Sun flares

On April 18th, 2008, ESA (the European Space Agency) published an
article about sun flares:
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM4SB4XQEF_index_0.html

In case it's gone there, I've uploaded a PDF-copy to my web space:
2008-04-18-ESA-Solar flares set the Sun quaking.pdf

The article describes a correlation between sun flares and solar quakes.

Cited from that article: "The correlation is not the end of the story.
Now the researchers have to work to understand the mechanism by which
the flares cause the oscillations."

The interpretation of the correlation won my attention as
my interpretation differs.

About extraterrestrial life

Observation: From time to time - when there is a German astronaut involved in a space project - I observe this news in the (German) press:
German astronaut believes in extra terrestrial life

It's never been said directly so far, but what is says in between the lines is:
German astronaut believes in little green men from planet Mars

My statement concerning such articles: Are we still in medieval times ? Does anybody still seriously believe that all life forms on earth (Menkind, trees, animals, bacteria...) are the only life forms in the whole universe ?

Suggestion for people believing in that:

• Check out the undersea research concerning bacteria life
• Check out astronomy sources concerning extra solar planets
• Just think how unique life really is.

Reference:
"Deutscher Astronaut glaubt an außerirdisches Leben"
DPA - Samstag, 2. Februar, 16:11 Uhr

Lübeck (dpa) - Der deutsche Astronaut Hans Schlegel glaubt an außerirdisches Leben. «Da bin ich felsenfest von überzeugt», sagte er den «Lübecker Nachrichten».

«Auf welchem Niveau, ist aber Spekulation. Die entscheidende Frage ist, werden wir jemals so weit kommen, um in der Lage zu sein, mit außerirdischem Leben Kontakt aufzunehmen? Da bin ich skeptisch.» Der 56-Jährige startet am kommenden Donnerstag (7.2.) mit der US-Raumfähre «Atlantis» und dem europäischen Weltraumlabor «Columbus» vom Weltraumbahnhof Cape Canaveral (Florida) zur ISS.

Schlegel soll bei seinem ersten Außeneinsatz in den Weltraum aussteigen, um «Columbus» an die Station anzubauen. «Dass mein amerikanischer Kollege und ich aussteigen, stellt schon eine höhere Gefährdung da», sagte er. «Die Anzüge sind praktisch unser eigenes kleines Raumschiff. Wir haben darin unsere eigene Kühlung, Sauerstoff und Stromversorgung, und wir sind nur mit einer Sicherheitsleine mit der ISS verbunden. Da muss alles funktionieren.» Er freue sich sehr auf den Einsatz.

How to cross a street

Theme: I read that our brain takes 3 seconds to analyse a situation. So what happens if there are cars driving on the street ? You don't have 3 seconds to react.

Thesis: Our brain is triggered by the approaching cars. It just plays the snippets of software that are appropiate for the situation. Even for cars approaching with different speeds, it has different replies.

Annotation: I think that it's one of the first things that a baby learns how to get from A to B and watch the reaction of your environment C while doing that.

Remark: Please excuse if the text above appears trivial. I didn't check on Google if the thesis is wrong, already known or whatever. I just wrote it down for fun.

Movies with a wrong ending

Witness (Harrison Ford)

• One day of love can be enough for a lifetime.
• The presence of Mr. Hochleitner is superfluous.
• Some people might find it reasonable to accept the advances of a Mr. Hochleitner (a 'friend of the family') at last, however that idea seems strange to me.

Discovery of Lea Salonga

Yesterday I discovered Lea Salonga on YouTube.com
Lea Salonga is a Musical singer, currently singing on Broadway, New York.

Actually I had discovered her in 2001 but didn't pay attention at that time.

Another singer, Leah delos Santos, was having a rehearsal on a plaza in Berlin (Germany) in 2001 while I was having a walk and was passing by. The singing caught my attention and I took a break and became interested in the songs. I did some internet research later on and came across the name Lea Salonga, too (due to the similarity of names).

