On 22th of February
2017 NASA informed about a crucial discovery. The details of this discovery
have been described in the prestigious magazine: Nature.
Astronomers have found
that in the 40 light-years away system there are at least seven Earth-sized
planets. The founders have announced that on these plants there could be
similar climate to the Earth’s climate. There could be water on their surfaces.
NASA supposes also that on three planets can exist life. Common name of these seven planets is
“seven sisters”.
The newly discovered
planets orbit an ultracool red dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. The planets have
been called from the following letters TRAPPIST-1 b, TRAPPIST-1 c till
TRAPPIST-1 h. Six planets have surface temperatures that rangebetween0 and 100 degrees Celsius. Three of the seven(e,f and g) are on the
habitable zone and the founders believe there may even have oceans on the
surface. The objects go close the star and they are very close to each other.
For seven of them the space between them is five times smaller than the
distance from Mercury to our Sun. The circulations around TRIPAST-1 are (1.51
days, 2.42 days, 4.05 days, 6.10 days, 9.20 days, 12.35 days and for the last
of them is over 20 days.
The star TRAPPIST-1 is
a little star. It is a bit larger than the Jupiter. The temperature is much
lower than the temperature of the Sun and its mass is only 8% of the Earth’s
mass. TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf so its light has a salmon hue. The scientists
suspect that very little stars can have many planets on tight orbits. The system
TRAPPIST-1 has provided the first literal confirmation of this hypothesis.
In this historical
discovery there have been used a lot of ground-based telescopes and space-based
telescopes. The research started at the end of the 2015 with TRAPPIST (Transiting Planets and
Planetesimals Small Telescope)
telescope based on the Atacama desert in Chile.30 astronomers from a lot of countries have been involved in this
research– from Belgium, United Kingdom, Switzerland, USA, France, RPA, Saudi
Arabia and Morocco.
In the future these
seven planets will be the main destination for astronomers in search of life
project. To do this, there is under construction a very responsive telescope:
James Webb Space Telescope(built by NASA, ESA and the Canadian agency CSA, scheduled to be launched in October 2018) It
will be positioned 1 million miles from the Earth The end of the construction
is planned between 2022-2024. These two
telescopes will search forextraterrestrial life.
“These are the best
Earth-sized planets for the James Webb Space Telescope to characterize, perhaps
for its whole lifetime. The Webb telescope will increase the information we
have about these planets immensely. With the extended wavelength coverage we
will be able to see if their atmospheres have water, methane, carbon
monoxide/dioxide and/or oxygen.” said Hannah Wakeford who is postdoctoral
fellow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Do you
believe in life in outer space?
What do
you think about space travel to one of the seven planets?
Would you
like to participate in one way travel(without returning home) to such planets?
The
purpose of virtual reality goggles is to let the user imagine being in a
completely different place. While sitting in your own room, look through such
goggles and you might feel as if you were walking on the surface of the Moon, speeding
in a carriage of a roller coaster or watching a movie in a large cinema hall.
What is the
future for virtual reality? The technology is evolving rapidly, and what we
even wouldn’t imagine a couple of years ago, today is a fact. For now VR is
just a toy, but will it ever become something more? Is this just a short-term
fashion like 3D was, or will it become something important in our lives? Will
we use it to communicate with friends, or maybe even become someone else to
make new ones? When the world in VR becomes more attractive, will we want to
live in the real one any longer? Will we even be able to tell them apart? You
might consider that everything we experience in life is in fact just an interpretation
made by our minds, the electrical signals which describe our surrounding, making us believe they are real. It would mean
the reality exists only in our brains.
So could we trick it? Could we just break all bonds and create our own reality?
In such an imagined
world we will be like gods, but at the same time we might become slaves of our
creations incapable to live among other people. Could we become slaves of our
desires? What if our biggest and most unreachable dreams become available in
VR? Will we be able to give them up to live our lives, or give up the real life?
Source: http://i.imgur.com/87fJzUo.jpg
1. Is
virtual reality worth paying attention to?
2. Do you
think that VR Goggles may have a major impact on our health?
3. Do you
own any virtual reality headset now? How do you use it?
