Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Do Americans Have Enough Money to do all They Say They Want to Do?

  1. Win in Iraq
  2. Win in Afghanistan 
  3. Pay returning soldiers to go to college
  4. Start an alternative energy industry
  5. Win the war on Terror
  6. Win the war on Drugs

``If the cleanup of a river that has been tainted for 60 years and counting takes a few years longer than first planned, nobody should be complaining. The river would have been cleaner years ago if G.E. hadn’t thrown its full power at delaying what it was finally ordered by a court to do. But if it takes a few more years and dollars to get to a cleaner river, so be it. ''

NYT

This is getting ridiculous,  all Americans need to do is find themselves a job.

From NYT's Frank Rich:

``We can’t afford to forget now that the single biggest legacy of the Iraq war at home was to codify the illusion that Americans can have it all at no cost''

Mexican Deluge

La Jornada

Am I a Pundit?

I doubt that people are waiting to hear my reaction to President Obama's speech today. Nevertheless here it is:

Barry is smarter than W.. I want him in my team. No more (rich) C students in the White House! Go Harvard; Yale: Shame on You.

Now there are more soldiers to send to Afghanistan, and I expect that Obama will take young men and women from there also, and give them a fat G.I.-Bill.

As a Mexican I do not understand why young people should be sent to the other side of the world, to fight people they never met.

No Mexican soldier went to Iraq or Afghanistan, I am proud of the foreign policy of my country. During the Vietnam war I was not asked by my government to go fight Vietnamese kids I didn't know. I thank my ancestors for this peaceful country I inherited.

Iraq

``We were glad to see President Obama go to Fort Bliss on Tuesday before his Oval Office speech on Iraq, to thank those Americans who most shouldered the burdens of a tragic, pointless war. One of the few rays of light in the conflict has been the distance America has come since Vietnam, when blameless soldiers were scorned for decisions made by politicians. ''

``For this day, it was worth dwelling on this milestone in Iraq and on some grim numbers: more than 4,400 Americans dead and some 35,000 wounded, many with lost limbs. And on one number that American politicians are loath to mention: at least 100,000 Iraqis dead. ''

NYT

Pointless War

I Like Digg, This Picture is Nice, Though

Rain near Acapulco

Roel Ayala Mata

Fourteen cars under the rubble near Acapulco due to rains. Spanish note in La Jornada.

``El jefe del Departamento de Fenómenos Hidrometeorológicos de la Subsecretaría de Protección Civil, Roel Ayala Mata, explicó que un primer derrumbe ocurrió esta mañana, lo cual originó que varios automóviles quedaran varados. Cuando solicitaban ayuda para reabrir el acceso, el cerro se desgajó y sepultó a las unidades.''

Hydrometeorological Phenomena Department chief of the Civil Protection Subsecretary, Roel Ayala Mata, explained that a first landslide this morning left several cars stranded. When crews were asked to come, more landslides got the cars under the rubble.

NYT: The War is Over

Marking Iraq Milestone, Gates Strikes Cautious Note - NYTimes.com: http://tinyurl.com/2env295

Why Some Surrender, and Some Fight to Death?

El ``Jefe de Jefes'', Arturo Beltrán Leyva, was killed by Mexican Navy personnel, and Édgar Valdez Villareal, smiling below, surrenders.

There are charges that ``La Barbie'' is to become an informant to the US, given that he went to high scool in Texas, and was born there. I wonder if Mexican Americans, already learned how to get along with the feds, and the ones south of Rio Grande, are ``muy rancheros'', hillbillies.

Just saying.

Édgar Valdez

Why Do You Smile Barbie?

La Jornada

Gold Price

GoldPrice.org

The Penguin wants to be Swede!

``Julian Assange applies for Swedish residency''

The Local

Caught

Barbie's Castle from La Jornada.

Mexican President Twitter and La Barbie

``Una de las primicias de la detención la dio el presidente Felipe Calderón a través de Twitter.''

La Jornada

One of the first news on the capture was given by President Calderón through his Twitter account.

@FelipeCalderon

I am @EduardoCantoral

He chose a similar handle than I did. What does that mean?

Sofia Wilen Number 2!

At this rate `La Barbie' will get there in no time.

Mexican Discovered Ingredient for `The Pill' 1951


La Jornada

Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas

Norethindrone Wikipedia

Miramontes' notebook.

You can see the same formula as in the Wikipedia article below.


