Whenever I think about warhammers, only one person comes in mind: Robert Baratheon from the " A Song of Ice and Fire" series by G. R. R. Martin. Ok, two: Thor and his Mjolnir too. They're not real life examples, I know, but it got me wondering: I never heard about a warrior's tomb where a warhammer was found. So I decided to research a little bit on the subject.
     As a weapon, the hammer is described as a perforating instrument on one side and blunting one on the other, possibly used since the Stone Age but was perfected for war during the Middle Age. It has a similar use when compared to the mace and other weapons wielded by knights. The handle could have several lengths. The long ones were used as infantry rod weapons against knights and the short ones were used in close combats or as part of the arsenal used on the horse. A third sharp point, coming out of the half of the head of the hammer, in the direction of the cable, made it even more versatile.
    They were very useful against the better armors developed during the 14th and 15th centuries (when steel production was perfected). The warhammer could strike more powerful blows than swords - whose power was diminished with the use or armors. The great strengh of the blows could penetrate the adversary's defenses, especially when used by a mounted knight. Even when it didn't penetrate the armor, the impact caused serious damage. The blunt side of the head could be used to smash the target's armor, or even his shield. The other side could be used to perforate heavy armors. Against mounted adversaries, the blow could be directed to the horse's paws (poor things!), causing the enemy to be knocked to the ground, where it would be easier to fight.
     Another weapons that are like warhammers include: the Bec of Corbin, Lucerne's Hammer and the cavalry pick. Since I'm not familiar with any of those, you'll probably see them mentioned here again.

~Ally

     My mom and I always say that my gyroscope was born broken as if it was some kind of internal geographical positioning device. Call it a GPS or my navigation habilities if you will. Truth is I don't seem to have this talent - though sometimes I surprise myself knowing directions quite well -, and worse, this is not the true use or definition of a gyroscope!
      Like I said yesterday, the name "Gyroscope" is credited to Foucault, although he wasn't the one who invented it.
   The gyroscope itself is a device used for measuring and/or mantaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. Its mechanics are like so: it is a spinning wheel or disc with a free axle that can assume any orientation. That orientation may not stay fixed, but it changes less and in a different direction in response to an external torque than it would do without the large angular momentum associated with the disc's high rate of spin and moment of inertia. So, the orientation of the device remais nearly fixed, regardless of the motion of the mounting platform.
     It can be used inn inertial navigation systems where magnetic compasses would not work (such as the Hubble telescope) or would not be precise enough, or for the stabilization of flying vehicles like radio-controlled helicopters or unmanned aerial vehicles. Due to their precision, gyroscopes are also used in gyrotheodolites to maintain direction in tunnel mining.
     Based on those descriptions, then, I guess my "inner gyroscope" is practically absent.

~Ally

     Blame Google's Doodle for today's post!
     I'm not a huge fan of physics, but Foucault's name is vaguely familiar to me. So, when I saw his pendulum doodle, I felt the sudden urge to know more about him (perhaps again!).
     He was a French physicist made famous for his demonstration of the "Foucault pendulum", a device that can demonstrate the effect of Earth's rotation. He is also credited for making an early measurement of the speed of light, discovering eddy currents, and naming the gyroscope (although he did not invent it). Before turning to physics, though, he studied medicine, but dropped out because of blood phobia. After that, he worked on improving Daguerre's photographic processes.
     His pendulum is considered a simple device that allows a demonstration of Earth's rotation. Back in those days, people already knew about this phenomena, but they had not proved it with an easy-to-see experiment.
     The first exhibition of a "Foucault pendulum" took place in 1851 in the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. A few weeks later Foucault made his most famous pendulum when he suspended a 28 kg brass-coated lead bob with a 67 metre long wire from the dome of the Panthéon, also in Paris. The plane of the pendulum's swing rotated clockwise 11° per hour, making a full circle in 32.7 hours.
     The basic experimental apparatus consists of a tall pendulum free to swing in any vertical plane. The actual plane of swing appears to rotate relative to the Earth. The wire needs to be as long as possible (lengths of 12-30m are common). At either the North Pole or South Pole, the plane of oscillation of a pendulum remains fixed relative to the distant masses of the Universe while Earth rotates underneath it, taking one sidereal day to complete a rotation. So, relative to Earth, the plane of oscillation of a pendulum at the North Pole undergoes a full clockwise rotation during one day; a pendulum at the South Pole rotates counterclockwise.
      A "Foucault pendulum" requires care to set up because imprecise construction can cause additional veering which masks the desired terrestrial effect. The initial launch of the pendulum is critical and, traditionally, it is used a flame to burn through a thread which temporarily holds the bob in its starting position, thus avoiding unwanted sideways motion. Air resistance damps the oscillation, so some pendulums in museums incorporate an electromagnetic to keep the bob swinging; others are restarted regularly, sometimes with a launching ceremony as an added attraction.
    A "pendulum day" is the time needed for the plane of a freely suspended "Foucault pendulum" to complete an apparent rotation about the local vertical. This is one sidereal day divided by the sine of the latitude.

~Ally

    I met this band in Rock in Rio last saturday and was completely amazed! Seriously, celtic sounds, Scottish influences, steampunk looks and funny Portuguese lyrics? Yes please!
      You can get to know the band in their official website. Have fun!

~Ally

     Books and I have an intense love affair since I was 13 years old. They almost never let me down, and I love learning new things with them and about them. And that's where fore-edge painting comes up!
     This technique consists in drawing or painting images in the book pages in a way that they cannot be seen unless you press and bend the pages a little bit on the opposite side of the bump. It made a lot of success in the past and researchers believe it has begun in the 1650 decade. Old books really rock, man!

