Petite planète

 Photo of Earth titled "Pale Blue Dot" taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on February 14, 1990 from a distance of 6 billion kilometers. The Earth appears infinitesimal in size and looks like a grain of dust compared to the vastness of space that surrounds it, while the beams of light that appear are the result of the camera's optics and the light from the Sun. The photo was taken when Voyager 1 had completed its primary mission and was on its way out of the Solar System when, at Carl Sagan's request, NASA's Earth control center instructed the spacecraft to rotate its camera and capture a last picture of Earth before it moves further away.

Theory of Everything

 

Theory of Everything

Freethinkers

E8 is a 248 dimensional surface .

E8 is also called a Lie group. Each different direction on the surface corresponds to a different kind of elementary particle that can exist. For example, one kind of particle is an electron, which actually has eight different varieties: left or right handed, spin up or spin down, and particle or anti-particle. These correspond to eight different directions inside E8. The directions, inside the E8 surface all twist around each other. You can plot the number of twists around several different internal directions at once, corresponding to different kinds of charge that particles have, including electric charge, weak charge, strong charge, and spin. Each kind of elementary particle corresponds to a different direction in E8, with different twist numbers. When you plot all the different charges (twists) of all the different particles, they make pretty patterns.

Interstellar wisdom

• So... back to the fourth iteration. Let's run it through some new fields.
• With respect, professor, we've tried that hundreds of times.
• It only has to work once, Murph.
• Every rivet that they strike could have been a bullet.
• We've done well for the world here... whether or not we crack the equation before I kick the bucket.
• Don't be morbid, professor.
• I'm an old physicist.
• I'm afraid of time.
• Time.
• You're afraid of time.
• We've been trying to solve the equation... without changing the underlying assumption about time.
• And?
• And that means... each iteration is an attempt to prove its own proof.
• It's recursive. It's nonsensical.
• Are you calling my life's work... nonsense, Murph?
• No, I'm saying that you've been trying to... finish it with one arm... No, with both arms... tied behind your back.
• And I don't understand why.
• I'm an old man, Murph.
• Can we take this point up at another time?
• I want to talk to my daughter.
• Stepping out into the universe... we must confront the reality of interstellar travel.
• We must reach far beyond our own lifespans.
• We must think not as individuals but as a species.
• Do not go gentle into that good night TARS kept the Endurance right where we needed her.
• But the trip took years longer than we anticipated.
• We no longer have the fuel to visit both prospects, so... we have to choose.
• But how?
• They're both promising. Edmunds' data is better, but Dr. Mann
• is the one still transmitting, so...
• 
  
• Murphy's Law.
• Whatever can happen will happen.
• 
  
• I'm drawn across the universe to someone I haven't seen in a decade...who I know is probably dead.
• Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving... that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it yet.
• All right, Cooper...

• Make him stay.
• Make him stay, Murph.
• Make him stay, Murph.
• Don't let me leave, Murph!
• Don't let me leave, Murph!
• It was you.
• You were my ghost.
• Cooper. Cooper. Come in, Cooper.

• You survived. Somewhere... in their fifth dimension.
• They saved us.
• Yeah? Who the hell is "they"? And just why would they want to help us?
• I don't know, but they constructed this three-dimensional space... inside their five-dimensional reality to allow you to understand it. 
• Yeah, that ain't working.
• You've seen that time is represented here as a physical dimension.
• You have worked out that you can exert a force across space-time.
• Gravity to send a message.
• Gravity... can cross the dimensions, including time.
• Apparently.
• Do you have the quantum data?
• Roger. I have it.
• I am transmitting it on all wavelengths, but nothing is getting out, Cooper.
• I can do this. I can do this.
• But such complicated data to a child?
• Not just any child.
• Cooper...they didn't bring us here to change the past.
• Say that again.
• They didn't bring us here to change the past.
• No, they didn't bring us here at all.
• We brought ourselves.
• TARS, give me the coordinates for NASA in binary.
• In binary. Roger. Feeding data.
• "It's not a ghost."
• "it's gravity."
• Don't you get it yet, TARS?
• I brought myself here!
• We're here to communicate with the three-dimensional world.
• We're the bridge!
• I thought they chose me. But they didn't choose me, they chose her. For what, Cooper?
• To save the world!

Contact, Carl Sagan

- I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, sweetheart.

- You're not real.

- None of this is real!

- That's my scientist.

- When I was unconscious, you downloaded my thoughts, my memories.

- Pensacola!

- We thought it might make things easier for you.

- Why did you contact us?

- You contacted us. We were just listening.

- There are others?

- Many others.

- They all......travel here through that transit system you built?

- We didn't build it. We don't know who did.

- They were gone long before we ever got here. Maybe someday they'll come back.

- All the civilizations you find come here?

- Not all.

- Is this some test?

- No, no test.

- You're an interesting species......an interesting mix.

- You're capable of such beautiful dreams... ...and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost......so cut off, so alone. Only you're not. In all our searching......all we've found that makes the emptiness bearable......is each other.

- What happens now?

- Now?

- You go home.

- Home?

- But......I have so many questions.

- Do we get to come back?

- This was just a first step. In time, you'll take another.

- But other people need to see what I've seen...

- This is the way it's been done for billions of years. Small moves, Ellie. Small moves.

- We've got video on Ellie!

- She's through!

- She is in the net.

- She's alive.

- Get the President on the phone!

- What's going on?

- How is she?

- Ellie, this is Control.

- You copy?

- What's going on?

- I don't know.

- She's alive.

- Put her on P.A.

- Ellie, hold on tight.

- We're still trying to determine the nature of the malfunction......but the important thing is you're okay.

- What?

- It's all right.

- The important thing is you're safe.

- What malfunction?

- What happened?

- What day is this?

- I'm sorry.

- Did you say what day?

- How long was I gone?

- The IPV dropped straight through the Machine.

- You didn't go anywhere.

- But I did. I did go.

Road to Success

 

Boris Cyrulnik

 L'ignorance provoque un tel état de confusion qu'on s'accroche à n'importe quelle explication afin de se sentir un peu moins embarrassé. C'est pourquoi moins on a de connaissances, plus on a de certitudes. Il faut avoir beaucoup de connaissances et se sentir assez bien dans son âme pour oser envisager plusieurs hypothèses.

La folle histoire des idées folles en psychiatrie de Boris Cyrulnik.

Étymologie anglaise médiévale

 Quelques mots anglais qui ont une saveur toute médiévale :

Foreign = le forain allait de village en village ; c’était un « estranger » (stranger)

Journey = d’antan on comptait la durée des voyages en journées à cheval ou à pied

Knife = kenivet ou canif

Plate = plat (car on mangeait directement dans les plats lors des banquets)

Laundry = lavenderie où se trouvent les lavandières

Bacon = nom du lard en ancien français

Stuff = estoffe

Locked = fermé avec un loquet

Target = une cible ressemble à une targette (petits bouclier rond)

Basket = basquette ; panier à poisson en Normandie

Stage : les comédiens au Moyen Age jouaient sur une estrade ; ils étaient à « l’estage »

Clock = c’était la cloche/cloque de l’église qui donnait les heures

Scout = devant les armées on envoyait des escoutes pour guetter l’ennemi

Express = messager envoyé exprès à cheval pour délivrer une missive à une presonne particulière

Trousers = avoir quelqu’un aux trousses