Miramontes article on Wikipedia.

``Luis E. Miramontes, Andres Manuel del Rio (discoverer of vanadium) and Mario Molina, Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1995, are the three most important Mexican chemists of all times.''

How Many Dead, Did You Say?

``But he said the gains had been purchased “at a terrible cost:” More than 4,400 American service members killed, 34,265 Americans wounded or injured and untold losses and trauma endured by the Iraqis themselves. ''

NYT

Roberto Bolaño in Borders



Taken from Borders.

Ruben Salazar

Heat Produces Storms and Hurricanes




NYT

La Barbie

NYT

Since Salazar

Ruben Salazar was a Mexican American journalist. Three people were killed together with Salazar, and they arrested two.


On the day of August 29, 1970 he was killed. You can see an ABC piece by Robert Holguin.

He was just doing his work forty years ago, but our people did not count, he was on the wrong side the line and a projectile hit him in the head, and he died then and there, in East Los Angeles.

Funny that I taught at Glenbard East High School, and East Aurora High School.

Watch a Special today by Democracy Now! with Juan González.
Taken from Reel Work May Day.

Monday, August 30, 2010

End This War!

``Not only is this tragic, it is profoundly disrespectful. These are real men and women, courageous and mostly uncomplaining human beings, that we are sending into the war zones, and we owe them our most careful attention. Above all, we owe them an end to two wars that have gone on much too long.''

NYT

President Obama listen to Bob Herbert.

Corrido: La Barbie

La Barbie Caught in Mexico: $2,260,000.00 US for his Capture

La Jornada,
NYT
El Blog del Narco

``El enfrentamiento se tradujo en una oleada de muertes, principalmente en el estado de Guerrero (sur de México).''

The feud led to a series of killings, mainly in Guerrero state.

So, that is why these kids show up hanging from bridges around here.

I hope this ends soon; on the other hand I do not have any reason to believe so.

Barnes & Noble in Manhattan Gone in January



``It has been a bumpy year for Barnes & Noble, the country’s largest book chain, with 720 stores. Sales and store traffic have suffered as the book business has shifted online; Amazon has held its early lead in the e-reader war; and early this month, Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale and is now in the midst of a battle for control of the company with Ronald W. Burkle, the billionaire investor. ''

NYT.

I knew it was coming, still it aches my soul. Read another post on this blog.

Love of Our Lives- Indigo Girls

New Widget

I'll take your mind off  that inane Twitter talk. I put a new widget right here on my right. As soon as Ardin stays popular in this blog, her beautiful face will remind us of what we are missing if we do not come to terms with our love lives.

Love is beautiful.

Neo and Trinity

Reading the posts on the Twitter feed I have on the side panel, I sense misunderstanding, maybe anger, between males and females. Please Trinity come save us before this community is utterly unable to reproduce.

Come on, guys: Remember your mothers and sisters. Stop this nonsense.

Alexander Kusenko

``Our model [3] makes an interesting prediction for the highest-energy cosmic rays. Just as the protons of the highest energies escape from our Galaxy, they should escape from the host galaxies of remote sources, such as AGNs. Therefore, UHECR with E > 3×1019 eV should correlate with the extragalactic sources. Moreover, these UHECR should be protons, not heavy nuclei, since the nuclei are trapped in the host galaxies. If and when the data will allow one to determine composition on a case-by-case basis, one can separate E > 3×1019 eV events into protons and nuclei and observe that the protons correlate with the nearby AGN. This prediction is one of the non-trivial tests of our model: at the highest energies the proton fraction should exist and should correlate with known astrophysical sources.''

Taken from arXiv

Kusensko's prediction depends on the ability of people ``on the ground'' in Argentina to sort protons from heavy nuclei in a case by case basis. If they do, Kusensko's prediction is that only protons come from afar. 

``Local'' Explanation for Cosmic Ray Conundrum

``However, if the cosmic rays of 1018−1019 eV are nuclei, the turbulent Galactic micro-Gauss magnetic fields [2] can retain them in the Galaxy and isotropize their directions sufficiently to show no disagreement with the data. Moreover, since the diffusion times depend on the rigidity, the observed composition can be altered by diffusion [3]. Since the heavier nuclei spend more time in the Galaxy than the lighter nuclei and protons, they have the higher number density and flux. Thus, diffusion alone can alter the composition of UHECRs produced by the Galactic sources and increase the observed fraction of nuclei.''

