The Cosmonautics Memorial Museum in Moscow November 15, 2009

My father is  the “sky” person who has always been dreaming about flying as high as possible… Since he could not become a pilot for health reasons,  he became a paratrooper officer and made 2000 jumps with parashute. The space exploration has been fascinating him for ages. I obviously inherited some fo this fascination, since I love airplanes and everything that can take me higher :).

This time when I was visiting my parents in Moscow my father was delighted to show me and my mom the new Space museum. As you can imagine, Russia has something to show in that area…

This museum, the only one of its kind, situated inside an enormous monument to the explorers of the cosmos, is well worth the visit, not least for the nostalgia it should inspire in anyone who grew up in the heady days of the space race. The displays trace the history of space exploration, including the first interplanetary satellite flights, the first dogs in space and man’s journeys to the cosmos.

Let me show you some shots I made inside the museum.

My parents – by the way, they now live just next to the  Zvezdnyi Gorodok “Startown” by Moscow, where all cosmonauts are being trained:

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We saw an interesting documentary about the history of Space exploration. Juri Gagarin, the first ever human in space:

 his smile is unforgettable!

The typical space costume live:

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The clothes cosmonauts wear inside a spaceship:

There’s plenty of fun gadgetry, plus an excellently conceived display explaining how astronauts survive a space flight, all of which should be interesting for children. The food in the space freezer:

Plastic Planet -“after seeing this film you will never drink from a plastic bottle”. September 26, 2009

I usually visit cinema once in several months, and only for some really good films. My recent discovery is a brand new film “Plastic Planet”, the poster to which claims: “after seeing this film you will never drink from a plastic bottle”.

Generally we all know plastic is bad. But HOW bad? WHAT is actually so bad about it? The film comes up as an eye-opener.

 An invistigavie documentary in Michael Moore style by an Austrian film director Werner Boote presents an up-close and personal view of the controversial and fascinating material that has found its way into every facet of our daily lives: plastic. He takes us on a journey around the globe, following plastic through its 100 years of “glorious triumph” and showing us what an unexpected impact plastic has on our world.

The “Sixth Sense” is easily available for everyone – use your hands and get fascinating access to information April 23, 2009

My friend Sahaja posted an amazing TED video on some technology that acts like the “sixth sense” here;  I would like to repost it but with a bit different comment.

The video introduces the sixth sense wearable device and explains that it’s been cobbled together from easily sourced tech that totals $350. It combines a camera, projector and mirror. You also need to wear colour markers on your fingers for that full “Minority Report” effect. In the demonstration, PranavMisty wears the device and demonstrates how the coloured markers on his fingers are seen and interpreted by the device in different ways, depending on which application was running. He demonstrates navigating a map projected into a wall using hand gestures, or making the classic “picture frame” gesture takes a picture, he can draw a watch onto his wrist or scan an airline ticket to see if the flight is on time or check out the quality of a paper in a shop. Just see for yourself:

This seems to be great for those who wish to consciously access information from our physical world. And the number of such people is huge, I guess – the resonance in the world blogosphere is tremendous and everyone is delighted…

However I was not fascinated as such, because it is something I successfully “posess” since years and  for me it has become a regular day-to-day experience:

How to save the word…with non-action. July 30, 2008

Many people dream of saving the world. Combatting terrorism, global warming, mafia, corruption, etc… And there is another possibility of doing it – to be exact, NOT to do a certain thing. Not to commit the fatal mistake. There are some stories from the time of the Cold War when the world has been saved through the non-action of military people.

This is an amazing true story about the man, who held the future of the world in his hands for 10 min. In 1983. 

A Russian pensioner in a village north of Moscow claims he saved the world. Most people would walk straight on if accosted in the street with that tale. But the truth is that Stanislav Petrov, interviewed on Monday for a Radio 4 programme and about whom a film is being made, did exactly that.

 image by James Gordon

On September 26 1983, Petrov, a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel, was monitoring the Soviet Union’s early warning satellites from a command bunker. Three weeks earlier a Korean jetliner, with 269 passengers on board, had been shot down over Soviet airspace. The Americans were about to deploy the Pershing II missile that could hit Moscow from West Germany in 12 minutes. Ronald Reagan had called the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and launched his “star wars” programme. The Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, critically ill with renal failure, thought Reagan already had a missile defence system and was convinced that the US was about to shoot first.

Nikola Tesla on partiotism, science and the future of mankind July 28, 2008

 

image by axinia

You may remember my fascination for Nikola Tesla, that great genius of the 20th century (read my post on his awesome personality here). He was not only an inventor of Leonardo da Vinci caliber, but also a great visioneer of the future of humanity.

Interestingly, he saw the key to the happy future in the science serving people. And his understanding of science was rather spiritual, than materialistic. He saw science as a living process, the matter as a being. In fact, he was the only human being known who could controll and produce the lightning.

In that respect  I find it intresting to read his thoughts on the possbile (glorious!) future of mankind – and see, how such things like patriotism and science could be connected:

“As long as there are different nationalities, there will be patriotism. This feeling must be eradicated from our hearts before permanent peace can be established. Its place must be filled by love of nature and scientific ideal. Science and discovery are the great forces which will lead to that consummation….The consequences of such an advance are incalculable.

Airport ranking – my top 5 most interesting July 24, 2008

I have been travelling by plane since I was a baby. I love airports. I even wanted to become a stewardess :). I have not been around the whole world, but there is a number of airports I have been departing from and arriving at: Vilnus, Moscow (2 airports), Vienna, Paris, Mumbai, London, Istanbul, Milan, Frankfurt, Nizza, Berlin, Zürich, New Delhi, Tashkent, Rostov-on-Don, Khakriv, Doha to name a few I could remember.

Each airport is a kind of a visitcard of a country/city. It is interesting to see how much of the national character  is involved into the design and service of that very special place – airport.

Here is my personal ranking of 5 best airports I have visited so far:

Number 5: Milan airport (Italy), makes rather an out-dated impression (probably build in the 1970s), but has its charm due to the green colour and massive ads of Italian designers:

The spirit of play is older than culture itself – HOMO LUDENS June 22, 2008

 

The most fascinating and profound studies on play I found by the Dutch lingusit and historian Johan Huizinga (1872-1945). He was one of the founders of modern cultural history, started out as a student of Comparative linguistics, gaining a good command of Sanskrit. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the role of the jester in Indian drama. Huizinga had an aesthetic approach to history, where art and spectacle played an important part. His most famous work is The Autumn of the Middle Ages (a.k.a. The Waning of the Middle Ages). interestingly, he reinterprets the later Middle Ages as a period of pessimism and decadence rather than rebirth.

In his book Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture Huizinga argues that play is one of fundamental drivers of human life, and is at the root of poetry, music, philosophy – even jurisprudence and war.

PicLens: my best image-search with wow-effect! May 28, 2008

I just discovered PicLens for me and immediately want to share with all of you – wow! It is truly amazing!

Those who love beautiful stuff from the Image and Video world – you will LOVE PicLens!!!

Some technical information:

PicLens instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing images on the web. Photos will come to life via a cinematic presentation that goes well beyond the confines of the traditional browser window.

PicLens is a web browser plugin that provides interactive full-screen slideshows of online images.