However, I did not know anything specific about Lea Salonga apart from some sound recordings that I found on that occasion and which did not please me too much at that time since the live experience of Leah delos Santos had impressed me more.

Now yesterday evening by chance I came across Lea Salonga again on YouTube. I had the chance to watch a video of her first major audition on the Phillipines in 1989 when she was 18:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0xyePzdGA

It seemed to me that she just saw the song Sun and moon that evening for the first time at the grand piano with Claude-Michel Schönberg, the composer. The song belongs to the musical Miss Saigon which refers to the Vietnam war and came out in 1989, the year of the audition.

Actually I hadn't known that the guy at the grand piano was Claude-Michel Schönberg but guessed correctly that he was the composer which I found today when I checked it on wikipedia.de

What totally smashed me however was, how professional Lea Salonga behaved even though she was only 18. But I guess after being in business for about 10 years you learn that. (She started singing about 7 as she said in one of her interviews). I never could have done what she did when I was her age.

She was even so cool to ask Claude-Michel Schönberg for an autograph before she started singing. Of course, I guess she wanted to show that she knew his previous works and probably flatter him a bit, too, thereby making him be more patient in case of lapses.

But on the other hand she really showed how cool she was even just a few seconds before an all decesive audition. Maybe that impressed those guys there, too?

Meanwhile, Lea Salonga is married and has a baby daughter. She married in 2004 and got her baby daughter last year in May 2006. Currently in 2007 she is on Broadway again

My personal wishes for Lea Salongas future are that
* she keeps some of her natural determination
(that she showed in her first audition for Miss Saigon)
* she stays real,
* she stays cool,
* she does not get envious or jealous on other performers who are younger 'cause it would destroy the purity of her heart and make it opaque.

I think she overacted a bit in Inside the Academy (PDA Phillipine TV Academy soap?) where she kinda obviously seemed to play the role of a mother which she actually became in 2006.
I would say that people don't expect her to play the role of a mother - just being a mother would be sufficient from my point of view.

---------------------------------------------------------
Audition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd0xyePzdGA
Inside Academy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n-WRjv0VHc
Biography: http://www.filipinoweb.com/leasalonga.html
Biography: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0758964/

End of discovery.

The lost letter in "Ubi Caritas"

Today I would like to tell a story to the dear reader of a programmatic song called "Ubi Caritas"
(Where there is charity).

Once upon a time something dramatic happened to this song: 'Cause after weeks of work on the lyrics, one night, the night before the writer of the lyrics wanted to carry the finished lyrics to the printing shop, he actually died.

Sadly, a wind blew through the open window that night, too, and the lyrics got blown to the slightly dirty floor.

Luckily enough, the writer had told his friend about the finished lyrics before and so the paper was found and finally published.

And you could say, in those days, it became kind of a hit.

However, because the original paper was blown to the dirty floor, a letter was covered by some dirt making it look as if the letter was being crossed out.

The letter that got "crossed out" was an "s" actually.

Because of this, the true meaning of the song got actually lost: The lyrics as they were published were:


"Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, deus ibi est."
Thats Latin and it actually means:
"Where there is charity and love,
where there is charity, there is god."

Not bad but actually not as devine as the original meaning:

"Ubi caritas est amor, ubi caritas, deus ibi est."
The translation of this is:
"Where there is charity, there is love,
where there is charity, there is god."

And this means that...
where there is charity, there is god
and...
love is god (and god is love).

Do you realize the difference? Pretty powerful the difference, huh?

Well, normally fairy tales have a happy end. This one obviously doesn't. But I do hope that one day, the lost "s" is rediscovered.

But until that day, let's keep ourselves aware that
god is love because god shows charity.

Million Dollar Baby

The "Million Dollar Baby" depended her life on the cheers of the audience and thought that she was meant.
But she didnt know that the audience cheered another boxer the next evening and a year later nobody thought about her anymore.