The creation of the term GEISHA
reaches the Tokugawa's era and refers to a person who performs the art and is
an artist itself. Initially, Geishas were men. Only since the XVIII century
women were allowed to perform this profession. They were called Anna Geishas
which meant the women geisha. The first of a woman-geisha were Kasen and she
was chosen in the 1761
Geishas' districts…
The most traditional were geishas
from Kioto. They dwell geishas' districts, the biggest are:
They usually live in a one house
which is called Okiya. Although they live all together, there is a great atmosphere
of hatred due to the fact that each of them fights for the respect of other
people which unfortunately does not allow them to run a peaceful life in their
environment.
Stages of the training
To become a geisha was not an easy
task. Education started at the very early age, most frequently the girls between
10-12 became geishas on the basis of a contract between parents and Okasan who
is a kind of a keeper and a manager of the school for girls.
Shikomi- does the same activities as
servants and additionally serves Maiko and Geiko. The training takes 6 months
and is a stage of getting the girls familliar with the life in the house, the
ideology, the study of a more formal language, discipline and wearing a kimono.
Geisha works very hard under the constant okasan's observations
Maiko- she is an apprentice for whom
the world of geishas is presented. She acquires the experience mainly through
taking part in the parties and festivals of the dance. She distinguishes from
other ordinary people mainly because of wearing a colourful kimono with very
long sleeves which reach the ground and lots of decorations in the hair. The
young geisha has to look cute and innocent
Geiko- is the elder and experienced
geisha. Her kimono is not that colorful anymore and her hair is not decorated
by a number of combs and pins. Her outfit is specifically blinded by a belt
called 'obi'. That kind of a woman becomes a beautiful, dignified and also a
serious Geiko
In the
past, a girl who wanted to become the Geiko had to pass through initiation
(mizuage). However, nowadays it is not practiced. In the first day of mizuage,
Okasan in a specially prepared room left 3 eggs and walked away to the neighboring
room. The lover who came to Mizuage asked Maiko to lay down. Later he drank the
yolks and rubbed the whites of an eggs into clothes. He informed the girl that
this is Mizuage and with saying 'good night darling!' he left the room. The
next day, they met at the same place when again the lover drank the yolks but
the whites were rubbed over the girl's legs. He left the room with saying the
same words as on the previous day. This ceremony took 7 days and with each day,
the whites of the eggs were rubbed into more and more sensitive parts of the
woman's body. When the week was coming to the end, the young geisha felt calm
and excited and the male comforted by the yolks with pleasure did his role.
Disrepute
A lot of
people mistakenly perceive geishas as the prostitutes. Unfortunately this
thought still functions and probably came from the period of the Second World
War when American occupiers used services of the prostitutes who named
themselves geishas.The real geisha does not have sexual relation with their
customers. All she can do is to flirt and of course only to some extent. The
prove of their innocence is the fact that every geisha has to be registered at
the office which can be found in every district. The prostitution in Japan is
forbidden.
Geisha’s outfit
Geishas'
outfit consist of 3 parts: nagajuban, kimonoes and obi. Nagajuban is a robe
worn under the kimono and obi is a belt by which Geiko bind their clothes. It
can have a length of even 6 meters. Furthermore, the kimono itself is very
beautiful, however, it can weight up to twenty kilos. Geishas do not wear
underwear because it could spoil the look of the outfit. Socks are usually worn
1 number smaller to look better in shoes.
The dance
and parties are main Geishas' responsibilities. Rich Japanese people cannot
imagine feasts without geishas. However, these women who take part in all these
meetings are under the risk of getting addicted to the alcohol which may spoil
their further career. The more official celebrations are dance festivals which
were organized since the 1875. The most popular are spring festivals in Kioto.
Not only the Japanese people join these festivals but also tourists from the
whole world who want to watch this amazing dance, performed by those unique
women.
They played
an essential role in the economy and politics. It was said that an ambitious politician
had two goals in his life: Have a geisha as a wife and to become a minister. If
a geisha wants to marry a man, she has to quit her profession for the life
time.
Popularity of geishas
Although
before the end of XX century, the popularity of geishas decreased and only rich
businessmen and clients are interested in geishas. However, there is no doubt
that these women will remain as the symbol of Japan which makes an essential
impact on the Japanese culture. Almost every young Japanese girl dreams about
becoming geisha. What amazing is about geishas is that their traditions and
rules have not changed over those all years.
To end
with, I present you a trailer from a film called ‘Memoirs of a geisha’ which
shows their life. I encourage you into watching the whole.
