@FrancoJTorres

Elder millennial. Expressing my views on life and stuff.

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View of home from Artemis II just a few miles off the Florida coast. It shouldn't have taken this long for NASA to get back here.

Source: NASA

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I really like this track

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The two Mexico earthquakes, visualized

Only 11 days apart, these two earthquakes shook up southern Mexico, including two of the country’s biggest cities, Mexico City and Puebla. This visual from The Washington Post helps visualize the scope of the seismic activity. 

Curiously, the September 19 earthquake occurred on the 32-year anniversary of the devastating earthquake of 1985 that caused catastrophic damage to Mexico City

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I like it when it's 11:11 because there are so many ones. All them ones!

My niece earlier today

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How much water has Harvey poured on Texas?

So hurricane Harvey decided to take a trip to Houston and chill there for a few days. It unleashed an incredible amount of water on Texas. The visual below helps visualize how much water fell in the last few days. Check it out.

It’s unbelievable to think that out of so much water falling on Texas, not a drop fell where I live. 

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My answer to who speaks the best Spanish

Read Franco J. Torres' answer to What country/region/city speaks the most neutral standard Spanish? on Quora

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Check out this song. Listen and tell me what you think. If you don’t speak Spanish, ni modo.

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On the rise of Neftlix

I don’t know about you, but the internet dethroned television as the main source of entertainment for me years ago. Network TV has been dead since Lost. And cable has been kept alive mostly by The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. But other than that, I haven’t been tuning in much.

It wasn’t until late August of 2016 when I finally joined the Netflix bandwagon. It was a warm Texas afternoon during the hottest summer ever. It was a Friday and with no plans to rip me from the comfort of my own home, I browsed the Netflix catalog for something to entertain me. I found Marco Polo, which sparked my interest, so I delved in.

Since that fateful night, I have gotten to know much more of Netflix’s programming and I am impressed. There is great stuff going on here. Game-changing innovation that is turning heads.

I like Netflix for three main reasons: its distribution model, its original programming, and its ambitious budget.

Netflix’s distribution model is free of the restrictive red tape that holds back traditional television. Long gone are the days of scheduling your top programming on Thursday night when the biggest audience is tuning in. Instead, Netflix lets us choose when and where we want to watch our favorite shows & movies. I watch on my laptop or my iPad whenever I want. Furthermore, they make the entire season available — in the case of series — to binge-watch all at once it if pleases you.

The programming itself is fantastic. What’s more, Netflix is producing content in different languages and is exploring themes either forgone or poorly executed by TV studios. So far, I have watched programming in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. However, they are creating content in other languages as well. I love that Netflix is catering to a global audience. Some of my favorite productions so far include The Get Down, House of Cards, Stranger Things, The Crown, Marco Polo, Narcos, and Luke Cage.

Netflix spent a staggering $5 billion in 2016 on original programming (Bloomberg). That’s more than Time Warner, Fox, and Disney. That’s like the budget of the Avengers multiplied by 20. Yeah, that’s crazy money. With that kinda loot, they’re making shows people want to watch.

Rest assured Netflix is gonna be around for a long time. In fact, I believe they will become one of the world’s biggest technology companies. They’ll be up there with Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.

If you didn’t have enough reason to “cut the cord”  before, Netflix might be it. At a fraction of the cost of cable, it gives you more bang for your buck.

So if you will excuse me, I’m going to watch the Luke Cage season finale. Cheers.

[francojtorres]

Zeke & Dak

These two fellars are makin’ history in Dallas. Breakin’ all kindsa records individually and as a team. They’re gonna win a ring or two in the coming years.

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Amy Adams should win some awards for her performance in Arrival. The movie is great too. Don’t expect loud explosions and intergalactic action or anything like that. This is for the thoughtful sci-fi fan. Good stuff.

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#telocico

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Why Kindle is the best e-book reader

If you’re anything like me, then you probably already switched to an all-electronic book format reading experience. The convenience, the features, and so much more make reading on a handheld device a delight. However, there are numerous apps and devices to choose from. So how does one choose? Here is why Amazon Kindle is my choice.

Design. The design is good enough. I’m not crazy about it, but it’s easy on the eyes and it lacks the old school skeuomorphic elements that plagued apps like Apple’s iBooks for years. The interface is clean, the icons are straightforward, and text is legible. The only objection I have is that navigating back to the library from a book is a bit complicated.

Performance. I’ve used the app on four platforms: iOS, web, Windows desktop and Windows Universal. On all of them, the app has performed without any issues. It doesn’t seem to be much of a resource hog and it usually loads in an acceptable timeframe.