``A cluster of several UHECRs around Cen A detected by PAO may be the result of such a fluctuation due to one GRB that happens to coincide with Cen A. Alternatively, since we expect the high-energy protons to escape from our Galaxy and from other galaxies, the cluster around Cen A may be due to extragalactic protons. Unlike protons, UHE nuclei from the last GRB do not introduce a large degree of anisotropy, as one can see form Fig. 2 based on a semi-realistic Monte Carlo simulation.''

``We have shown that effects of rigidity-dependent diffusion of UHECRs from possible Galactic sources, such as past GRBs (or rare types of supernovae), in the Milky Way can produce the energy-dependent composition as observed by PAO [1]. The simplest two-component model including protons and iron nuclei from the Galactic sources gives a good fit to composition [1] and spectrum [24] for reasonable values of the Galactic magnetic fields.''


Taken from arXiv .

The Pierre Auger Observatory (PAO) is a new type of particle detector. If Calvez, Kusenko, and Nagataki are right, this huge object is a sort of ``microscope'' for our galaxy.

Imagine you are humongous being looking down through the eyepiece of a huge microscope. You will see stars, like we see cells.

The lights, showing up here and there in your microscope/telescope, are Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). Inside those lightning phenomena our Galaxy is not like outside them. In this micro/macro analogy I am making here, you'll find intense forces, just ask anybody stricken by lightning.

Calvez et al., propose that inside the Galaxy (``local''), these fields are strong, albeit rare, to affect cosmic ray paths coming from outside the Galaxy; thus explaining the ultra high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) conundrum.

The problem that needed explanation, as expressed in the quote above ``Since the heavier nuclei spend more time in the Galaxy than the lighter nuclei and protons, they have the higher number density and flux.'' Mass number dependence with energy was not expected from extragalactic objects getting to Earth unimpeded. These scientists claim, they are impeded, a little bit, here and there, and voilá, they can explain the data.

Again if they are right. Now we know our Galaxy better, because we have this microscope/telescope in the Argentinean plains.

The Cen A anomaly brought my attention to this problem. These authors have something to say about it.

I hope so :-)

Old Technology: White Board and Markers

Digg vs. Reddit

I have never used Reddit I am happy with Digg; only this moring when I couldn't send anything I got annoyed,

Maybe it was those hackers from Reddit

I AM NOT A HACKER.

From Relevant News

``Rally organizers, in applying for their permit, said they expected a crowd of up to 300,000. And on Sunday, after the rally, Beck himself said on Fox News that the event drew 300,000 people on the low end, and perhaps as many as 650,000 people on the high end.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R) of Minnesota, at her own rally held on the edges of Mr. Beck's event, said, “We’re not going to let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today because we were witnesses.”

However, a firm hired by CBS News to estimate the crowd put attendees at between 78,000 and 96,000. The firm, AirPhotosLive.com, had three estimators go over high-resolution aerial photos of the event, and then combined the three estimates. (One of the estimators talks about the experience here.)

These kinds of debates over crowd attendance go way back.

We’ll close with Joni Mitchell’s line: “By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong . . . "

Except they probably weren’t. Organizer Michael Lang later estimated the Woodstock crowd at about 400,000. Only half of those had tickets.''

Taken from Relevant News.

Ángel Aguirre Rivero for Governor

Finally the opposition in Guerrero chose a candidate for Governor.

It is difficult to explain how he got there. You find here a summary.

He is from the south of the State. In the Spanish version of Wikipedia we have this. I guess the English version is forthcoming, since he is running in Mexico, nobody has seen the need to translate this so far.

He already was an Interim Governor. He resigned from his party the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI in Spanish), and joined the opposition. There are several parties that propose him. PRI governed the State until the present governor, Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo, who belongs to the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

A politician from the north of the State, Rubén Figueroa Alcocer, opposes him from PRI. Their candidate is the current Mayor of Acapulco, Manuel Añorve Baños.

I guess if all you want from Guerrero is the beaches, you couldn't care less who is governor; of course that is essentially true, but if you are a political junkie, or you happen to care who is in charge of your paradisaical resort, let my just conclude this for you.

Aguirre has the chance of bringing this State ahead, we need new ideas and new parties; nevertheless the old PRI seems to have learned lessons, and I hope they will govern better this time.

Democracy is well and growing in the State of Guerrero.

Ardin is Number 1!

