 9th place is the hindu profecy named Kali yuga. Kali yuga is known as the age of the demon, Kali. It states that the world will destroy ifself, humanity will deteriorate and fall into barbarism.





The world war III is listed in the 7th place, it claims that the end of the world will be the result of a global war involving more than 2 continents.

The Geomagnetic Reversal fenomenon is in the 4th place. This theory involves the inversion of earth's magnetic field, during this period it will not protect us from the dangerous radiation that comes from space and the life at Earth will not be possible.

Other theories are a pandemic that will spread over a wide geographical area, or throughout many countries, the eruption of a super volcano that will block out sunlight for several years, causing worldwide famines and life extinction.

Definitely a peculiar publication.

A place where I'd like to go

Hello again,

Today's post is about the place in the world where I'd like to study, work, or live.
Hard question, but I always have admired the United States, particularly the states of New York and California.
I like those states because both seem to be cosmopolitan places.

New York is one of those places where you can think like you are at the capital of the world, because there you can see people from practically all countries and potentially learn a lot from their cultures. Unfortunately, New York is a quite freezing place in the winter.

On the other hand (or "in the other coast") there is the state of California, one of the richest states of USA. I liked the city of San Francisco, one of the major cities in California, because it has a mediterranean weather - you will never see snow there -, there are a lot of places to go like for example: Chinatown, restaurants, the Golden Gate bridge, the old prison of Alcatraz, and the beach.

My dream is go to San Francisco and study a Phd in Physics (or in Biophysics) after I finish my undergraduate studies. I'd like to study at University of California or Stanford, respectively placed in the cities of Berkeley and Palo Alto, both near to San Francisco.

A website related to my career

Today, I'm presenting www.arxiv.org, an excellent website related to my career.

Arviv.org is an online database which contains thousands of scientific publications called "papers". These papers are organized by area and come from people working at universities around the world. The website also has an internal search engine where you can look for publications related to a specific topic.

Each publication contains information about the authors and the institution where they work - in most of cases a university -. There are several publications from the science faculty of University of Chile, most of them are related to theoretical physics and math.

You also can see online the full content of the paper and download it as ".pdf" file if you wish.

I like this website because there I can realize how big the world is and how many people are interested in the same topics I am.

Introduction

Hello everyone,

I've just created this blog in order to practice my english.

I live in Santiago, Chile. I'm currently attending at an english class at University of Chile, my teacher is Daniela Silva, she also studied at University of Chile and seems to be a very nice person.

I'm studying Physics at the science faculty, I currently have four classes: Classical Mechanics, Algebra, Calculus, and Introduction to Science. 

My faculty is part of the "Juan Gómez Millas" campus. The campus has the name of a distinguished teacher of my country. There are several other faculties in my campus, for example: Philosophy and Humanities, Education, and Journalism.

A very interesting place in campus is "the grasses" where students spend time together, talk, drink, and create bondings with each other.


That's all I can say for now.

Mauricio