Nobody loved her and she was loved by nobody. Somebody read her some literature. But he didnt teach her love cause he didnt know love himself.When she was laying down handicaped in her hospital bed she thought that she was dead. But in fact it was the only time when she had the chance to become alive. But she didnt know and nobody told her.

There she had the chance to forget about the physical and awake her mind. Instead she killed her body and thereby killed her mind, too.

She was full of self-pity and fear that people would forget about her. And she was right. 'Cause the qualities that she had gained in the gym were exchangable.

She never discovered the human inside herself. And her trainer neither. She never discovered the love inside herself. Neither did her trainer.

She never realized that there was a flower growing in the sun and never let her thoughts strive in the clouds of the Himalaya. She never saw a child dying in Africa and never smiled at the soul of her clients in the restaurant.She defined her happiness by the physical qualities that she had gained in the gym.

She never discovered the beauty within her physical body.

And never realized that some people smiled at her soul. Mother Theresa was in the restaurant more than once and she didn't realize.

The "Million Dollar Baby" had a dream to become someone famous and when she had almost succeeded she had an accident and had to realize that she could not HAVE her dream fullfilled anymore.

So she decided to die cause she couldn't HAVE anymore, she would just be able to BE.

But she wasn't satisfied with just BEING.

She didnt love herself enough for just BEING,
she thought that without HAVING, life was not worth living.

All you do

All you do is not too much,
because you need not do it.

**************************************
People often help out other people and...

* think they're doing a good deed.
* think the other one would need their help.

However... noone... not your brother, not your sister, not your father nor your mother is indispensable. Not your teacher, not your boss, not your wife... and especially you yourself are not indispensable.

People are stronger than you think they are...
and that includes you yourself.

SpaceShipOne - First private suborbital spaceship

SpaceShipOne, the first privatly built spaceship was built by Scaled Composites, a Californian, Mojave desert located experimental aircraft company.

Burt Rutan constructed SpaceShipOne, the first privately built spaceship. It went into space on September 29th 2004 and October 4th 2004 on a suborbital pretty ballistic flight path, reaching altitudes of more than 100 km (62 miles). By doing this twice within a fortnight SpaceShipOne won the Anzari X-Prize (worth $10 Mio.).

To achieve this goal of a (suborbital) space flight, two aircrafts were actually constructed: The socalled White Knight carrier aircraft and a rocket propelled space ship named SpaceShipOne, which was carried up to 45'000 feet (15 km) before being released and ignited.

Me and Planet Saturn

Today I used my Bresser telescope for the first time.

My room window is Eastbound.

The sky was partly cloudy, the temperatures were quite autumn like. But I was sitting inside at my window.

I was lucky.

When I spotted the brightest spot available at the time, I realized soon after that it was the Planet Saturn. It showed a clearly visible white disc (the planet body), surrounded by an equally white belt disc around its belly.

To make sure, I checked the internet.

Saturn rose on the Eastbound night sky.

New telescope

Today, I bought a telescope.
I bought my first telescope.

It's a Bresser Refracting Telecope.
Art.No. 45-11600 Arcturus





Scope of supply:

* Hard-top case
* Aluminium tripod
* Zenith mirror
* 1,5x Umkehrlinse
* Compass
* Moon map
* Accessories rack

Technical data:

* Type: Refracting Telescope
* Aperture: 60 mm
* Focal Length: 700 mm
* Lichtsammelvermögen: 73,47
* Magnification: 35x - 262x
* max. expedient magnification: 120x
* Mounting: Azimuthal
* eligible for moon oberservation,
not eligible for planet oberservation,
not eligible for Deep Sky observation.
* Earth observation: eligible
* Photography: not eligible
* Tracking engine: not eligible
* Autostar handbox: not eligible
* Diameter ocular-opening: 31.7 mm
* elektronical ocular optionally available
* Weight: 2000 g

The price was 34.45 EUR.

