According to these days, I’ve read an interesting post (Spanish only, sorry) on the origins of Christmas celebration, which coincides with (or happens very close to) winter solstice (December 21st). Many other ancient cultures (Greek, Hindu, Buddhist) do also celebrate the born of The Son of God. So Christmas is just another imported celebration.

Interesting also his death (Christ’s) is close to spring equinox and also resurrects 3 days later (closely to March 25th).

I’ve made a little abstract about some of the “coincidences” the mentioned post points out (for a more detailed list of coincidences, please read the related article. It’s worth it!):

ATTIS: El Frigius Christ.

• Born of Virgin NANA, on December 25th.
• He was cruxified on a tree, for redemption of the mankind; was buried, but resurrected the 3rd day and some priests found his tomb empty;
• Resurrected among dead (on March, 25th).

BUDDHA: Hindu and Chinese Christ.

• Born of Virgin MAYA on December 25th.
• His birth was announced by a star and was visited by wise men with luxurious presents.

DIONYSUS: The Christ of Athens.

• Born of a Virgin on December 25th, laid on a crib.
• Transformed water into wine.
• Resurrected from dead on March, 25th.

HERACLES: The Greek Christ.

• Born of a Virgin (who refrained from sex until the child was born) on the winter solstice.
• Sacrified on spring equinox (about 3 days before March, 25th).

MITRA: The Persian Christ.

• Mitra was born on December, 25th in a cave
• His mother was a Virgin.

The coincidences lists is much larger than the one shown here (and there are more religions and cultures). Check it reading the original post (Spanish), and also, this other chart of crists.

Also Edanna writes about it on her post entitled navidad pagana (pagan christmas), which also comments on the non-catholic (and more and more consumer-oriented) origins of this celebration.

So, now you know, please behave yourselves, and buy, buy, BUY…

Posted by Boriel as Sin categoría, Interesting at 7.29 pm

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A friend of mine has sent me an URL to Context Free, a programming environment for the CFDG language -very simple, but very powerful that defines context free grammars- which generates beautiful graphic structures as shown in this post.

This language allows you to define a ser of non-deterministic rules, which executes in a recursive fashion, in a way that resembles Prolog.

The program is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh under the GPL license.

If you’re interested and want to see more pictures, then don’t miss this gallery created by a growing fan group of this language.

Posted by Boriel as Interesting, Mathematics, Programming at 1.07 am

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I’ve just read in The Guardian an interesting article about a new concept car being developed by Ford and MIT.

This new car will be a two-passenger, designed with latest materials and its most interesting characteristic is it will be shared by everyone: You take one, and leave it once you reach the place you want to go. It resembles me a rented mini-car.

Among its most remarkable features are:

• It will be a small (two-passenger) and compact car.
• Electrical: Implies less acustic and more ecological (less pollution gasses).
• No engine. It will have engines whithin the wheels, called wheel robos, that will allow you to move in any direction, instead.
• No safe belt. The sit will came equipped with a kind of backbone with a tentacles that will catch the passenger in case of accident (in a similar way to an airbag, but from your back).
• The color, seat and panels layout will be customizable by the user para personalizarlo a to have a personalized car. That information might be saved in the card so, once inserted in a new car, it will be already customized and configured.

Another strinking idea is that cars will be stackable (see picture) like supermarket carts, so they will take little space when parked. Those parking places will be everywhere, so you will have one near the place to go (like today’s bus stations).
Otra idea muy interesante es que el coche será apilables, como los carritos de los supermercados, de manera que ocuparán poco espacio. Estos aparcamientos estarán disponibles por doquier, de forma que siempre tengas uno cerca del lugar a donde vayas.

Posted by Boriel as Interesting, News at 11.06 pm

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