Ease of use. The app’s simplicity will make it easy to use for just about anyone. Getting to a book is easy and once there it’s just a matter of swiping to the next page. A major flaw I see is that you can’t purchase and download new books from within the app itself. You must do it from Amazon.com or the Amazon app. What’s up with that Amazon?

Features. Kindle has some features that are standard in modern e-book reader apps, such as an in-app dictionary, bookmarking, highlighting and sharing text. You can also adjust viewer settings such as font size and type, brightness, and background color. There’s a search bar to search for stuff and a navigation bar to jump to different sections of the book. The app will also sync to the cloud so if you have the app installed on several platforms, you can pick up where you left off on any platform.

Usefulness. There are hundreds of thousands of apps out there available for all the different platforms. There is probably, at least one, for every possible function you can think of. So, when I think about installing a new app on any of my devices, I think to myself, do I really need this, or could I do without it? In my case, I own an iPhone and an iPad. They both come with iBooks, which does exactly the same thing, preinstalled. So do I still need it? Yes. Why? I’ll explain in the last section.

Amazon’s ample library of books. Amazon was an online book retailer before it turned super all-purpose retailer. It’s selection of books is MASSIVE.

Cross-platform support. This is the main reason why Kindle is da bomb e-book reader app. It is available on just about every platform out there. It has a web app, so you can read your books from a web browser. It’s not just an app; it’s also a standalone device made just for your reading pleasure. It’s cross-platform compatibility means you can switch from one platform to another and still have all your books available to you on the device of your choice.

That’s why you need to use Kindle. It rocks!

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Raul Jimenez’s sweet goal today in the #UCL. His team couldn't get past the mighty Bayern Munich, but they played valiantly. It’s good to see a Mexican scoring a big goal like that. 

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2016 will be a good year. 

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Do the Oscars have a diversity problem?

Have you heard? Several celebrities in the movie industry are boycotting the Oscars because no black actors were nominated in this year’s show. Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Snoop D-O-Double Gizzle, are the three I’ve read about, but there could be more. 

I found the interactive infographic above in a Time.com article. In the last 20 years (excluding this year’s awards), 13 non-white actors have won one of the four acting categories. In total, 53 non-white actors have been nominated out of 400 nominations. In total there have been 80 winners, four per year for the acting categories. 

Let’s look at these numbers in terms of percentages. Non-white actors have won 16.25% of the acting awards and white actors have won 83.75% of them in the past 20 years. As far as nominations is concerned, non-white actors have gotten 13.25% of the nods while white actors have gotten nominated 86.75% of the time.

Here’s the thing, though. These numbers aren’t too far off the racial make-up of the United States. According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, white Americans make up 77.4% of the population, while the rest of us represent the other 22.6%. If 23% of us win 16% of the time, is that a problem?

I honestly don’t see what all the fuss is about. However, I’m sure it’ll be fun watching host Chris Rock cracking joke after joke on the matter. 

[francojtorres]

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Review

I just got back from watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The force was with this movie because it is everything it should be. J.J. Abrams and company did a fine job turning this franchise around after the George Lucas prequels were largely disappointing.

Right from the start, we are introduced to Finn & Rey, the story’s main protagonists. In my opinion, Finn steals the show. He is funny, heroic, and most importantly, likable. The onscreen chemistry between the two is there and I hope it will be until the trilogy’s finale. 

The antagonist is named Kylo Ren, a former Jedi apprentice who turned to the dark side. Some of the powers he shows onscreen suggest he is powerful with the force, but his scant skill with a lightsaber and frequent tantrums suggest he is still very much in training. In fact, the lifghtsaber fights are nothing like the flashy, choreographed duels in the prequels. This makes sense because those characters were Jedi Masters who were highly trained in a different time. It’s amateur night in episode VII.

There are numerous parallels and recurring themes between this movie and the original trilogy. You’ll notice Rey’s desert-like homeworld reminiscent of Tatooine, BB8 as the lovable successor to R2D2 who also happens to carry important information. There’s the destructive evil super-weapon that must be destroyed much like the Death Star of old, and of course, the eternal struggle between good and evil that is the light side versus the dark side. However, the parallel that makes the biggest impact is the family affair between a father and his son which has a shocking outcome. 

Disney is on the right track to bring this once dying franchise back to life. There are already two spin-off movies in the works: Rogue One, about a group of rebel fighters on a mission to steal the plans for the Death Star, and an unnamed Han Solo origins movie. Furthermore we still have episodes VIII and IX to look forward to. Thus our Star Wars needs will be met for quite some time.

This is definitely the kind of flick you want to see in the theater. The good news is that after only two weeks since its premiere, the long lines and sell outs at theaters are over. So go out and watch it. You won’t be disappointed.