You are Germany

You are Germany is a motivation campaign:
http://www.du-bist-deutschland.de/

It is supported by 20 German Media companies.
A number of artists give their voice, too.

The essence of the campaign is:

You are Germany =
You can build and design Germany.


You are Albert Einstein =
You can become a new Albert Einstein.

I think it's a great campaign.

Robbie Williams - Intensive care

The latest album of Robbie Williams
is called Intensive Care.

I just listened to the album commercials on TV
and thought: Dang, ain't this Sting singing ??

THIS COWBOY SONG
Performed by Sting
Written by Sting
Courtesy of A&M Records, Inc.

from the movie Terminal Velocity from 1994

Embarrassing.

Sampling is ok but then the album title should rather say:

Sting
featuring Robbie Williams

The music of Teresa Teng

I got to know the music of Teresa Teng when I was watching a 1996 Hong-Kong-Chinese love movie called Tian mi mi (English title: Comrades, almost a love story, German title: Hong Kong Love Affair).

You'll probably listen to some of Teresa Teng's most favourite songs (Tian mi mi and others) when visiting a Chinese restaurant. Teresa Teng used to be a very famous singer in the chinese community.

It is said that Teresa Teng had been just as well famous in Japan. This is pretty surprising as she had to start from scratch when she arrived in Japan.

I think Teresa Teng must have been a lady with a lot of style from what I heard. It seems that she was a sensitive person and walked her life for whatever reasons on a pretty small ridge.

As it seems, there was no one to accompany her on her walk there.

I think every sensitive person deserves to be accompanied by a comrade.

Which brings me back to the movie Tian mi mi.

Deep impact of a fridge

Today, a copper fridge released by a space probe named Deep Impact ("the car") intentionally hit a comet named Tempel 1. This is pretty much the truth.

The complete space probe was lifted into earth orbit and released into space some 172 days ago with a speed of about 10.2 m/s (37,000 km/h or 20,000 miles/h). It took a big amount of propulsion energy to get it up to this speed.

The produced thrust was big enough to get the probe into space and let her leave earth gravity. However, it wouldn't have been big enough to directly escape from our solar system. For major deceleration or acceleration manoevers, Deep Impact would have needed the assistance of other planets of our solar system.

Alternatively one could have taken an additional rocket into space but that was no serious option. ("If it's difficult to take a car into orbit, how would one be able to take a big truck there..."). Any time consuming deceleration or acceleration manoevers were abolished for Deep Impact.

As a result, Deep Impact ("the car") was shot into space without brakes but with a copper fridge on his loading space.

Europe started a similar space probe named Rosetta in 2004 for going to a comet named Tschurjumow-Gerasimenko. This mission will complement the direct approach of Deep Impact. It is intended to perform a soft landing on the comet's surface in 2014. It has no own brakes either. However, it uses the other planets of our solar system to speed up to the same speed as the target comet (as a "free-rider"). Disadvantage with Rosetta: It takes a hell of a time.

I wonder if these two missions will bring any reasonable results for the human kind apart from being great PR successes ? Am I an ignoramus ?

Heavy summer rain

This afternoon there was a heavy summer rain in town. It also gave my neighbourhood a visit. I was pretty incompetent freezing it on the photo. Well, you must use your imagination. Look at the roof of the other house... The rain drops looked like half transparent pieces of a big rope.

Pretty neat, as long as you're inside, of course.

Reaching our hearts

Today I made an interesting observation about band singers.
Actually, I made this interesting observation in combination with an additional observation that I did yesterday.

The thing was: Yesterday evening I was listening to a live concert of a pretty known pretty new German band called Silbermond (Silvermoon), http://www.silbermond.de. The female singer was very communicative even picking one guy with a fan T-Shirt out of the audience and inviting him onto the stage for a while.

However, generally the audience was treated like a body, i.e. spoken to as "you guys here in...". Unfortunately (and probably understandable), this is pretty usual and one has no right to lament on this.

