Behold, let there be light… And Internet was made!

Yes, we’re all surrounded by it. It is growing indeed fast and no one can stop it. Did you know that 1.407 billion people use the Internet according to Internet World Stats??

You can see here a map of Internet (you don’t say “the internet” but yes “Internet”). Can you just imagine that it was all created by WE ALL?

 

So… A small project transformed in a massive-multi-reading-and-texting-producer that englobes all countries, a train of info, A UNIVERSE.

 

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. - B. F. Skinner.

 

This got me thinking, can we, mere mortals, give birth to a mighty and immortal thing that would eventually destroy us all? The question will remain… or at least it will remain until a bigger tool shows up. This is somehow frightful, imagine, you create things to improve your life, and those things will eventually destroy it! Behold, I present you the paradox of the century: “To enjoy Internet or not to enjoy Internet, that’s the question!!”. One day we will be able to obtain everything from Internet… And… Goodbye normal life! ;(

Ah yes, normal life… What is for us normal life? I mean, what do we all get to enjoy from fun? We are nothing more than meat and bones… Barged in our thoughts… But HEY! Wake up! In 200 years who will ever remember us? We are all doomed to perish in this floating rock.

 

Hello!… Again

I’m sorry for not posting in so many weeks, but now that school is over, I guess it will be much easier to post information, I will not however, write every single day. I’ve finished my exams very easily, and should have a good mark…[I guess]

 

 I Hope you enjoy the following posts!

 

History of Earth: Cambrian Era

An Explosion of Life occured in this epoch, most of the major groups of animals that exist today evolved in the Cambrian period. This huge growth in diversity occurred only in the seas – the land was still bare of life other than micro-organisms – and is called the “Cambrian Explosion”.

Soft-bodied animals and stromalites (bacterial colonies) of the species with hard parts, especially trilobites. Their fossils have been found in the Burgess Shale, a famous fossil-rich area in the Canadian Rocky Mountains which dates back around 500 million years.

During the Cambrian, most of the world’s landscapes were united as the super-continent Gondwana. This was surrounded by the vast Iapetus Ocean. Smaller landscapes that today form Europe, North America, and Siberia lay in tropical and temperate zones. There were no ice caps in the seas and water levels were high.

History of the Earth: Precambrian Ages

I shall write somethings to you about the history of our planet, from its foundations to the quaternary… And maybe, beyond.

Since the Precambrian is the first period, I shall start by speaking of it.

The Precambrian represents more than 85 percent of geological time during which the earth changed from a molten ball to a planet with continents, oceans, and an atmosphere. In the latter part of the precambian the first tectonic plates developed, life evolved, and oxygen built up in the atmosphere. It begins 4600 millions of years ago, upon the formation of the Earth.

The formation of the earth is an interesting chapter of our knowledge… It binds physics, chemistry, geocentrism, maths, biology, well… Everything!

It began when large group of rock and gases joined, and made the sun. It had a large dust ring…Most probably bigger than the diameter of the solar system. This dust, joined again in smaller scales than the first one. This originated planets… Such as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter etc…

It was a slow process. After rocks joined to make planet earth, the planet was still boiling rock and receiving constant meteorite strokes. There is a lot of debate about if water existed by this time.

Gaia, another (ancient) planet of the solar system, collided with earth, and this made our moon. This also increased global temperatures.

Life first appeared in the Precambrian , the very first beings were prokaryotes, mycroscopic single-celled bacteria-like. They probably appeared in hot waters around deep-sea volcanic-vents. Their fossils appear to be around 3500 million years old. The firstmulticellular organisms arose in the late Precambrian, we call them eukaryotes. Jellyfishes and Worms appeared in this era, as well as unsuccessful bizarre species unrelated to later animals. The Vendian race was born at this time(such as Dickinsonia and Ediacara).

