MIND READING OR THOUGHT IDENTIFICATION?

 

We are used to consider mind reading something that belongs to the world of fantasy. Something that only sorcerers and superheroes can use. But this is only partially true: over the last decade we have developed technologies that allow us to peer into people’s minds. Since “mind reading” sounds too fancy, scientists call this process "thought identification”.

EVERYTHING IN OUR UNIVERSE HAS A LIMIT

 

Everything in our universe has a limit. It may seem obvious, but it is something worth-considering. If everything has a limit, than there’s no such thing has “infinity”. Something without a limit cannot exist, because it is incompatible with our own reality. We know that there’s a limit to how cold something can get: that’s 0 Kelvin degrees, the minimum possible temperature. We know that there’s a limit to how fast something can go: that’s 300 000 000 meters per second, the speed of light. And we know that there’s a limit to how much of the Universe we can see and interact with.

IMPOSSIBLE COLOURS

 

In his 1927 short story “The Colour out of Space” H.P. Lovecraft describes the arrival of a strange meteorite in a small farm in Massachusetts. The bizarre object disappears shortly after crashing, but leaves behind a substance of an unknown color. Not just a strange color, but a color no one has ever seen before. This colour has terrifying effects on the surrounding area, infecting it making it hostile to human life.

THE FIVE SUNS OF AZTEC MYTHOLOGY

                                                                                         

Every mythology has its own “creation myths”, myths centered on how the world came to existence. In some cases a deity creates it on purpose, other times it was born by chance. Sometimes its inhabitants end up causing some kind of apocalypse that reshapes it. Other times the world has never changed since the beginning of time. Aztec mythology takes all the weirdest possible combinations and uses them to create one of the strangest yet most interesting creation myths.

THE TURK, THE BIZARRE STORY OF THE CHESS CHAMPION AUTOMATON

 

Automaton is a Greek word, meaning “acting of one’s own free will”. Today it’s used to refer to some kind of mechanism or machine that does something automatically. The concept of a self-operating machine is actually fairly ancient: in Greek mythology, the god Hephaestus often created living machines, like the giant defender of Crete, Talos. In China the legendary artificer Yan Shi is said to have created flying mechanical reproductions of birds for the Emperor.

But there’s one particular, much more recent automaton that deserves to be discussed. The so-called Turk.

SISYPHUS CHEATS DEATH

 

                                                                          

 Death is a recurring theme in legends and folklore all round the world. All cultures have tales of great heroes returning from the Underworld or even defying Death itself. These stories remind us to never give in, not even when we face the greatest obstacles.

Sometimes, the protagonist is not a hero and the story has a much darker moral. Le a look at the story of Sisyphus, the man who cheated Death and was punished for it.

THE NINE LIVES OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

                                                                          

Alexander the Great is undoubtedly  one of the greatest generals in history. In a ten years’ time he was able to create one of the biggest empires of ancient times, unifying thousands of people under his rule.  He was incredibly skilled. Even his enemies recognized his superior abilities. We all know that. And we all also know he was suddenly killed by a fever at the age of 32. But many people don’t know that during his life, Alexander succeeded in avoiding death many times. Today, we will talk about his “Nine Lives”.

ARE WE ALONE?

Hi everyone! Today I want to start asking you a question: how big is the universe? “Huge” many of you will answer. And  that’s true! Our universe is enormous, maybe even infinite.  And from our small planet, we can only see a tiny portion of it. So, if it is so big, then it should be reasonably full of life, right? I mean, statistically speaking is very improbable that ours is the only planet in the entire universe in which life flourished. There must be others.

HOW DOES FEAR WORK?

                                                                                 

Fear is an apparently simple - and yet extremely complex - concept. The most general definition of fear we can use is the emotion that arises in response to a potential threat. But exactly, what are the biological causes of fear? Where does it originate? What are its origins? What is its goal? In today’s article, we will try to answer to these questions.

First of all, in humans fear originates from a part of the brain known as amygdalae, which also manages various different emotions. When it detects something it considers a potential threat, the amygdalae starts sending to the entire brain electrical signals, informing them of the threat and stimulating the production of fear-associated hormones, such as adrenaline and dopamine, in order to make the body ready to flee from the threat.

THE WITCHES OF SALEM

                                                                         

Witch is a word that has been used in history  to refer to various kind of sorceresses, with various meanings,  depending on the time period and the cultural sphere it was used in. Today we usually use it to refer to a generic evil female magician, like the female antagonists in many fairy tales.

This way of seeing the witches come from the Middle Ages when, because of the centrality of the Christian religion in Europe, those who were considered capable of doing impossible things were called witches (or wizards if they were men) and considered followers of the Devil and, usually, sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Today we use the expression witch trials to refer to the enormous number of trials led against the ones who were supposed to practice witchcraft over the course of time.

STORY WRITING - RAVENOUS

Hello guys! This month  I’d like to share with you a story I’ve had some fun writing. Let me know what you think!

Yuri

I’ve always wondered if there’s a God, if there’s someone out there who watches us, who guards us. Even now, I haven’t found an answer yet. The universe is huge, enormous, full of different planets and populations, too big for a human-being with a limited mind like me to comprehend. Yeah. Far too big. But if there’s something that I can comprehend is that my people, my species, we, are different. Different from each other. Or, at least, from the majority of them.

THE LEGEND OF PERCIVAL

Arthur Hacker, Percival with the Grail Cup

Every country, every nation has its own legends and ancient tales and the UK, of course, it’s not an exception.  The Matter of Britain is their legendary epic.

The legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table is not only a worldwide known tale, but also an important part of English literary  heritage. I’d like to talk about one of the most prominent characters of the legend, Sir Percival, in a sort of short story. But, before we start, it’s important to note that there isn’t a single version of the story of Percival. There are lots of them  and they are also contrasting, so, to create a story as coherent and enjoyable as possible, I will use as a basis the story narrated in Perceval, the Story of the Grail, by Chrétienne de Troyes, adding to it, at the same time, some elements from other stories, mainly Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach and Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory.

And now, let’s start.

GILLES DE RAIS: HERO & VILLAIN

Gilles de Montmorency-Laval, also known as Gilles de Rais,was a knight and a leader of the French Army, who fought during the Hundred Years' War, a war fought by the House of Plantagenet (the rulers of the Kingdom of England) against the French House of  Valois from 1337 to 1453 for the right to rule the Kingdom of France, as a companion of Joan of Arc, "La Pucelle d'Orleans”, the heroine of France, the symbol of that war, even now, because of her actions and also her death.