Answers

[elenor-titania-deactivated20250]

Here it comes the special, reblog what do you want, Miguel will be dramatically touch his instrument until we reach the 20 fav and reblogs >,<

[ondenaguer]

Manly Scream

~Anuski~

[hemisthree]

[everyanswer]

The Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci sequence

     The Golden ratio and the Fibonacci sequence are very interwoven in one aspect, the Golden Spiral. I will not go deep into the matter of these two, since they are still too complicated for my understanding, but I will present you a fact that has been particularly interesting to me. 

     The Golden ratio, usually substituted by phi (φ), is best described as this: a golden ratio is found in the golden section, a segment divided in two using the golden ratio, this will be true if the sum of line a (longer line) plus line b is to line a as line a is to line b. a+b:a as a:b. That proportion makes up phi, the golden ratio, which estimates to 1.61803398874989. 

      If you take a rectangle, divide the rectangle into a smaller one inside, the smaller rectangle must have proportion to the bigger rectangle, the proportion must be phi, and continue that until you can’t see the rectangles, then draw an arc from one vertex to its opposite, and continue it with the next rectangle, you will have a golden spiral. 

     There are other ways to explain it. If the long side of the rectangle is phi, and the short side is 1, when you draw a square inside the rectangle of sides 1, you will have as a residue a golden rectangle. This is true for all rectangles that are proportionate, if you follow the golden ratio. 

      The Fibonacci sequence can be used also. The Fibonacci sequence is a numerical sequence that is as follows: the sum of the last two numbers equal the next number. 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55… To build a spiral, now called a Fibonacci spiral, you need the Fibonacci tiling. This is basically two one-unit squares adjacent to each other, on one of the sides a two-unit square, which build a rectangle, on the side of this rectangle a three-unit square, which build a bigger rectangle, and on its side a five-unit square, and so on and so on. Which will look something like this: 

      After that you only have to draw an arc from one corner to the opposite corner and continue it until you have a spiral. 

[bookmania]

[everyanswer]

Tao Te Ching: Chapter 8:

  The highest goodness resembles water

Water greatly benefits myriad things without contention

It stays in places that people dislike

Therefore it is similar to the Tao

  Dwelling with the right location

Feeling with great depth

Giving with great kindness

Speaking with great integrity

Governing with great administration

Handling with great capability

Moving with great timing

  Because it does not contend

It is therefore beyond reproach

[everyanswer]

Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.

George Orwell (1984) 

[everyanswer]

Margin Buying

     Margin Buying. Its simply buying securities with money borrowed from a broker, while using other securities as collateral. Why do I dedicate a post to this? You’ll find out. 

     Today there are minimum margin requirements, which require that the margin be larger than the loan. This is so that the broker is protected against the default in payment if the investor can’t pay after a fall in value of the bought securities. 

      That is now. In the 1920’s, which were characterized by the rise of stock exchange between the working class, the requirements were loose, and brokers only asked for a tenth of the loan as collateral. That meant that when the market started to contract, and people received margin calls, which meant that their margin was below the minimum margin requirements, people started selling their other securities to deal with the margin. That was because they needed to replenish their margin or the broker would sell their margin securities, so that he wouldn’t lose any money. Unexpected margin calls can cause a domino effect and effectively crash an asset class. Since a lot of people can’t cover the margin, they are lead slowly in a downward spiral. If I said that this happened in the 1920’s, what do you think is the importance of this?

       This was one of the main contributors to the Great Depression, since people had more debts than they could pay because of the market devaluation and the margin calls. 

      If you need to say or ask something, don’t hesitate. 

[everyanswer]

A bit of Arab history

      A bit of Arab history, for the curious ones. 

     Muhammad was born by the end of the 6th century, and in the 7th century founded the Islamic religion. This unified the whole of the Arab peninsula, which then went on a conquering spree all over the north of Africa, and almost Europe. (I already mentioned that from 611 to 1492 there was a war in Spain against the more invaders, which the Catholic kings won). While the whole of Europe was engulfed in the Middle Ages, which were a time of cultural, economic and social stagnation, the Arab kingdom was on the rise. They established the Caliphates, monarchies all in unity with the Islamic community, Ummah, with the same religion and culture. In order these were, the Four Orthodox Caliphates, elected by the religious community, Omeya Caliphate, with its capital in Damascus, Abbasi Caliphate, bringing the Islamic religion to the east, Fatimi Caliphate, with its capital in Cairo, Caliphate of Cordoba or Al-Andalus, located in Spain, and the Ottoman Caliphate.