Xenophobia

Dislike of the other.

I live in Chilpancingo, even though my mother lived her early life in Guerrero, I am not from here. People notice, I have a different accent and do things differently altogether.

I am not openly discriminated, but together with a few other professors, I am a guest after two years.

I feel that not everybody in the university is glad I am here. It is because of mathematicians here that I am welcomed by them.

Other people in other walks of life, also accept me, and I would even venture the opinion that admire me.

Nevertheless I just read in NYT, that law enforcement personnel have been bugging people that look different from the ``average'' American, and these ``average'' people welcome that new development.

Here in Chilpancingo, and everywhere else in the world where it happens, that nasty feature of some of us has a name: Xenophobia.

Fortunately  there exist people of reason (LATimes).

Digg is Working for Me Again!

I am back at digg.com

If Digg Does Not Allow Me to Store News, I'll Switch to Twitter

I got used to store my interesting links in digger.com; now I can't do it. So I'll switch to Twitter, so far so good. If and when Digg cleans up its act, I'll go back.

BTW my Tweets, are on the side panel, as Twitter Updates.

The Correct Answer is YES

Taken from NYT.

Sea Level Rising

72 Dead in Tamaulipas


Taken from NYT.

New Digg is Broken

Tearing my Heart Apart

Taken from flickr

Today I taught my first class on Mechanics.

I have been working with this student for over a year now. He really wants to learn. We build a telescope together, we went to see my buddies at the Autonomous University of Puebla, the summer before last.

I hope I can set him in his way to knowledge, even if I am not physically in Chilpancingo. Then again, I may not find any other job, and then I'll stay here.

Two Pageviews Away!

Sunday, August 29, 2010

La Canción más Hermosa del Mundo

Viktor Bout

Globalization and its discontents.

Read on this man from the NYT.

Kopani Goes to Chicago!

She told me the other day that they invited her there!

Her picture is here.

Her voice here.

I caught somebody from Chicago looking into her picture, with the Governor of Guerrero, Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo, I guess they are looking for info on her.

LOST Won the Emmys! Oops: Mad Men Won

NYT

Actually I do not know yet. But I think they should, after so many nights with my son watching it. That has to count for something.

I never saw Mad Men. I guess I am not a good judge.

The Daily Show, really WON.

Go Jon, Go.

Are Republicans Angels?

Innuendo or Listen to Paul, Barry

Wikipedia has this:

An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion. In the latter sense, the intention is often to insult or accuse someone in such a way that one's words, taken literally, are innocent.


Paul Krugman today has this to say:
``To take a prime example: the hysteria over the proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan almost makes one long for the days when former President George W. Bush tried to soothe religious hatred, declaring Islam a religion of peace. There were good reasons for his position: there are a billion Muslims in the world, and America can’t afford to make all of them its enemies.

But here’s the thing: Mr. Bush is still around, as are many of his former officials. Where are the statements, from the former president or those in his inner circle, preaching tolerance and denouncing anti-Islam hysteria? On this issue, as on many others, the G.O.P. establishment is offering a nearly uniform profile in cowardice.''

``If I were President Obama, I’d be doing all I could to head off this prospect, offering some major new initiatives on the economic front in particular, if only to shake up the political dynamic. But my guess is that the president will continue to play it safe, all the way into catastrophe.''

Reactionaries are attacking the POUS. Rich cowards, that is what they are.

Assange on TED Last July

Newsweek on Assange

``Update: Karin Rosander, a spokewoman for Swedish prosecutors, told Declassified on Thursday, Aug. 26, that authorities had received word that Assange had agreed to answer police questions about the “molestation” investigation of him that is still open. She said that it was unclear when the interrogation would take place, but that it would likely be within the next few days. ''

Newsweek.

Penguins on Retreat

I feel better now: I AM NOT A HACKER.

Tim Geithner and Larry Summers Bad Boys




Today Newsweek Magazine released an article on the advice these men gave Obama. I've been saying all along give Larry's job to Paul:

There is still time Barry.

``(One problem this time around, lawyers say, is that virtually everyone was complicit in the subprime-mortgage scam.)''