What made this interesting, however, was that the singing was - well - _allright_, possibly even good if you'd been a fan of that band.

Now, today I was visiting another concert of a local Big Band, http://jass-concert-band.de. They were performing very skillfully. The female singers were rotating and their singing extremly well.

Their voices were just great. No supporting music needed, they hit the tones. They faded, they rose, they were so technically good. Them being your pilots and your plane would never crash.

However, one interesting aspect caught my eye:

Neither of the band singers (not yesterdays, not todays) really reached the hearts of the audiences. Nor did they even try.

Of course, one might say: Well, why should they want to get to your heart ? All right: But isn't that what's music is about ? In my honest opinion music is not mainly a profession or for fun: It's for getting in contact with our feelings. So, in my point of view, these great singers just missed a chance, a chance to become immortal, a chance to leave a trace.

But why did they fail to reach the hearts of the audience and what could they have done to take advantage of the situation and top their performances by really getting through to the hearts of the listeners ?

Let's look at the singers of todays Big Band: These singers were totally balanced and listenening to themselves, very concentrated, very inwardly directed. They could play with their voices, let it steplessly fade or rise and highlight certain tones. But just the sounds actually left their lips.

No look for the world around really, never showing that they were aware that there is a world outside of their heads.

What they didn't do is: At no point of time did they try to play with their voices in direction to the audiences. So, I think that's the answer: To take the audience for serious.

If you're an experienced and balanced singer, this should be possible for you.

The feeling I had was: The female singer, let's call her Susi, bridged a gap of air of about 95%. Of course, the sound got ahead but not the feeling. Too bad, as it just would have needed a little push.

The second singer, let's call her Lena, in that regard was worse: The air behaved like foggy cotton to her voice. The emeotions got stuck and were sucked away some 80% past her lips. And again I'm not talking about the sound here but just about the emotional aspects.

My personal conclusion is:

• The singers were not aware of this emotional gap.

• The rest of the audience did not realize this gap (and therefore gave inadequate feedback to the singers).

• The audience was polite.

• The audience was not used to and prepared for receiving emotional broadcasts from a singer.

• My own perception might have been incorrect.

• I was too critical.

• I saw possibilities that nobody was really interested in sending nor receiving.

• The singers didn't want to build an emotional thread to the audiences hearts.

To make my point a little clearer:
Imagine you were a singer: Would other people be able to hear your singing from a distance ?
How far does your voice carry ? 1 meter, 2 meters, 10 meters ?
Can you vary the distance that you want your voice to carry ?
Do you know what I mean ?
Can you point your voice to certain points in the room ?
Can you talk to a single person in the crowd over a distance of 10 meters ?

The answer is: Of course you can !
Ever tried to shout at someone on the other side of the train station ?
Ever tried to talk to someone on the other side of the river ?
How did you do it ? By the power of your voice ?
Or possibly by the clarity and focus of your voice ?
That's what I mean.
Talking to the needle in the crowd.

I think, a singer should be able to use his voice like a tool and also should use this ability. For his own sake and immortality and for the joy of his/her audience.

President elections in Iran

Source: Yahoo News, Germany

Samstag 25. Juni 2005, 22:15 Uhr

Brüssel reagiert zurückhaltend auf Wahl in Iran

Brüssel (dpa) - Die EU-Kommission hat sehr zurückhaltend auf den Ausgang der Präsidentenwahl in Iran reagiert. Man erwarte, dass der neue Präsident Mahmud Ahmadinedschad die Forderungen des Volkes nach demokratischen Reformen beachte, erklärte eine Sprecherin in Brüssel. Das gelte auf für die Unterstützung der Menschenrechte und die Einhaltung des Rechtstaatlichkeit. Die Beschwerden über angebliche Unregelmäßigkeiten bei der Wahl seien ein ernsthaftes Problem, das schnell geklärt werden müsse, so die Sprecherin.

