Category Archives: Science

The worst case of Homophobia in Mexico

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Agustín walks down the streets in California. He is clearly sad, scared and tired. He has been escaping because he just wanted to reveal himself as what he is, but he has no money, no food and no family with him; yet, he represents the worst case of Homophobia in Mexico.

The teacher Agustín Estrada Negrete, holder of a PhD on Education, began as principal of “Centro de Atención Múltiple” (CAM) in Ecatepec, one of the poorest and most populated communities of the State of Mexico. He started with almost nothing and created a well organised education center for mentally challenged children. Besides that, looking at the poor conditions of the inhabitants, created workshops and gave resources and tools to the neighbors, so they could start their own business. He gave even from his own money to improve the conditions of the school and started a program to give education to elderly and parents. He was active and hardworking in the community helping every time he could.

By 2005 the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI), looking at the big influence of the professor in the community, asked him to support the Candidate for the Governance. Perhaps Agustín saw good proposals and a charismatic and young Candidate, so he accepted and helped him. The candidate for the PRI won.

In May 17th 2007, he was invited by the Human Rights Coordination to a rally at the International day against Homophobia. He went there on support and dressed up as in the movie “The Birdcage” making public his sexual preference.

Teachers under his charge were horrified at his opening and brought an action against him arguing that he had a wrong behavior and is a bad example for the community, but the community didn’t care about his preferences, they only saw a good professor and wanted him with them. The teacher replied with a complaint at the “National Council against Discrimination” but nothing was done.

He then goes to a meeting with the Governor of the State in the University of Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl exposing his case on the off chance that the Governor could review his case of injustice and help him, as he already knew the teacher and his reputation, besides he was helping him in his Campaign. Continue reading →

Sweet Home Alabama (Electric Version)

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All of us know this song, all of us like it, all of us recognize it when we hear it (always played in Oktoberfest), but never in my life I would think to play it as in the following video. The creators Eric Goodchild and Steven Caton built two gigantic tesla coils to generate different sounds with the sparkles and stuff… well, the result is very impressive and absolutely fun:

According to the description of the video:

The primary drive system for the coils consists of high power semiconductors arranged into an H-Bridge switching configuration. During a spark event, the coil is pulsed on for a few hundred millionths of a second. During this short time, thousands of amps circulate within the primary tank circuit and the energy is coupled into the secondary resonator through magnetism.

So what appears to be a continuous burst of sparks is actually a specific number of sparks generated per second. By modulating the number of sparks that emit from the coil each second, different tones can be produced by the coils.

Have a look to their videos, they’re not only playing that song, but also have many other different hits such as In the Hall of the Mountain King, Pirates of the Caribbean, House of the rising sun, Dueling Banjos, etc. Check also their channel, they have cool shit with lasers and stuff.

Science fucking rocks!