``But the administration had a much bigger job than that. The worst economic downturn since the Great Depression hadn’t occurred just because of a simple crash. An entire era had overreached—the markets-are-always-good, government-is-always-bad zeitgeist that defined the post–Cold War period. The very idea of government regulation and oversight had become heresy during this epoch. Washington policymakers came to ignore the key differences between financial and other markets, differences that economists had known about for hundreds of years. Financial markets were always more imperfect than markets for goods and other services, more prone to manias and panics and susceptible to the pitfalls of imperfect information unequally shared by investors. Yet that critical distinction was lost in the whirlwind of deregulatory passion that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and other command economies. Finance, completely unleashed, had come to dominate the real economy rather than serve its traditional role as a supplier of capital to goods and services. Venture capital transmogrified into speculative fever. Innovative ways of financing new business ideas evolved into vastly complex derivatives deals, like subprime-mortgage-backed securities, that were often little more than scams.''


``Obama was clearly not pushing very hard to be FDR or even his trust-busting relative Teddy Roosevelt. Now it looks like grim growth and unemployment numbers could extend all the way into 2012. Distracting himself with health care and other issues, Obama may have politically maneuvered himself out of the only major remedy that could bring unemployment down and growth up enough to assure his re-election: another giant fiscal stimulus. Today, after engendering Tea Party and centrist Democratic resistance to more government spending by pushing his health-care plan, the question is whether he has the political capital he may well need, in the end, to save his presidency. And after a two-year fight over financial reform, one other question still lingers: has Wall Street come out the big winner yet again?

Adapted from Capital Offense, by Michael Hirsh, a new book on the 30-year history behind the financial crash and ongoing economic crisis.''


Francisco Zapata Guerrero AKA 'El Billy' or 'El Pelón' Caught in Mexico

``Cae Francisco Zapata, presunto líder de los 'Zetas' en NL''

From La Jornada.

``Agarran a Juan Francisco Zapata Gallegos, jefe de la plaza de Monterrey''

From Blog del Narco.

This member of the Zeta cartel was caught in the capital of Nuevo León state, just down the Rio Grande in Texas.

These guys are not very smart, they recognized him because of tattoos in his body.

You can read about this recent development in English in the NYT.

Afghan War Today

``Afghan Fatalities Rise in Weekend Violence
By ROD NORDLAND
Published: August 29, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Seven American soldiers were killed in fighting in eastern and southern Afghanistan over the weekend, after several weeks of declining death tolls among NATO forces.''

``On Sunday, an American soldier was killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan, while another died as a result of an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, the NATO force said.''

``NATO officials did not release any further details. The incidents brought the monthly death toll among coalition soldiers to 62 as of Aug. 29, compared with 88 in July, according to iCasualties.org, which tracks coalition fatalities. In June, the bloodiest month of the nine-year war, 102 NATO soldiers were killed, according to icasualties.org figures.''

``At the same time, NATO forces have nearly tripled in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2009, with a total of 123,000 now. About 100,000 of them are Americans.''

``“We regret any possible civilian loss of life or injury,” said Brig. Gen. Timothy M. Zadalis of the United States Air Force, who led the assessment team. “Our first objective is to protect the people of Afghanistan, and in this case we may have failed.”''

``In another ISAF investigation into the shooting deaths of two Spanish NATO military instructors and their Spanish-Afghan interpreter, NATO officials said the Afghan policeman who killed them, and who was shot to death in turn, had actually been a “terrorist.” The findings contradicted initial reports that the shooting incident, outside the Spanish-run provincial reconstruction team base in the town of Qaleh Ye Now, Badghis Province, was the result of a dispute between the Spanish team and the Afghan policeman.''

``After the shooting, an angry crowd of several hundred gathered outside the base. The provincial police chief, Sayid Ahmed Samay, said many in the crowd were armed with pistols and grenade launchers and that 25 people were injured during crowd control.''

NYT.

Sad :(

Australian Penguins

Now the penguins are coming from Australia. Wait a minute where is Assange from?

Australia!

Oh, No.

I swear, I AM NOT A HACKER.

Fireball Steven AKA Nic Nilsson


Penguins Are a Minority in my Swede Hits

One out of nine from Sweden. I shouldn't worry, penguins are keeping away: I AM NOT A HACKER.

Swede Hits in the US. Buy Nic Nilsson records.

Better Picture

There: Now they are FIVE.

Still, no penguins. Good.

Keep My Mouth Shut

If I don't keep my mouth shut, poor Swede boys are not going to be allowed to become hackers: I AM NOT A HACKER.

My grandma didn't allow my father to learn how to play guitar, because my grandpa drank all the money playing marimba in Guatemala.