Map Mania

I believe I sould tell you that I like to draw maps, yes, very strange indeed… I started to draw maps at the age of 11. I wasn’t very precise at that time, yet, now my teachers stay surprised when I draw a world map. They say it is very accurate, and it seems impossible for anyone to know so much about features from our planet Earth. I stayed quite proud actually, but, keept drawing.

For many it seems so boring, but not me, no, I just like to make them… Imagine far-away lands… Imagine people you never meet… Imagine languages you do not speak… Imagine religions you do not worship nor know them… Imagine strange fauna and flora that look like from other worlds… Imagine, a world that you know at heart and know how it looks like.

Upon these thoughts I found an interesting blog… called Strange Maps. It shows how to look in different ways to a map. I strongly advise it to you. Enjoy!

My Country: Portugal

Well… Portugal IS my country altough I believe there is only 3 good things in portugal:

1. It’s Shores – All other Europeans (especially northearn Europeans) love our beachs, because they are soooo long, shallow and sunny (Algarve’s beachs are the beast of them!)
2. Fado – Portugal’s most ancient music… It is now getting famous worldwide!.
3. The Food – Yes, Food… In Portugal you can find very delicius food indeed, unlike most countries of Europe, that make artificial food that tastes horrible…

Although it isn’t a good place to develop a life, it is a nice place for tourism… Say, it’s like a Runnaway-from-all-the-pollution-you-find-in-major-European-cities!!

Are we alone in the Universe?

Since the early ages of men, we questioned ourselves if we are alone in the universe… The first UFO sighting ( according to old history and data) was in Babylon milenia ago. I heard something about this history… but can’t remember… all I know is that he was brought into a strange machine in which he saw wheels, yes, wheels that spin at one side of the wall. He couldn’t remember what happened after that. When he woke up, he was laying in the field, but the machine had gone. He tried to convince others but they didn’t believe him. Would he be dreaming? We will never know… õ.õ

Another interesting case was that of the Roswell UFO crash… Some say that there were alien bodies scattered through the ground. American authorities came to investigate, but in the end they said it was just a meteorologic balloon… A meteorologic balloon or a UFO? We will never know… õ.õ again!

Many people say: “Aliens?! bah! That’s just lies, lies and lies… The government likes to keep the fear for our own safety, but not all fall for it” while others say: “Aliens are, of course, in our planet earth, and were here even before us! But they should have its home base millions of light-years from here” however my opinion is like this: “I strongly believe that we are not alone in the universe, that there are many others out there, closer than some people think, but not as far away as others do”.

Statistics reveal the following actually:

“Alien Civilizations? from the DK Book “Universe”

• A fair estimate would be 50 new stars per year in the Milky Way;
• Perhaps 50% of these star systems will develop planetary systems;
• On average maybe only 0.4 planets per system are habitable
• Life may well develop on 90% of habitable planets
• Possibly about 10% of new instances of life will develop intelligence
• Possibly only 10% of such life develops interstellar communications
• Some civilizations die before contact
• These civilizations might, on average, last 10 000 years
• 900 civilizations alive today

Conclusion: Using the estimates above, one might expect to be about 50 x 0,5 0’4 x 0,9 x 0,1 x 0,1 x 10 000 = 900 alien civilizations in our galaxy that, in theory, we should be able to communicate with. However, some of the estimates may be wildly wrong”.

When I first found this I stayed very surprised. It was great to know that there was someone out there… But it is just an estimate, not a true fact.

I actually believe that we should be able to find life very close actually, Mars for example. Mars should own water underground and also at one of its poles.This would be the enough, although I don’t think we can find intelligent life there. But there is a fact we must consider… WE, humans, only possess knowledge about one group of life forms: ours. This can actually be very relevant, for we do not know any other way life could spread… Is it possible that single cells exist in a place where oxygen does not? I believe so. We are too proud to assume that life could evolute in extreme places of the universe… In fact, you don’t need to search the universe high and low for such ways of life! You can find it here, on our old earth. Yes, you can find organisms living in boiling water at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge but also in deep caves with almost no oxygen and/or water but also such caves have an extreme cold!

