Science fiction which became science in 2012

This list of things and events which happened in 2012 defies belief - it's amazing that not-so-long ago, we were thinking these would only happen in movies.


Yes, it's a list, and some are a bit "far-fetched", but it's not that bad and there are several jaw-droppers there. What do you think? Anyone missing?

Spectacular heart animation

I always wondered how the heart manages to work so "intelligently" - this 4-minute video is fantastic in showing how, with strategically-located electric generators, the heart works like a perfect pump.



It is quite impressive. Did you like it?

Some small wins

The Interwebz is full of win, and I go to great length to find these small snippets of happiness. One is this image below, the rest is below the break.


Click below for a small, cute example of how you can win with only some dominoes... and time. A lot of time.

The story of the week: unforgivable omission

How could I have left our friend Oscar from this racconto of the bestest and greatest of short stories! His wit is definitely epic. His characters are amazing! His imagination, prodigious! His short phrases are almost stories:

- Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
- Do you have anything to declare, sir? - Nothing but my genius.


Our flamboyant friend, Oscar Wilde, is definitely welcome amongst the pages of SapioBlog, with one of his most famous stories. As usual, after the break.

EDITORIAL: Guns'n'Love


A few days ago I received the newsletter that my son’s kindergarten issues weekly. The tract is clearly not The New Yorker but I read it every time, most likely out of guilt – a powerful emotion in those of us raised as Catholics.


It seems that last week the teachers decided that instead of saying Good Morning they will start every day –and instigate kids to follow suit- saying ‘I love you’. The bloody hippies. What can I expect next? Meat is murder? Give peace a chance? Save the rainforest?

25 words that don't exist in English

Interesting article to show words that simply don't exist in English. I love, of course, "Schadenfreude", but the one that takes the piss is this one (number two in the list):

Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude.


Fantastic! Which one is your favourite one? (By the way, "duende", as expressed in the list, is wrong - I don't know where he takes that definition from... "duende" in Spanish means gnome, or poltergeist, or little magic man).

The song of the weekend: unless you've been living in a tupper...

...you've heard about the Harlem Shake. This manic way of dancing, coupled with a good editing of the videos (before and after the "bass drops"), make each of these almost a happening. See 10 of the best below. Some of them are hilarious.



Which one did you like the best?

You. Yes, YOU! Want to get your hands on a Google Glass set?

For those of you who know what Google Glass is, skip to after the video. For those of you who haven't seen this post yet (in Spanish but with video in English), see this new video to understand what it means and what you can do with them:



Cool, huh? Anyway, Google is now expanding the testing, with headsets to be given out to "explorers" (for whatever that means). So, if you reckon you're an explorer (aaand you live in the US) - do give them a shout here.

Enjoy the ride (and if you do get one, pls comment here using them!) :-)

The biggest predators who ever lived

I find this infograph extremely interesting. Did you know the biggest predator who ever lived... is still alive today?


This brings reminiscences from when I used to be obsessed with dinosaurs (no, not last week - more when I was 10-11!).

Hi res here.

Epic music visualization is epic!

I love these alternative ways of looking at how music plays. Watch this video below for a great example of how technology can help the experience of music. I, for one, will never listen to "The Flight of the Bumblebee" the same way ever again.



Did you like it?

The story of the week: a Russian genius

Anton Chekhov was a Russian writer, considered by many one of the greatest short-play writers of all time. He wrote several plays and short stories. One of them is below, and it's essentially an argument between the life imprisonment or the death sentence. Even though it reads almost like an essay, it is quite good.


Did you like it?

Past and present in photos

This is not that original, but it's still nice. This article compiles 10 of the best past/present pics - with the particular concept that the present ones, have to imitate the past as faithfully as possible.


While some are a bit obvious, others are quite cool, such as this one.


Why don't you go through your old pics and try to recreate them?

My post images are not usually on topic...

... but when they are, they are epic.

This image goes so well with this article about toxoplasmosis in cats and how it affects humans, that it's uncanny.

I would like to call the topic "cunning in the parasite world".

The song of the weekend: Chevy Chase

True story: when I saw this video for the first time, I was convinced Chevy Chase was Paul Simon, and I couldn't really guess who was the other shorty guy who was playing all the instruments. Silly me.


Anyway, I saw it when I was 12, so I can be forgiven. I guess.

Did you like it?

Nerdy Valentine

I thought this T-shirt was a good Valentine's gift... don't you think?

