Quote of the Month

"So the universe is not quite as you thought it was.

You’d better rearrange your beliefs, then.

Because you certainly can’t rearrange the universe."

- Isaac Asimov

The Mars Timeline Mobile App (Free)

After years of research and about 6 months of development, a new project of mine has come to fruition: the Mars Timeline mobile app. It is a tribute to humanity's effort to conquer Mars, an encyclopedia containing every mission ever sent to the Red Planet.

downl;oad it and enjoy mission overviews, detailed technical information of spacecraft, and galleries of rare images. Enjoy the story of Mars exploration all for free and without advertisements, of course, as I believe that we should not put a price on knowledge.

iTunes Link
Behance Presentation*


* Don't forget to appreciate it! ;)

Quote of the Month

"The problem with today’s world is that

everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion

AND have others listen to it.

The correct statement of individual rights is that

everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially,

that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of,

particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!"

- Professor Brian Cox

History Was Made Yesterday...

... and not by SpaceX!

Although, to be fair, what SpaceX is trying to do from orbit (not from a mere 100 km) is infinitely harder. Still, kudos to Blue Origins!

Backpacking Guide for Japan

Backpacking is a fun and rewarding way to travel. It offers more opportunities, to immerse oneself in a foreign culture, than more traditional ways. Yet, for those who have never done it before, planning a backpacking trip may seem like a daunting task, especially if the target country is as exotic as Japan. Luckily, that is where this article comes in. Of course, I am by no means an expert, but I did go on an impromptu, month-long backpacking trip to Japan, during which I feel I had gained invaluable experiences that can be beneficial to others; especially if you, like me, go there for the first time. This is what this article is about.

Quote of the Month

"Just because science doesn't know everything

doesn't mean you can fill in the gaps

with whatever fairytale most appeals to you."

- Dara O'Briain

Quote of the Month

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice;

If your plan is for ten years, plant trees;

If your plan is for a hundred years, educate children."

- Confucius

Quote of the Month

"The most dangerous phrase in the language is

‘we’ve always done it this way’."

- Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

Quote of the Month

"Nothing in life is to be feared,

it is only to be understood.

Now is the time to understand more,

so that we may fear less."

- Marie Curie

Rest in Peace Warhammer Fantasy

The 11th of July, 2015 marked one of the saddest moments in tabletop and roleplaying games history: the death of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop game, and with it, the Old World, perhaps one of the most iconic fantasy universes ever created.

For those of you who have not heard of Warhammer Fantasy, here is a brief recap. It all started in 1983 when Games Workshop released the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, the tabletop wargame that lifted the, then small, gaming company to world prominence. To accompany their new game, the guys at GW created a fantasy universe that, over the years, grew to be one of the most unique fantasy settings ever created, a dark and gritty world that inspired many, including Blizzard's well-known Warcraft series. Sadly, it all came to an end a few weeks ago when Games Workshop decided to kill their entire fantasy lineup in order to start fresh, with a new tabletop game and new a setting, both aimed for the casual player.

Scrapping a well-made but admittedly complex game system in favor of a new, more streamlined party game is one thing (from a strictly financial perspective, it might even be understandable, although not any less sad). But, throwing away 32 years of lore and a game world that was one of the most original ones out there, a universe that had become part of the lives of tens of thousands from board and video gamers to roleplayers and tabletop wargamers, is a decision hard to come to terms with (I doubt I will ever be able to as it was a consistent part of my life since my early teens).

If you have not heard of Warhammer Fantasy before, I highly recommend that you look it up and, if you like what you saw, maybe even buy a few novels or roleplay supplements while you still can. They will soon become hard to come by. And if you are someone who, like me, loved the Old World, hold on to your old Warhammer stuff; you are possessing true treasures, the mementoes of a glorious but now dead period of gaming history.

Rest in Peace
Warhammer Fantasy
1983 - 2015

Quote of the Month

"We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements

profoundly depend on science and technology.

We have also arranged things so that

almost no one understands science and technology.

This is a prescription for disaster.

We might get away with it for a while,

but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power

is going to blow up in our faces."

- Carl Sagan

Quote of the Month

"Where there is evidence,

no one speaks of ‘faith’.

We do not speak of faith that two and two are four

or that the earth is round.

We only speak of faith

when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence."

- Bertrand Russell

Quote of the Month

"A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones),

we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish,

to contradict, and to experiment.

Arguments from authority are unacceptable."

- Carl Sagan

Quote of the Month

"The skeptic does not mean him who doubts,

but him who investigates or researches,

as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found."

- Miguel de Unamuno

Reinventing the NASA Mobile App

For the Behance presentation, click on the image!
(and do not forget to push the "appreciate this" button ;)

Quote of the Month

"I'll believe anything,

no matter how wild and ridiculous,

if there is evidence for it.

The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however,

the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be."

- Isaac Asimov

Quote of the Month

"Do not go where the path may lead,

go instead where there is no path

and leave a trail.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Future of Space Exploration

If there is one company I admire, it is SpaceX. Elon Musk's team not only makes space exploration cheaper by bringing the competitive prices of the private sector to government agencies, but they also try to innovate. Let's face it, today's rocket technology, in many sense, is old and hasn't changed much over the past decades. We still discard booster rockets, dumping billions of dollars into the ocean. And that is where SpaceX comes in with their vision of reusable rockets, of which they actually came pretty close last month when they almost landed a rocket on a barge, floating in the Atlantic ocean. It did not quite work out the way they hoped, but they are on track and the future is looking bright. Here is their vision that can become reality pretty soon. Sometimes I feel we truly live in an age of wonder!