     Yes, the one who blocked trade routes in the 15th century, invaded the decaying Byzantine empire through the Anatolia peninsula and the one from Assassin's Creed. The Ottoman empire grew to its time of splendor in the 15th century, by the end of the 17th century the Ottoman empire had begun decaying, and by WWI it couldn't hold together. And it wasn't until the 19th century that Europe started recolonizing the North of Africa. The Ottoman empire finally collapsed in 1924, and became the Republic of Turkey. Egypt was of the English, Morroco was of the Spanish and French, Western Sahara of the Spanish, Mauritania of the French, Libya of the Italians, Northern Sudan of the English, Syria  of the French, Lebanon of the French, Jordanian of the English, Iraq of the English, Somalia of the Italians, French and English. 

     After 1924, all the countries started a process of independence that led to the organization they have today, as of 1945. Even though, in the next decades they would all suffer coups and state of emergency declaration which would help the rules perpetuate their rule and lead, ultimately, to the Arab Spring. 

      Comments and questions are really welcome!

[everyanswer]

Telomeres

     Telomeres are basically the hat found at the end of chromosomes. They are formed by the same nucleic acids as the DNA, but their function isn’t of being part of the genetic code. They prevent the genetic code from fusing with other parts of DNA, and from wearing out. 

     The only cells in the human body that contain telomerase (the enzyme that create telomeres) are stem cells and some white blood cells. This said, its safe to say that human cells, somatic cells, do not contain telomerase, thus, they do not create telomeres. The fixed amount of telomeres accounts for a fixed amount of cell division. So when we get to a certain time in our life, our cells stop dividing, and we start wearing out, dying of old age.

     Just theorysing (or something) here, but, if we injected a bit of telomerase into our bodies, in order to create telomeres, wouldn’t that make us live healthier, longer? Of course, that is dangerous, because cancer cells also have telomerase, which account for their fast duplication. But we shouldn’t let fear get the best of us, and study this.

     You can still ask anything you want.    

[samsaranmusing-deactivated20140]

That strange looking “device” is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) photograph of a bacteriophage, a type of virus. It looks more like a machine than an organism and machine it is. It is a hypodermic needle on an atomic scale. The cap contains DNA. The shaft is used to penetrate the cellular membrane and inject the virus DNA into bacterium reprogramming the cell to make more viruses. The “legs” attach it to the bacterium while the job is done.

A virus has no sensory apparatus and even if it did it wouldn’t work because it has no nervous system. Yet, somehow, our friend the bacteriophage locates its victim, maneuvers into position, latches on and injects its DNA. How? Nobody knows. Ask a biologist and they will mumble about “Brownian motion” and then they will grudgingly admit that they don’t know but then hasten to add “there must be a scientific explanation but we haven’t found it yet”. Fair enough. The sheer volume of what we do not understand about the natural world is overwhelming. We, for all of our sophistication, for all our conceit, know just the tiniest fraction of what there is to be known

[everyanswer]

Interesting how viruses are so life-like, but aren't considered alive. 

[everyanswer]

Arab Spring

      I already made a post on the Arab Spring (as well as one about Egypt and another about Libya) But I am not content with them, and with help of an investigative project my brother performed, I will talk about them a little deeper. All credit goes to him. 

     The Arab Spring was all inspired on one man, Mohammed Buoazizi. Buoazizi was a vendor in Sidi Bouzid, a city in Tunisia. He was one of eight brothers, and the only one with a job to support the family. He had dropped out of college at 19, and wasn't accepted in the Army, so he had to deal with the intense economical repression and political stagnation. Police were awfully rough with him, and politicians only insulted him. One day, police threw all his inventory to the ground, leaving him without anything, another day, a female politician slapped him, that being the worst insult in the Arab countries. He dealt with that until December 17th, 2010, when he went with 5 liters of gasoline and in the middle of the square and immolated himself in front of two officers. He died January 4th, 2011. He never knew what would be the effect of his suicide. Because the public quickly started feeling for the intellectual, who had to throw his life away to fill in the necessities of his family. 

     More in the next post.