Happy Valentine's Day!

恭喜發財 - Happy Year of the Snake!


Don't touch the TV screen, sir, madam - the title of the post is ok. You should read it like this: "Kung Hei Fat Choy"... and it means "Happy New Year"... or does it?


Actually, it DOESN'T mean that, but Chinese use it as a salutation. Its literal translation means:
Kung Hei = 恭喜 = congratulations
Fat Choy = 發財 = prosperous, become wealthy

Together they mean "I wish you the best of fortunes" - Chinese people are VERY direct in anything relating to money. The year that begins is the Year of the Snake - or the year of opportunities!

Here in Honkers, and in China (of course) people are celebrating crazily - you will probably see the fireworks of the Hong Kong Bay in the news... And most probably you'll see them better than me (and I LIVE in bloody HK, for crying out loud!

Anyway - enjoy! Kong Hei Fat Choy and see you next Chinese New Year!

(REPOST IN ENGLISH AND WITH SLIGHT MODIFICATIONS OF THIS POST (OF LAST YEAR), OUR MOST-READ POST... EVER).

Fantastic, fantastic sketch: "who's on first?"

This duo has been unjustly forgotten, in my opinion. They are a-mazing. I bet you cannot avoid laughing...



Had you seen them before?

The story of the week: when Cthulhu calls...

...you answer the phone, of course.

H.P. Lovecraft, considered by many the precursor of the horror genre, wrote a lot of weird (and fantastic) stories. His most famous is after the jump. Read it, and know what all the nerds are talking about when they say things like "Cthulhu" or "R'lyeh".

Cthulhu a bit angry. You don't want Cthulhu angry.
Did you like it? Even if you didn't, you are now a honorary nerd.

Art with optical effects

I found this very, very interesting artist (Jonty Horwitz), who does something I haven't seen before - he does art in a way that is only visible through the light deviation of a metal cylinder. Quite original.




He also does something that I've seen before already, but which is still very nice:



The whole article (including some videos) here.

You always wanted to learn another language...

... and this is your chance to start, by a former Googler who created Duolingo. The concept? You learn another language while helping translate languages for them. And as you are helping, the course is 100% free.

Relevant
I have already started learning Portuguese. You?

The song of the weekend: I REALLY like this song

For different reasons:

- It's simple enough to play in the piano or guitar
- I like the melody and the crescendos in it
- I really like the lyrics, where Phil is the anti-hero loser... I felt identified
- I love the fact that this song would not have been possible now, in the time of cell phones, texts and Internet. So in a way it has aged more than others... that's also why I love it.



Do you like it?

Teodicy explained...

...and by none other than Zach Weiner, the genius creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I... will just leave this here.

Asterisk says "An explanation for how God
can have those 3 qualities
while there is suffering in the world".
Interesting, isn't it?

What happens when you divide 1 by 998001?

Amazing things. That's what happens. But this video from our friends at Numberphile tries to explain WHY it does it... quite interesting, don't you think?



I still remember in primary school, entering 99.999.999 into the calculator (the maximum it allowed) and performing square root as many times as it could (until it became 1). I recall pressing it 23 times. What a difference, no?

If you saw the documentary of Einstein...

...that I posted here, and you wanted more at the end... here is your remedy.



This will answer the question "Do I think like Einstein?" (The answer is... probably NO).

The Story of the Week: that escalated quickly

In this story by Flannery O'Connor, written more than 70 years ago, what starts out as a family holiday starts going out of kilt almost from the beginning... and it doesn't get any better.

Old style of writing and some curiosities (like the use of the word "Negro", that now shocks but was common in those days).


As usual, after the break. Take some time with this one.

Dark cities

The photographer Thierry Cohen took an interesting approach. He took pictures of famous cities and city landmarks, darkened them (with Photoshop) and added how the sky would look if the city had no artificial lights, at night. He used realistic photos based on actual star positions, so this is as close as it will ever be to see the starred sky in Shanghai, New York or Sao Paulo...


Nice, no? The rest, here.

The sound of time travel

I was going to title this post like the YouTube video's title: "Red Hot Nickel Ball in Water"...



But then I saw the most voted comment, which is almost poetic in its beauty, and which I agree with:


And that, my dear reader, is the reason for this post's name.


The song of the weekend: Liv needs you tonight

I love original covers of songs I like. And this one is original (albeit with a bit too cliché video) - Liv is not only beautiful but can also sing.



Did you like it?