Celestia Forums

Hi all,

just to inform everyone why my response in this forum was quite "thin" during last week: I spent the past week in Mexico City. The reason was that I am an Executive Board member of a very large academic network (HELEN), supporting the mobility and training of young latin american scientists, working in High Energy Physics. The board consists of one representant each from LA: Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and from Europe: CERN (Geneva) , Germany & DESY (me), France, Spain, Italy.

http://www.roma1.infn.it/exp/helen/

During the last three years, HELEN was tremendously successful. So we will be going to apply for an extension, HELEN+, for another three years at the EU in Brussels.

I returned with many new insights about Mexico and Mexico City in particular.

Cheers,
Fridger

Well, I appreciate the colorful cars; not so much of gray color as in Italy. Probably in my country are nostalgic of the smog.

Nice! Did you like the local cuisine?

Interesting involvement and project Fridger, thanks for posting that link... and the picture. I'll share the link with my cousin, he might find it of interest, if he's not already aware of it. Years ago he used to work as an engineer/physicist on the Superconducting Super Collider project in Waxahachie Texas; Our government cancelled its funding and the project (as I'm sure you know) was taken over by France.

Reiko wrote:Nice! Did you like the local cuisine?

Indeed! No revenge by Montezuma

Bye Fridger

LordFerret wrote:Interesting involvement and project Fridger, thanks for posting that link... and the picture. I'll share the link with my cousin, he might find it of interest, if he's not already aware of it. Years ago he used to work as an engineer/physicist on the Superconducting Super Collider project in Waxahachie Texas; Our government cancelled its funding and the project (as I'm sure you know) was taken over by France.

Since some people were interested, I published my further (commented) photographic impressions here

http://www.celestialmatters.org/users/t ... index.html

Bye Fridger

Nice! Thanks for sharing. That stained-glass ceiling is awesome.

Fenerit wrote:Well, I appreciate the colorful cars; not so much of gray color as in Italy. Probably in my country are nostalgic of the smog.

The green cars are actually (old) VW beagle taxis!
They are cheaper than other taxis

Bye Fridger

Beautiful photos, indeed. I'm asking for the acoustic about the arp's concert. It seems to me a good solution a raise sound over the guests. Do the ambient sounded good?

t00fri wrote:

Fenerit wrote:Well, I appreciate the colorful cars; not so much of gray color as in Italy. Probably in my country are nostalgic of the smog. :wink:

The grean cars are actually (old) VW beagle taxis!
They are cheaper than other taxis

Bye Fridger

They're Beetles... hehe... I think they're still made in Mexico under licence... or they were til recently.

Nice photos Fridger.

Any good beer?

Indeed bh

beagle -> beetle

Mexican beer is outstanding!!

In addition, some more info about this incredible hotel:

until the turn of the century the building was some kind of a supermarket, whence the gallery structure in the main hall. Moreover another exotic detail were the two cages with lots of exotic birds that continuously filled the hall with a pretty loud and lively "bird concert"!

Look here, you can see one of the cages down in front to the left of the elevator:



The other one was located diametrically opposite and the two bird populations continuously stimulated each other ...

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:beagle -> beetle ....

Hmmm,
given your nationality fridger, I would have thought you would have got this right first time!

Are there still any beetles in Germany, or are they excluded by their age?

PS. Amazing glass ceiling in that hotel... but correct me if I'm wrong, isn't Mexico City prone to earthquakes??

Chuft-Captain wrote:

t00fri wrote:beagle -> beetle ....

Hmmm,
given your nationality fridger, I would have thought you would have got this right first time!

Certainly, I know the difference . It was simply an unconscious 'slip', since I very recently had to decide in my institute, whether I allow someone to bring her Dackel = beagle along to the office ...

Actually VW-Dackel could be a very cool name for their next model

Are there still any beetles in Germany, or are they excluded by their age?

Both the real beetles and the motorized ones are on the verge of dying out. A number of years ago VW came forward with a stylish new beetle edition, but this move did NOT create a big impact.

PS. Amazing glass ceiling in that hotel... but correct me if I'm wrong, isn't Mexico City prone to earthquakes??