Translation into English:

Saturday 25 June 2005, 22:15
Brussels reacts reservedly to elections in Iran
Brussels (dpa) - The European Union commission has very reservedly reacted to the result of the president's elections in Iran. One expects that the new president Mahmud Ahmadinedschad considers the demands of the people for democratic reforms, explained a spokeswoman in Brussels. That includes the support for human rights and the adherence to legal rights. The complaints over alleged irregularities with the election were a serious problem, which had to be clarified fast, so the spokeswoman.

*********************************************************************************
Some remarks:

--> The new president of Iran was said to be elected by about 62.2% of the voters. His competitor was said to have collected about 35.3% of the votes.

--> A spokeswoman of the European Commission (i.e. of the European government) pointed out that:
* ...the Iranian people expected democratic reforms.
* ...that legal rights in Iran had to be respected by the Iranian government.
* ...that there were rumours about anomalies with the elections.

Some thoughts about this:
-> People usually vote for the politicians who promise to them the improvement of their living conditions.
-> The winner of the Iranian president's election is obviously not the wished candidate of the western governments.

-> Where did a majour group of the people of Iran articulate that they wanted democratic reforms ?
-> Is it possible to articulate your opinion in Iran when you are an opponent of the government ?

-> Why did the people of Iran vote for somebody who is said to be an extremist ?
-> Do the people of Iran wish to have an extremistic president ?

-> Do the people of Iran regard the elected president of Iran to be an extremist ?
-> Did the current religious leader of Iran (Ayatollah Chamenei) manipulate the elections so that not the favoured candidate (of western governments) Rafdjanjani was elected but his competitor, the former mayor of the capital Teheran ?

-> Do the sources of income of Iran (mainly its oil production) serve the Iranian people ?
-> Would an expropriation serve the Iranian people in regard to education and prosperity ?

-> Does the European Commission criticize the Iranian president elections justifiably ?
-> Is the criticism, pointed out by the spokeswoman, meant truthfully ?

-> Is the criticism of the spokeswoman done with the wish in mind to truthfully support the Iranian people ?
-> Would a democratic reform help the Iranian people increase their private wealth ?

-> Should the western countries interfere into Iraninan domestic politics ?
-> Should the western governments carry democratic reforms to Iran by violence ?

-> Should the Iran have a democratic government like in Western Europe ?
-> Do the economic powers in Iran bring the same amount of wealth to the country as they do in Western European countries ?

* How much money do companies in Europe transfer to the respective tax authorities in Western European countries ?
* How much money do companies in Iran transfer to their tax authorities ?

-> Would an expropriation of companies in Iran help the people of Iran in economic regards ?

Theses:
1: The people of Iran deserve the president whom they elected.
2: Democracy should not be carried to another country by force because this contradicts basic democratic values.
3: If democratic reforms are not carried to extremisticly reigned countries many of that countries population have to suffer.
4: The tax income of Iran relative to the income of the comanies in Iran is lower than the tax quota in western countries. If so, this might be regarded as an exploition of the resouces of Iran.

Casted my ballot today

I casted my ballot for the State Elections in North-Rhine Westfalia today. Maybe you read my election information during the week of April 10th to April 14th.

Went right to the Main Election office close to the town hall and casted my ballot there. Didn't want to wait for the election day since I don't know if I'll be in town on that Sunday.

You are actually allowed to vote when your name appears in the electoral register. If you move to another town you have to notify the registration office of the respective town. Thereby you're automatically added to the electoral register, if you're owner of the German citizenship.

Most eligible voters will certainly cast their respective ballot on the election day on Sunday, 22nd May, 2005.

Münster Shopping Arcade opened

Today the new Shopping Mall in the heart of Münster - called Münster Arcades - opened its doors. Maybe you remember the short blog notices of March, 9th and March, 20th.

If you should know Potsdamer Platz Arcades in the German capital Berlin, it will remind you of it as its look is somehow similar.