[everyanswer]

Cinematography (Film History) Part 2

The film's silent era lasted from the late 19th century, to the 1920's. During those first years in the 20th century, films were accompanied by live musicians, sound effects, and sometimes commentary by the showman or projectionist. In 1907 there were about 4,000 small “nickelodeon” cinemas in the United States. In the beginning, the "programme" made up of a few films to be shown in the cinema, would be changed twice a week, but with the rising of this business, there was a time when programmes were changed five times a week. 

In the US, the biggest film companies decided to join and form the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC) to combine all their patents and use them to "control the American film business". But due to the increase of new and independent film companies in a short time, the MPPC had effectively been defeated in its plan to control the whole United States market.

The reel of film, of maximum length 1,000 feet which usually contained one individual film, became the standard unit of film production and exhibition in this period. But around 1910, films longer than one reel began to appear. One example of a four-reel film was The Story of the Kelly Gang, made in Australia, in 1906. More multi-reel films were made in Europe than in the United States after 1906, because the MPPC insisted on working on the basis of one-reel films up until 1912.

Throughout the 1910s, new American film companies appeared, with a different vision. Some filmmakers began to have a special interest on a specific genre when developing films. Others moved from New York (which up to that point it was the place where most film productions were carried out) to California, to escape the monopoly of the Edison Company. There were even companies who wanted to make films using only the best dramatists, artists and actors. And because of the wild film boom, other countries decided to join Britain, France, and the United States in the film production. Some of these were Italy (Giovanni Pastrone), Denmark (Ole Olsen, Viggo Larsen), Sweden (Charles Magnusson, Victor Sjostrom, Mauritz Stiller), Rusia (Aleksandr Drankov, Aleksandr Khanzhonkov), and Germany (Oskar Messter).

[samsaranmusing-deactivated20140]

Nothingness: A Parable of Zen

Master Po sat quietly in the garden absorbed in contemplation when a young monk approached him. “Master”, he said “I am troubled”. The teacher bade him sit next to him.  ”What is troubling you young acolyte?” he asked. “Nothingness is troubling me” he replied.  ”How so” the master asked his eyes half closed.  ”I know we are to seek nothingness but why is this so … is not death nothingness … why do we seek death while still alive?” the young man asked with puzzlement. 

The master took a tea cup and filled it and asked “what is the state of this cup?” “Why it is full master” replied the student.  Master Po then dumped the tea onto the ground.  ”What is its state now? he asked. “It is empty” the young monk replied. “Is it now?” said the teacher and plunged the “empty cup” into the water open side down trapping the air inside … he then tipped the cup so that trapped air escaped and bubbled to the surface. He went on “if the cup was empty where did the bubbles come from?. The young man looked at his teacher with a new admiration and said “so the cup was never really empty?” His teacher replied “no it was not but there was no room in the cup for air when it was filled with water just as there is no room for the oneness of God when you are filled with self.”

Postscript: I wrote this parable partly in response to the young person who wrote that her youth pastor warned her of the “danger” of emptiness.  Young “anon”, if you are out there, I am sorry I did not give your message the attention it deserved when I first received it.  I hope this little story clears things up for you a bit.

Samsaran

[everyanswer]

Taoism

     Taoism. As I already mentioned, I watched the Avatar series and now I'm strangely interested in Eastern philosophy. Taoism to be more specific. 

     Taoism is based on the Tao, or the Way, which is the source and drive of everything. The founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, did so with the key literature of the religion or philosophy, whichever you want to call it, the Tao Te Ching. Another contributor to Taoist literature, even if he wasn't aware of it, was Zhuangzi.   

     Taoism isn't an institutionalized religion, like the Church, but consists of teachings. This is so because the religion is very separated, but small family institutions exist. The oldest one being the Celestial Masters School. The priest are called Daoshi. 

     One of the principal tenets of Taoism is Wu Wei, or non-action. In other words, action disrupts the universe's harmony and therefore is against the Tao, so they do not take action, that way they can be close to the Tao and the state of Ming (enlightenment). Another tenet is the Three Jewels; Compassion, Moderation and Humility. And Naturalness, basically being what you are in essence, without the influence of culture. Taoism is very close to the School of Yin-Yang.

     The obviously most important symbol of Taoism is the Taijitu, or the Yin Yang. It represents the existence of opposites, but that its wrong to call them that because they are complementary. Differently from what our mathematical reasoning tells us, opposites do not destroy each other, but in fact one cannot survive without the other. The Ba Gua is another symbol, consisting of eight trigrams representing eight elements in terms of yin and yang. 