You are dead right. In 1985, there was a devastating quake in Mexico City (8.4), where > 10000 people were killed. That hotel, however survived almost undamaged!! The last quake of strength 6.3 was April 13, 2007 . I talked to a Mexican colleague who experienced that deadly 1985 quake as a 15 year old and survived unhurt. She said that it was so strong that it was impossible to remain upright on your legs...

I was very interested to learn, how the roof was made to survive such shocks. Looking close, first of all, I discovered that the whole roof had a wire grid before the glass, such that noone could be hurt, in case some glass pieces would fall out for whatever reasons.

Next, Tiffany mosaics are surprisingly flexible since they are made by soldering many small glass pieces with an elastic compound of tin and lead. That must be the secret, since I was told that glass roof was still the original one!

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:You are dead right...

No pun intended, I'm sure..

t00fri wrote:I was very interested to learn, how the roof was made to survive such shocks. Looking close, first of all, I discovered that the whole roof had a wire grid before the glass, such that noone could be hurt, in case some glass pieces would fall out for whatever reasons.

Next, Tiffany mosaics are surprisingly flexible since they are made by soldering many small glass pieces with an elastic compound of tin and lead. That must be the secret, since I was told that glass roof was still the original one!

You may also be interested to know that the 20km x 3.7km windows of my O'Neill habitats are designed using a similar principle. This, by the way, is no coincidence. (protection/redundancy in the event of meteorite strikes)

Chuft-Captain wrote:

t00fri wrote:You are dead right...

No pun intended, I'm sure..

t00fri wrote:I was very interested to learn, how the roof was made to survive such shocks. Looking close, first of all, I discovered that the whole roof had a wire grid before the glass, such that noone could be hurt, in case some glass pieces would fall out for whatever reasons.

Next, Tiffany mosaics are surprisingly flexible since they are made by soldering many small glass pieces with an elastic compound of tin and lead. That must be the secret, since I was told that glass roof was still the original one!

You may also be interested to know that the 20km x 3.7km windows of my O'Neill habitats are designed using a similar principle. This, by the way, is no coincidence. (protection/redundancy in the event of meteorite strikes)

Aha! Clever...

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:...
Next, Tiffany mosaics are surprisingly flexible since they are made by soldering many small glass pieces with an elastic compound of tin and lead. That must be the secret, since I was told that glass roof was still the original one!

Bye Fridger

I find that amazing, of how it has lasted. Very well constructed! Years back I had a friend who worked making and repairing stained-glass windows. I've seen myself, picked up and held... the glass is quite thick, as is the framing... and they're very heavy!

LordFerret wrote:I find that amazing, of how it has lasted. Very well constructed!

Indeed!

Bye Fridger

Fridger,

Thanks for sharing these photographs: it's an amazing architecture indeed! I enjoyed them very much.

Toti wrote:Fridger,

Thanks for sharing these photographs: it's an amazing architecture indeed! I enjoyed them very much.

Hey Toti,

where have you been hiding, recently? It's a pity, not to see you more often these days. Next time, I'll visit Argentina (La Plata, AUGER observatory,

http://www.auger.org/

..., ) and we can have a nice little beer together ...

Bye Fridger

t00fri wrote:Hey Toti,

where have you been hiding, recently? It's a pity, not to see you more often these days.

I've been extremely busy, to the point that I had no time to expend on Celestia. But I am eager to collaborate again and I hope to be able to do so in the next months.

Fridger wrote:Next time, I'll visit Argentina (La Plata, AUGER observatory)

Ah, the "City of the Diagonals", as we call it (although I expect any European will find that nickname a bit exaggerated)
Please don't forget to visit the Cathedral. It's a beautiful piece of architecture and the largest gothic building in America, although smaller than you may be used too (eg. Ulm's).

And if you forgive this tour-guide mode : if you happen to be interested in Natural History you should spend some time in the "Museo de Historia Natural". Among its invaluable two million pieces it houses which was the personal collection of the eminent scientist and explorer Dr. Francisco Moreno (including a part of Mylodon skin that's still fresh enough to be flexible and foul-smelling!)

Fridger wrote:...and we can have a nice little beer together ...

That would be great! I'll do my best to be there.
Cheers