I break for one post the diary from Africa series.
When I was a child in primary school, my teacher asked us to jot down a story with us as characters. Most people would have written about a picnic, I went for a Science-Fiction-Thriller.
At the height of the Cold War, I imagined a near future where Europe and Russia were united together, and the enemy was a super-state born from the US’s annexion of most of the Americas. In this story, me and my classmate had to skate all the way up to Moscow to disable a weapon or explain a situation to some powerful man sitting in the Cremlin, and wish away a war. Crazy stuff uh?
I was reminded of this this morning when I heard that Poland is now joining the EU’s Schengen Area. This is causing lots of protests from Ukrainian, who were used to freely cross the Polish border to trade (food for tobacco and alcool), but now an’t any longer. I guess they will be the next to enter the EU, then. yet, I was surprised by how quickly the EU has grown during my lifetime… Where will it stop? At the South, Turkey is pressing to enter, how much before the whole Mediterranean Sea is encircled by it?
At the same time, a US Homeland Security officer yells that Europe is a breeding ground for the terrorists’ next generation… May be my childish story caught the attention of a much more influential storyteller… (that’s megalomania, for you)
I say goodbye to my old and battery-incontinent Nikon CoolPix 2100, who served me well for four years and still is in perfect operating conditions, exception made for the fact that a plastic flap has broken and she can’t keep her batteries inside any longer. I will be happy to use it again underwater, if I only could find the waterproff case which costed me almost as much as the camera itself.
from now on, however, my main camera will be a Panasonic DMC TZ-3 (blue), one of the best long-zoom compact cameras one can find on the market.
very small ibn size, with hi quality Leica lenses and a formidable 28-280mm equivalent, it goes flawlessly from wide to tele. haven’t had the ocasion to try it yet, yesterday I left the batteries to charge.
Tonight I plan on trying it out in some inside shots, followed by outdoor shots in the following days. But she’ll have her camp day in one month, when I’ll hop on the plane to visit Rwanda!
I happened to listen to this song some minutes ago… For the first time, I listen to what it said. Sad. Yet that’s how I felt two years ago. Now things are different, may be better, yet I still feel something piercing my heart when I think back… So, here’s to the past:
Yesterday All my troubles seemed so far away Now it looks as though they’re here to stay Oh, I believe In yesterday
Suddenly I’m not half the man I used to be There’s a shadow hanging over me Oh, yesterday Came suddenly
Why she Had to go I don’t know She wouldn’t say I said Something wrong now I long For yesterday
Yesterday Love was such an easy game to play Now I need a place to hide away Oh, I believe In yesterday
Why she Had to go I don’t know She wouldn’t say I said Something wrong now I long For yesterday
Yesterday Love was such an easy game to play Now I need a place to hide away Oh, I believe In yesterday
I am inserting today one more link to a friend’s blog: Emiliano is a guy from my birth-city, and he was my pusher for many years, when his bookshop was the only reliable source of comic book in the whole city. Of course you could get them elsewhere, but only there you had your pigeon-hole where he’d carefully slot the latest copy of DragonBall or Ranma 1/2. I still come around the bookshop every time I’m around there, although I rarely if ever get the time to read the stuff. Comics have bored me, sort of. The latest manga look boy-ish, Bonelli’s are monotonous and badly told. Most likely, exposure to the broader stream of english literature opened my eyes on the real (lack of) quality of (some, most) comic books. Only the old glories I can keep reading, but it’ most likely due to the emotions they re-awake in me than anything else.
Remember Ranma 1/2? During my university year it was one of my favorite comic books. here’s the italian version of the anime opening theme.
So, why is this post tagged as science? Well, cause I was listening to Nature Podcast from 07/06/07 and heard that some scientist elucidated the reason why menthol tastes ‘cold’. Long story short, it (presumably binds and) activates a Na/Ca ion channel, present in our tongue but also in other sensory terminations (see menthol shower-gels), which is normally active only at temperatures below 28 degrees. Hence, the ‘cold’ sensation. Cool, ain’t it?
Why Ranma as title holder? well, cause for this character those termination were pretty important, since a bucket of cold water would transform him into a her (just like the song says). Now imagine if he had known this. May be now we would be able to cure his/her curse?
PS: the title says: Is it warm? Is it cold? It makes a difference! (from the italian theme song)
PPS: Incidentally, I’ve also worked on ion channels, during my previous year (expressed in the heart, though, not in the tongue) and will present my in silico models at Lille, France, this first week of july. See you there may be
I just happened to listen to its theme song on my shiny new MP3 Player – courtesy of the company, for winning the internal safety contest – in fact I did not deserve it, since during the drill I did ignore the fire alarm thinking that it was just a test of bells and whistles…
Well never mind.
Anyway, I did like this series, although I felt as if it was a rip off of Space Battleship Yamato, certainly more iconic – Matsumoto’s style is unmissable.
