LIGHTSABER IS REAL?

I don't want to miss the opportunity to talk about this man...

Alex Burkan!

But, who is he?

He is a Russian youtuber who shows some artifacts invented by himself.

For example...

The Ivan Vanko suit, or...

An early prototype of the Ironman suit and more recently...

A real lightsaber resembling Vader's saber...

As you can imagine I was really surprised when I saw it.

And it's that while here my students investigate about the best way to produce hydrogen and they try to put it into the combustion engine; this guy invented a 3 foot plasma sword tip that reaches 5000° F. To me, really impressive.

The truth would not have occurred to me.

At the moment. Obtaining hydrogen is possible if you look towards natural gas, oil or biomass derived from wood. But it isn't the only way. Today there are three industrial methods for obtaining hydrogen: molecular transformation, carbon gasification and water electrolysis.

Obtaining plasma on Earth generally requires high temperatures or high electric fields and a high vacuum. First, a container with the gas to be converted into plasma is necessary.

One characteristic of plasma is its density, which is really low. And then if you want to produce plasma, you need few gas particles and burn them so that they heat up and expand rapidly to get the electrons to break apart, getting ions. The technology on Earth is invented but it's difficult for anyone to obtain.

But you may want to know more about Burkan's lightsaber, so here's a link on youtube: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SojXRashTs4

IN A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY

Are you a fan of Star Wars?

Do you know Darth Sidious?

Have you ever counted how many times Darth Sidious died in the movies?

Ok, today I want to discuss this specific character, because I was watching the Sixth Episode with my son, when he said to me: "Dad, have you noticed that Darth Sidious died four times?". So I said: "No, just one... maybe it was a bad idea to say that he never actually died, but he only died once".

After that he said: "But dad, first he hited himself several times when he was falling after Darth Vader threw him... I think maybe that should have killed him". And me: "Maybe yes, but you don't know the power of the dark side. Maybe he used the force to protect himself".

But the child insisted: "Aha, but after that the Death Star exploted"... And again: "... I think maybe that should have killed him".

At which point I started to smile and said: "Ok, ok, but  maybe someone saved him..."

He then commented: "But who knows if he was falling? Supreme Leader Snoke? And how many time to take him on a spaceship and take off?"

And then I try to finish the conversation by saying: "Ok, my dear son, that's why we haven't seen the Ninth Episode again. I think it's the second worst of  the whole series."

After a few seconds he asked me: "What's the worst?"

And I just said: "The Eighth Episode, of course"

And now my friends... It's your turn... What do you think?

If you want to know more about who is Darth Sidious in Star Wars, you can see this link - https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Darth_Sidious

HAPPY 25 YEARS

I am starting this year with mixed feelings, because on the one hand I am at home saving the quarentine, but on the other hand I am celebrating 25 years as a teacher. So, right now I feel a bit confused and happy.

But I am not going to talk about those feelings right now. Because I came to think that after 25 years of teaching, it would be dificult surprise me with any profile. But that has chanched, because in the last year I have had experiences with groups with very disruptive profiles.

People who never spoke, always participated in virtual classes; and the people who never did their homework, during the quarantine they always had it on time and everything was fine. And that was the same case with other types of profiles.

Sometimes, I was surprised by the ability of some students to adapt to change and take their classes online; while for other profiles it was more difficult.

At this moment, a few days after returning to the 100% face-to-face modality, I see several reactions that I relate to the resistance to leaving the comfort zone and the fear of change; but this reality requires us to adapt.

In such a way that at this moment I am expecting to see the same type of things, because my current students are not the same and now that I begin the second part of my professional history, I think it will be to start again with this job, from the perspective of the hybrid way of teaching.

Hope all ia well. 

Do you expect the same?

WHERE IS MY CHOCOLATE?

 

The tale of today is based in an antique tale that was related in the novel: "O homem que calculava". This novel was written by the Brazilian Júlio César de Mello e Souza, under the pseudonym Malba Tahan, and, of course, I recomend you.

WHERE IS MY CHOCOLATE?

There was a time when three children were arguing because their mother brought them some chocolates and she said:

     - John, as you're the oldest you can take the half the chocolates.

     - George, you're the middle, so you can take a third of them.

     - And you, Alex, because you're the youngest you can take a ninth.

Originally, the bag of chocolates had 20 pieces, but their mom claimed three, one for each of her children. But finally, when she saw her children arguing. She agreed to share one more chocolate with the children. And then the oldest took 9, the middle 6 and the youngest 2.

After all, their mom could take one more chocolate... How was that possible?

If you know why the children were arguing or how is possible that their mom could take one more chocolate, you can write the answer.

Thanks for reading!

UNCOMMON SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES

Hi, Friends!

Today I want to tell you about two movies with a plot of science fiction about sequences in through the time.

The first one is "frecuency" in this movie father and son can comunicate for a radio. But in diferent moments in the time with thirty years of diference. The history start with the change of an accident in the past, when the father die. And then, as you can imagine, with in the present some things changed. Principally, a dangerous criminal never was captured and they need to try solving the crimes. It's really interesting.

In the second one "The lake house" two people can comunicate by mail but they unknow that comunication is with two years of difference in the time. The protagonistes write letters to express feelings and finally they fall in love. 

At the end, "The time traveler's wife" this is an awesome science fiction plot about a person who can travel in the time unknow why. But in his travels he knows the woman with he got married in the future.  

As you can imagine, I can't tell you more of them, but I recommend because all of them are really awesome.

WHAT IF...

In this post, my first post in English, I want to ask you if you have ever seen or read the story about the Death of Superman. If you have read it, you must know Doomsday, the monster that killed Superman.

In my opinion, thar tale was amazing and I think that movies do not do justice it. But now I do not want to talk about my impressions of the movies, because I would never finish telling you my biggest disappointments around the character changes and the little details of what I think it will bring the plot to life. And above all, as you know, the book is always better than the movie.

Ok, after my little catharsis, I want to say that I recently thought that Doomsday can beat Superman because Superman cared abount people and his friends. That is the reason why Superman was distracted and tired blow by blow.

Finally, the question is mandatory: What would have happend if Doomsday had faced another type of hero? Someone like Hulk, for example. I think in Hulk because when Dr. Banner is angry he does not think about other people's safety. When he is angy, he just thinks in smashing everything.

And then, what do you think? who would have won Hulk or Doomsday battle? If, in that time, it  had been the green gigant who fought the monster instead of the last boy scout, Superman.

TALLER BILINGÜE

Llega el momento en el que los proyectos deben avanzar y alcanzar nuevos horizontes. En esta ocasión, el reto que he decidido asumir es empezar a emitir mis publicaciones en inglés. Lo realizaré así porque espero agilizar mi mente con éste segundo idioma así lanzarme por una certificación en el idioma.

Las publicaciones continuarán saliendo en periodos aproximados de 15 días; pero ahora en este segundo idioma. Por ellos ya no enviaré las invitaciones personalizadas, pero me gustaría que quienes así lo deseen, me sigan y comenten acerca de las publicaciones. 

Gracias a todos.