Boys, boys. You have to lov'em.

The Swedes Are Coming!


I just caught three right now, two from the same town. Maybe they are all penguins!

Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my! AND PENGUINS.

Fortunately, they are not penguins.





My picture is blurred: I AM NOT A HACKER. Good enough to know that THEY ARE NOT PENGUINS. I guess they are the girlfriends of penguins. Two use Chrome and one Explorer.

Fathers and Sons

Julian Assange's son is in the news now, because of his father's notoriety.

My father had other women before and after my mother. He died with us. I loved him then, and admire him now.

That is what I am, I need real life examples, I am the combination of all my life's experiences.

To the son of Mr. Assange, if he happens to come around, I want to tell this.

Your father is a courageous man, that has unveiled a huge lie about the US illegal involvement in Afghanistan.

US out of Afghanistan!

Julian Assange Wikipedia Entries

``31 December 2011 at 16:40.''

From Wikipedia.

If you think I have mental diarrhea because I keep adding to this blog, go to the Wikipedia post on Julian Assange!

I will stop doing this, today, 25 January, 2011; I am convinced of the importance of this man for our culture and History.

In my book; Julian Assange is a 21st Century Hero.

Today, January 3, 2012, I put the last edit to Assange's Wikipedia note.

Do You Like Orange?



This is the MXT. Mastretta is the engineer. If you can afford one of these babies read more here. This is a Mexican made sports car.

Ángela Gómez Caught in Houston

photo

This 55 year old woman is a criminal. But in Mexico her friends are immune from prosecution. Read the article in Spanish here, and in English here.

``Angela Gomez, 55, is accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by serving as an intermediary with the Mexican government's Moreno (high official in Mexican Government) and at least two companies, ABB in Sugar Land and a manufacturing firm in California.

She was brought into a Houston federal court Friday in shackles and handcuffs.''

``Arrested during visit

Even in the orange uniform of a prisoner, Gomez stood out in court, with her stylish blonde-streaked haircut, red nail polish and confident posture.

She was arrested earlier this week in front of her daughter as they were in town for a civil arbitration meeting involving Global Financial.

As for the bribery accusation, she appears to have told American businesses that she was related to Moreno and was part of the connection that could make things happen. ABB declined requests for comment.

The investigation appears to have overlapped, or been triggered by, ABB reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005 that some employees made suspect payments to intermediaries in the Middle East and Latin America.

"These are serious, serious charges," U.S. prosecutor Nicola Mrazek said during the Gomez hearing.

"She and her husband ran international money laundering business that accepted funds for bribes from all over the world."

Gomez's husband has not been charged and is believed to be in Mexico.

Check for Ferrari

Part of the scheme to bribe the Mexican official involved funneling cash through the Houston brokerage firm where Gomez had an account, according to court documents. Moreno also had an American Express card that was paid as part of the bribes.

FBI agent Gigi Joyner testified during the hearing that Gomez's signature was on a $297,000 check to Ferrari Beverly Hills, for a Spider sports car, as well payments totaling $1.8 million to the now-defunct South Shore Yacht Sales, in Chula Vista, Calif.

Defense attorney Michael Zweiback, of Los Angeles, accused the government of going after Gomez to pressure those they couldn't reach.

He said she had what appears to be a minor role that there was no proof she knew what was going on, let alone masterminded bribes.

"We are talking about the spouse of an individual the government wants," he said.

"All the nefarious activity the government alleges here appears to be done by some other individuals," he continued. "It clearly is an attempt to pressure others into believing this is a viable investigation."

Taken from Houston Chronicle.

Some years ago Mexican prosecutors nailed the President's brother: Raúl Salinas de Gortari. Now this man is free, and the Salinas family is wealthy.

What else is new? I bet you; this elegant lady will be out of trouble in no time.

From the Spanish version of the Wikipedia article on Salinas linked above:

``El 14 de junio de 2005 Raúl Salinas salió libre después de diez años en la cárcel al ser absuelto del crimen de su ex cuñado; también se le absolvió de los delitos de lavado de dinero y se le descongelaron sus cuentas en Suiza, acudió al noticiero de Joaquín López Doriga [5] a brindarle su agradecimiento por un reportaje que aportó pruebas de un testigo llamado Fernando Rodríguez al cual le pagaron 500,000 dólares para que declarara en su contra y fuera considerado para obtener su libertad.Actualmente vive en el estado de Puebla en San Buenaventura Tecaltzingo en el cerro de mendocinas [6].''

