The Aleph and the Labyrinth

In “The Aleph and the Labyrinth” I begin by chronicling Borges’ early readings of Joyce’s Ulysses, which were a prologue to his lifelongfascination with this novel. In particular, Borges saw in Ulysses yet anotherattempt to write the “total book”: an attempt doomed to failure, perhaps, but nevertheless heroic. In the light of Ulysses, Borges explored this ambition in “Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote”, “The Library of Babel”, “Funes, His Memory” and particularly “El Aleph”; and offered his faulty and fragmentary reading of Joyce’s text as a metaphor for our equally – and fatally – faulty and fragmentary knowledge of the universe

Negotiating the Labyrinth of Spanish (with instructions in English)

Panel: Writing in Translation / Writing Across Language

Future challenges and need for research in timber engineering

Automation is increasingly present in the construction industry, whether at the design, manufacturing or assembly stage. Thanks to new technologies, such as robotics, new ways of designing structural elements can be imagined and implemented. Complex methods and sequences of assembly can be set up quickly as well. Numerous studies have been carried out in this direction at the laboratory for timber constructions IBOIS (EPFL) especially on wood-wood connections called Integral Mechanical Attachments (IMA). IMA for structural timber elements offer an alternative to structural bonding. Fabrication process and geometries are more flexible and can be used to design others timber construction products which is a great advantage for medium size timber companies. Moreover, there is no need of a drastic quality control compared to bonding process

Simplified calculation model for interconnected timber elements using wood-wood connections

Metal fasteners and adhesive bonding are the main assembly methods in modern timber constructions. However, traditional wood-wood connections can be used effectively as well, thanks to increasing automation of the construction industry (CNC, robotics, etc.). The feasibility of this type of construction technique has been proven for buildings with complex geometry such as the wooden pavilion of the Vidy theatre [1]. As a result, this research is focused on the development of a simplified calculation model for standard construction elements using wood-wood connections called Through Tenon (TT). The goal is to obtain a dimensioning tool which is easy to use in practice for roof, slab and wall elements

Fragmento de El sueño del señor juez (2008)

El juez mismo empe­zaba a intranquilizarse, sintiéndose poco a poco perder el control sobre sus propios sueños, que se volvían cada vez más intrincados y bizarros, desafiando la interpreta­ción o el desmadejamiento, cayendo sus remedios cada vez más fuera de la letra de la ley, obligándolo a lecturas minuciosas del Código Rural que lo dejaban más perplejo que antes, alela­do, como si una bruma que nunca terminara de disiparse del todo flotara permanentemen­te sobre su cabeza, velando la vista..

New fossil record of Lactoridaceae in southern South America: A palaeobiogeographical approach

Lactoridaceae are a monotypic family confined to Masatierra Island, Juan Fernández Archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean. It grows in the understorey of a subtropical montane rain forest. Lactoridaceae most probably originated in southern South Africa in the Cretaceous, with the oldest records in the Turonian-Campanian, and reached its widest palaeogeographical distribution by the Maastrichtian, extending into Australia, India, Antarctica, and North and South America. In this paper, we report a new fossil find of lactoridaceous tetrads from the early Miocene of eastern Patagonia, southern South America. This record is the youngest and geographically one of the closest to the extant Lactoris distribution area. Patagonian fossil material shows greater similarities to extant L. fernandeziana Phil. than to any other described morphotaxon. The family may have migrated into South America, either via Africa (through the Atlantic Ocean) or Antarctica, by the Maastrichtian, growing in eastern Patagonia up to the early Miocene. Arid conditions established in this region by the middle-late Miocene onwards would have determined the restriction of forests to the western lands. Lactoridaceae may have followed a similar migration pattern towards the Pacific coast of South America. The shifting of Lactoridaceae towards Masatierra Island would have occurred in the last 4 Myr by long-distance dispersal events (perhaps by birds).Fil: Gamerro, Juan Carlos. No especifíca;Fil: Barreda, Viviana Dora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"; Argentin

Cuatro versiones de Moreira

“Edad : 46 a 48 años. Estatura : regular y algo grueso. Color : blanco, colorado, picado de viruelas. Pelo : castaño, barba afeitada, bigote solo, castaño. Nariz aguileña, boca grande, ojos verdosos grandes. Señas particulares : un balazo en la boca recibido hace doce días ; una herida en la mano inferida en la misma fecha.” Hasta aquí, la descripción del guardaespaldas y matón electoral Juan Moreira, muerto por la policía bonaerense el 30 de abril de 1874, tomada de un exhorto judicial lib..

Multiple Tab-and-Slot Joint : Improvement of the Rotational Stiffness for the Connection of Thin Structural Wood Panels

Researchers in Asia have focused on analyzing the rotational performance of traditional connections based on embedment. The Nuki through-joint has inspired work at the laboratory of wood construction (IBOIS), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, to improve the rotational behavior of the multiple tab and slot joint (MTSJ). In this work, through tenon (TT) and closed slot joints were added to initial dovetail and Nejiri arigata joints used for foldedplate structures. The bending performance of the improved MTSJ-TT joint was higher than that of screwed angular connections. Numerical monitoring of the embedded volumes under partial compression on the contact surfaces was used to characterize the directly and indirectly loaded areas. The decay coefficients for the exponential form, which defined the additional length in the indirectly loaded area, were quantified for both single (SC) and double contact (DC). The evolution of these coefficients was also monitored along the angular deformation. Finally, an analytical formulation of the embedded volumes was provided to prepare an analytical model for the MTSJ-TT joint subjected to bending