     In Taoism there isn't a god like in most western religions, but rather they have a pantheon, and, depending on the school, they have different deities. Popular Taoism has the Jade Emperor as principal deity, but intellectual Taoism, like the Celestial Masters, have Lao Tzu and the Three Pure Ones as the head deities. The Three Pure Ones are the manifestation of the Tao. In the Ba Gua it is said that the limitless (Wuji) created the limited (Taiji), and the limited created two forms, Yin and Yang. 

     Taoist normally practice two martial arts, Tai chi and Baguazhang. Both are internal martial arts and very interesting. That is all I will mention, but if you are curious and want to read the Tao Te Ching, I exhort and welcome you to do it. And remember to ask. 

[everyanswer]

The Gunpowder Plot

      The Gunpowder Plot was a failed assassination attempt of King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby in 1605. This was because hopes of securing religious tolerance under King James had now disappeared. Therefore they planned to blow up the House of Lords, during the State Opening of England’s Parliament on November the 5th.

     Guy Fawkes, the most famous constituent of the revolt, was put in charge of the explosives since he had 10 years of military training in the suppression of the Dutch Revolt. But on the 26th of October, William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, received an anonymous letter telling away the plot. The 4th of November, at midnight, the House of Lords was searched and they found Guy Fawkes there, guarding enough explosives to send the House of Lords to better life. He was arrested, and a lot of conspirators fleed, while some fought and died. The 27th of January, 1606, Guy Fawkes and 8 other survivors were tried, convicted and hanged. And also a Jesuit, Father Henry Garnet, who supposedly knew of the plot, by confession, but was unable to say anything of it.   

     This revolt was caused by the Anglican church of England. After Henry VIII had separated England from the Roman Catholic Church, and Elizabeth I introduced the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, which made the population tied to the Anglican church, came King James I of England VI of Scotland. At first he was tolerant of the Catholic religion, until an incident regarding a rosary, Sir Anthony Danten and his wife, Queen Anne, he started a persecution trying to get the Catholics out of England. 

[everyanswer]

Avatar: The Last Airbender; The Legend of Korra

     So I watched the series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Avatar: The Lengend of Korra, back to back. And I have to say, they're lovely.

     Most of the people who like Avatar will disagree with me but I sincerely liked the first. The first focused more on the spiritual side of the Avatar, and I felt as if they presented, in a very unique manner, some East philosophy. 

     I won't say that I considered Korra a bit too fast, because it was only meant to be one season (although with that story you could have made at least 3). But Korra is too shallow (not the character, the story).

     In Aang's series the four elements had four peculiarities in philosophy, conduct, martial art. For those who didn't notice, waterbenders were practitioners of Tai Chi, firebenders of Northern Shaolin wushu, Airbenders of Bagua Zhan, and Earthbenders of Hung Ga wushu. That's why waterbenders looked so gentle and swift, almost like dancing, firebenders looked quick and sharp, airbenders looked flexible and very avoidant, and earthbenders looked just like they do. Every nation had a different attitude, since the Air nomads were searching for balance, the Fire nation was as consuming as fire is, the earth were stubborn, and the water were graceful. But in the legend of Korra they degraded those martial arts into some king of commercial boxing which terribly reminds me of Ip Man 2. Attitude was globalized. And they didn't present fresh ideas. 

     Korra lacks that Iroh character. (Of course there's General Iroh, p.s. terrible voice! It's obviously Zuko! I mean that wise old man, that gives some strange wisdom. Tenzin would be perfect, but he doesn't talk much.) 

     Korra's story is very intriguing still. Very political, very modern, and I like it. Because if it were real life that would happen! People would ask for equality! 

      BUT, I HAVE HOPES FOR THE SECOND SEASON! SPIRIT! The second season I feel will be perfect. Because I want to see that connection of Avatars. 

[everyanswer]

I searched intellect in the tags, and I found you. I couldn't help but notice that you wrote that people only follow you for the sole purpose of you always following back. I'm going to follow you, but for the sole purpose of you not following me back, and because I like to see other's opinions on life and it's many challenges. So, if you wouldn't find it too odd, I'd like to follow you without you returning the favor!

      That's a weird ask, but ok! I'm going to start posting again. And sorry, I'm very impulsive. Btw, I never got notification of this message. -_-