This part is not translated in the English version, here is my translation:

``On June 14, 2005 Raúl Salinas was freed after ten years in jail because he was absolved of the killing of his ex brother in law; also money laundering charges were dropped and his Swiss account was unblocked, he went to Joaquín López Dóriga TV program to thank him for a report on a witness called Fernando Rodríguez who was paid $500,000 to incriminate him. Mr. Rodríguez was freed from jail as well. Currently Salinas lives in San Buenaventura Tecaltzingo Puebla, in the mendocinas hill.''

Interview with López Dóriga in Spanish, here.

Winning?

``“We won!” he yelled. “It’s over! America, we brought democracy to Iraq!”''

NYT.

Stuff, and nonsense!

The End ... Pakistan

``As he spoke outside the main administration building in the town center, a crowd of women gathered around begging for tents. “It is chaotic,” he conceded. “The population of the town has quadrupled overnight.”''

``Despite the preparations, when the banks broke and flooded the area around Sujawal, people had to flee, villagers said. “My home is inundated,” said Muhammad Saleem Amaro, 30, a father of eight who lives with his extended family of about 50 in the village of Hajji Usman, a few miles from Sujawal.''

``Commandos Storm Prison

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Security forces raided an army intelligence office in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, freeing two prison guards who had been held hostage by three escaped militant prisoners, officials said.

The militants, all Pakistanis, were being questioned by an intelligence agency less than a mile from the United States Consulate when they overpowered the guards about 5 a.m. and seized their rifles, a police spokesman said. After a battle that went on for about 10 hours, commandos from the elite Special Services Group freed the hostages and captured the militants. One guard suffered minor injuries.''

NYT.

Imagine everybody in your place, then in the morning, there are three more for each one of you!

Hey, I need to use the shower!

American soldiers are useless there. Stop this stupid war in Afghanistan President Obama. It is insane to pay one million dollars a year for each one of those American kids you are sending there. This has to stop.

Nine Pageviews Away!

Abraham Maslow

In Wikipedia you can read:

``Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Maslow was the oldest of seven children. His parents were uneducated Jews from Russia. He was slow and tidy, and remembered his childhood as lonely and rather unhappy, because, as he said, "I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I was isolated and unhappy. I grew up in libraries and among books." He would pursue law, but he went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin to study psychology. While there, he married his first cousin Bertha in December 1928, and found as his chief mentor, professor Harry Harlow. At Wisconsin he pursued an original line of research, investigating primate dominance behaviour and sexuality. He went on to further research at Columbia University, continuing similar studies; there he found another mentor in Alfred Adler, one of Sigmund Freud's early colleagues.''


Prof. Maslow represents what I write here.

He had unmet needs while young; eventually he wised up and got the resources he needed to enlightened humanity.

Here in Guerrero I see many people that didn't even grew up physically. They are short. Obviously Mexicans are not destined to be short. One of the first things I noticed in 1973 in California, is how tall my relatives and their friends were. Obviously something was amiss down here.

The first time coming out of the MBTA Harvard Square subway station, the ``faces'' of pedestrians struck me. Most of them were thinking, I know the look.

It is not an accident that new companies spring out around Palo Alto, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and not Chilpancingo, Mexico.

These things are obvious when you see them first hand.

I am Mexican, and my mother was from Guerrero, but for these, and other reasons, I do not want to continue here; lately I've being planning my exit.

There is a link to my CV here. Also on the side panel you can find it under Links. I prefer the Chicago area, and a salary starting at $20,000.00 a year.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Penguins Are Here!

As of 12:39 in Chilpancingo.

I Like Edith Better than Anna

My Children

I just saw Fisk's art work:
Fisk was my student at East Aurora High School near Chicago. His MySpace page is here.

He was a handful, he couldn't stop talking in class, but he is an Artist.

He did try the math, I swear.  His forte is painting, though.

Are my students my children?

Not like the real ones, but I do like them. Of course I like some students more than others.

Unfortunately here in Mexico and in the US, many young people don't have a chance, they die in the battlegrounds that some of our cities have become.

La Esperanza es lo último que muere.

Hope is the last thing to die.

The Penguins are Coming!

The one above is since May, the one below is today's.

The Penguins are coming: I AM NOT A HACKER.

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