Close to our planet we find moons and planets that could develop life… Titan, Europa, Mars, Enceladus etc… Titan is by far, the place where such is more probable, although not now… But say, about 500 million years from now, when the sun will be bigger. I read in a Portuguese magazine (Super Interessante) that if we colonize Mars right now, by the best of all chances, that it take about 600 years for it to be habitable

The First and Most Important Matter to deal with: Global Warming!

Yes, your eyes do not fool you. We all know it is the biggest quest that humankind ever had to deal with! Many already are bored about this, but it depends on us, humans, to save our planet.

I know that you know (or should) many ways to improve our current situation, so I will not debate much about this subject that is so old that it already has white hair, beard and rheumatism.

As for the ones who don’t know anything about this, a shall copy paste something from wikipedia:

“Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-twentieth century and its projected continuation.

The global average air temperature near the Earth’s surface rose 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the hundred years ending in 2005.^[1] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes “most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations”^[1] via the greenhouse effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variationvolcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward.^[2][3] These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least thirty scientific societies and academies of science,^[4] including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.^[5][6][7] While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with some findings of the IPCC,^[8] the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC’s main conclusions.^[9][10] combined with

Climate model projections summarized by the IPCC indicate that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century.^[1] The range of values results from the use of differing scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions as well as models with differing climate sensitivity. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming and sea level rise are expected to continue for more than a thousand years even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized. The delay in reaching equilibrium is a result of the large heat capacity of the oceans.^[1]

Increasing global temperature will cause sea level to rise, and is expected to increase the intensity of extreme weatherprecipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

Remaining scientific uncertainties include the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences.”

Learn more here

As you can see this subject is enfolded in a great WAR(ming) coming by. While in some regions (like Africa) we shall see a great increase in temperature, waters will subjugate many low lands ( such as Bangladesh), and in others a great cooling (such as Europe). This for me is a constant trouble… For example: “Well, when I grow up I want to go London and study languages, write books, teach people and see every single museum and monument in that very same city! Oh but wait, London will be underwater or covered by ice!” As you can see (again) , many children wishes will be destroyed by this great evil, many people will cry, many people will be traumatized, many people will be at starvation, many will be drowned, many will freeze to death. And all this why? WHY? Because there are some smart people that only care about the money they earn! But there is a way to bind both Capitalism and Environmentalism!

Many will grow up in a conturbated childhood, look behind and think: “What were they?! Monsters I guess!”. We cannot proceed with this! NOW IS, AND ONLY NOW, THE TIME TO CHANGE!

Think of all the people that will suffer! Think of the great things that will be lost! Monuments as the Big Ben, Taj Mahal, The Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower!! Think of your sons! Think of your friends and family! Think of how much happy you would be if all this was a dream! Think of yourself!!!

Think before you act! Stop polluting! Every single one of us, if joined together, are able to stop this!!!

Blog starts…

Greetings! This is my first blog and I wish to improve it at best… I hope you help me by commenting as well!

Introduction:

This blog will be made so I can practice a bit of English… I warn you though, by being Portuguese and young, I will not be very accurate when it is about writing but I shall do my best! Of course, it’s not just to practice! Who would want someones blog with a teenager training English?! That is why, I, Hugo, will discuss with all of you the following:

• Science, Chemistry and Physics, to discuss our much questioned place in the universe;
• History of the World, en-globing every-single nation;
• Possible Future, such as theories about our future (Global Warming for example!);
• Art, I shall try to post some drawings;
• My Life, the worst and less interesting par;
• Famous Books and Writers, such as JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien;
• Youtube videos, indeed interesting!
• Important happenings, I shall try to post breaking news (just world mattering news, or anything of which I think it is important);
• Utopia Theories, the name says all!

This Blog was made in Friday, 4th of April, 2008.

Hope you enjoy!