~Ally

      Although we humans can't get infected with animal STDs,  zoophilia is highly discouraged.
    But non human animals themselves can have STDs, and most of them are caused by protozoa, bacteria or viruses. The transmission only occurs between animals of the same species - so far, infection between different species through sexual relations haven't been found - because the transmitting agents are species specific.
     HIV -1, however, is a different story. It didn't infect humans because of zoophilia, but because of the contact of human hunters with contaminated chimpanzee blood, becoming a case of disease transmission between species.

~Ally

      And for once, Mr. Barney Stinson, I have to agree with you. Rock in Rio 2013 was LEGEN - wait for it - DAAAAARY!!!!!
     Me and my pals Nana, Verônica and Karen enjoyed the concerts of today SO much. 30 Seconds to Mars, Florence + The Machine (totally made my eyes spark!), Muse and The Offspring, among many others...
      I discovered that the festival is extremely big (a lot bigger than SWU, which was the only other big festival I went to in my whole life), very well organized and a little bit expensive. Yeah, you can't really expect to go there and buy lots of souvenirs if you're in a budget like I was. But there's plenty of free stuff you can do: rollercoaster rides, Ferris wheel and tyrolean, to name a few.
      All I can say is that, in 2015, I'll be back (read ir like it's Arnold Schwarzenegger talking, ok?)!

~Ally

     Yeap! I feel really old right now! I remember playing this game a lot when I was a kid, along with my cousins. My favorite characters were Chun-Li (I thought it was awesome to have a girl kicking guys buts - still do! Teehee) Ryu and Vega.
     In the documentary above you can learn various neat things about the game. Enjoy!

~Ally

      And none other than Sappho of Lesbos! She was a lyric poet born sometime between 630 and 612 BCE, and it is said that she died around 570 BCE, but little is known for certain about her life. The bulk of her poetry, which was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, has been lost, but her immense reputation has endured through surviving fragments.
    So you can have an idea, the only contemporary source for Sappho's life is her own poetry, and scholars are skeptical of reading it biographically. Later biographical accounts are also considered unreliable. According to the Parian Marble (a Greek chronology, covering the years from 1582 BC to 299 BC, inscribed on a stele), Sappho was exiled to Sicily sometime between 604 BCE and 594 BCE and Cicero records that a statue of her stood in the town-hall of Syracuse. Again, since there is no explicit record of this, it is usually assumed that Sappho returned from exile at some point and that she spent most of her life in Lesbos.
     Sappho's poetry centers on passion and love for various people and both sexes. The word "lesbian" derives from the name of the island of her birth, Lesbos, while her name is also the origin of the word "sapphic"; neither word was applied to female homosexuality until the 19th century.
     She is also remembered for being headmistress of a girls' finishing school, but this also hasn't been confirmed by historians. Nevertheless, she was highly esteemed by other Greek poets in ancient history, and an epigram by Plato in the Anthologia Palatina states:

Some say the Muses are nine: how careless!
Look, there's Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth.

~Ally

     Man, I DO love flowers/plants with monster/creepy names! Wish I could grow a whole garden with them...
    Last weekend my aunt showed me one of her flowers and called it a Ghost Flower. Naturally, I became curious about it and decided to learn more about them. The problem is that there are more than one species referred to as Ghost Flowers, and I couldn't find information about my aunt's specific flower, given that I don't know the species name. Neverhteless, I wanted to write a little about those beings, so here you go!
     One of the Ghost Flowers (pictured above) is also known as Ghosts of Summer's Woods, Indian Pipe, Corpse Plant (again this name! Remember when I spoke about them?), Fairy Smoke, Eyebright and Convulsion Weed, among many others. This plant is native to temperate regions of Asia, North America and northern South America, but with large gaps between areas, being generally scarce or rare in occurrence.
     Their white color is due to lack of chlorophyll. Since they are parasitic, though, it doesn't make much difference. Its hosts are certain fungi that are mycorrhizal with trees, meaning it ultimately gets its energy from photosynthetic trees. Whereas they don't need sunlight to grow, Ghost Flowers can live in dark areas as in the understory of dense forests. You can understand the eerie feeling of finding one of those in dark corners of woods, huh? As the Indian Pipe matures and begins producing seeds, it straightens out until the blossom is held vertically. The color changes when the plant is fertilized, turning pale pink. The plant can't be picked because its flesh turns black when cut or even bruised. It also oozes a clear, gelatinous substance when harvested.
     It was used as a medicine, first by American Indians. They used it as an eye lotion which gave rise to the name "Eyebright". Americans of the last century treated spasms, fainting spells, and nervous conditions with it, which gave rise to the names "Convulsion Weed" and "Fitroot".
     But where does the name "Indian Pipe" comes from? Actually, from a Cherokee legend, told below.

     "A long time ago, before selfishness came into the world, the Cherokee people were happy sharing the hunting and fishing places with their neighbors. All this changed when Selfishness came into the world and man began to quarrel. The Cherokee Indians quarreled with tribes on the east. Finally the chiefs of several tribes met in council to try to settle the dispute. They smoked the pipe and continued to quarrel for seven days and seven nights. This displeased the Great Spirit because people are not supposed to smoke the pipe until they make peace. As he looked upon the old men with heads bowed, he decided to do something to remind people to smoke the pipe only at the time they make peace.
      The Great Spirit turned the old men into greyish flowers now called 'Indian Pipes' and he made them grow where friends and relatives had quarreled. He made the smoke hang over these mountains until all the people all over the world learn to live together in peace."

~Ally